Cream Puffs - Pâte à Choux - NYT -Baked

By mariannefeldman

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1015880/baked-pate-a-choux.html?action=click&contentCollection=Magazine&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article

Ingredients

• NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/magazine/no-puff-piece.html?hpw&rref=magazine&_r=0
• includes Pastry Cream, Whipped Cream & Chocolate Sauce
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing the baking sheet
• Salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs

Preparation

Step 1

Preparation

1.
Heat oven to 400 and grease a baking

sheet with butter. Put the butter and a

pinch of salt in a saucepan over high

heat; add 1 cup water and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat to low and add all the flour

at once; stir constantly until the mixture

pulls away from the pan and forms a ball,

about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from

the heat and beat in the eggs one at a

time; use an electric mixer if you like, and

beat until the mixture is smooth. (At

this point, you can cover the dough and

refrigerate it for up to two days.)
2.
If you’re planning on piping out the

dough, scoop it into a pastry bag with a

1/2-inch tip, or a plastic freezer bag with

a corner cut off. Pipe the pastry onto the

baking sheet, or just use two spoons

to form your desired shape. Cream puffs

should be circles about 1 inch wide and

a little over 1 inch tall; éclairs should

be 3-to-4-inch fingers, about 1 inch wide.
3.
Bake until the pastries are golden

brown, nicely puffed up and sound

hollow when you tap on them, about

30 minutes for cream puffs and 40

minutes for éclairs. Use a skewer to prick

one or two holes in each one to allow

the steam to escape; transfer to a

rack and let cool to room temperature.
4.
To fill the pastries using a pastry bag,

poke a hole into the pastry and pipe

the filling into it, or cut off the top caps

of each pastry, spoon in the filling,

and close it up like a sandwich. (Éclairs

can be slit open and filled, too.) Serve

as is, or drizzle with chocolate sauce.