It’s been many years since I posted my choux religieuse and looking back it at, there’s a lot of missing information. Since I’m teaching the baking class again, I have added choux pastries to my curriculum. With each class, the students help me to identify different misunderstandings and potential pitfalls. I try to use these to make the process easier, and more clear for future students and whoever uses this blog.

I decided to explore 3 different shapes with 3 different fillings for each. To practice their piping skills students have to pipe eclairs, profiteroles and paris-brest. We filled them with coffee/lady fingers (Tirami-choux, haha, very clever but I didn’t think of that), mango, and a strawberries and cream.

Ingredients:

• 200g water
• 100g butter, unsalted
• 2g salt
• 10g sugar
• 150g bread flour
• 200g large eggs (4)

Tools Required:

• small pot
• wooden spoon and plastic spatula
• baking tray with parchment
• piping bag with star/ French tip

Instructions:

1. In a sauce pot, heat water, butter, salt and sugar and bring to a boil.
2. Add bread flour and cook for approximately 1-2 minutes, until the dough comes to a ball.
3. Transfer mixture into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix on low speed to let the dough cool.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping between each addition.
5. Place dough in piping bag fitted with a star/ French tip and pipe out desired shapes. (If you are in my baking class, then each student should pipe 2 eclairs roughly 6″, 2 round choux 1.5 to 2″ diameter and 1 paris brest with a diameter of 4 inches)
6. Bake at 425°F/220°C 2 fans for 10 minutes, for rapid expansion, then reduce 330°F 2 fans for 30 minutes.

Variations:

• Swans, paris brest, gourères, eclairs, st. honore, choux religieuse, the world is your oyster. It doesn’t have to be a traditional shape or design either, my pastry chef friends and I did cute choux animals for a collaboration years ago and that was lots of fun.
• Add a cookie (craquelin) for an additional crunch.

FAQs, Tips, Troubleshooting:

• Using water and wet your fingers to press down any pointed tip that comes up after piping, (using craquelin will also solve this problem).
• My choux is cracking – there isn’t enough egg in your recipe (try misting with some water to fix).
• Batter is too loose to pipe – chill the dough ahead of time so that the butter firms up slightly, OR pipe it in a mould and freeze it (it’s even better in my opinion since it’s more consistent). Note: piped items like eclairs or swan are not recommended freezing because the lines will get compromised.
• Baking from room temperature is ideal because the moisture in the dough needs to turn into steam as quickly as possible to give you its hollow center. You can refrigerate or freeze the dough, but make sure you bring the dough back to room temperature before baking.