Girls and their Choux's

Lesson 3: Choux Pastry.

Everybody loves an eclair or choux bun. The crunchy pastry and soft custard inside with sticky icing or toffee on top....mmm yum!

To make choux pastry can seem daunting but its well worth the trip from the stove to bench top to oven.

First you boil 250mL water, 100g butter, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar on the stove then add 190g bakers flour. Cook over the heat for about 30sec or until the mixture comes off the sides of the pan. Someone explained this stage to me like when you cook corn and it turns into pop corn. You need to cook the little grains of flour for this to work. Once it come off the sides take the pot off the heat and empty the mixture into a clean bowl and spread it out to let it cool slightly. You can also do this stage in a mixer with the paddle attachment (we use the mixer at work) and beat it until it cools slightly. Once it cooled a bit add your eggs one at a time beating well after each egg. We used about 5-6 eggs but it can depend on how big the eggs are and the humidity of the day so it is best to add a little less to start with and see if it comes to the right consistency. You want a glossy dough that is 'drop' consistency; not runny and not too thick.



Next pipe your choux buns or eclairs onto a buttered baking tray and brush very lightly with an egg wash and run the back of a fork over the tops making small imprints. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 15-20 min. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN FOR ANY REASON IN THE FIRST 10min. Let the steam out of your oven towards the end to allow them to dry out slightly.


When they are ready let them cool completely on a wire rack.

For the filling we made vanila creme patissier , a chocolate creme patissier and chantilly cream.

To make the chocolate creme patissier we added melted dark chocolate to the vanilla creme patissier.


Chantilly cream which is  whipped cream with 10% icing sugar added to it.


For the toppings we used fondant from a bucket which we heated to 37 degrees to get the right consistency and shine when it dries and toffee (my favourite!). 

Thanks for reading and keep watching for more delicious morsels :)

News, Poo's & Choux's.

Exciting News.

I have pictures from college of things coming together from class. We cooked OssoBucco, couscous and Profiteroles filled with Chantilly cream and topped with a delicious sticky chocolate sauce. Unfortunately no pictures of finished products because I was way too hungry by the time we finally got to scoff down our food to even think about photo's... yes I know, thinking with my stomach again.

Also more news... you might have noticed the '(to be)' is missing from the title of my blog. This is because I am officially an apprentice chef and no longer looking for work. Not sure if i'll get in trouble saying where but lets just say that I have to walk across a beach to get to work. Yes sand and salt water. My first week the tide was so high I had to take my shoes and socks off to wade across the water in bare feet. I was not a happy chappy and wanted to give up then and there with my jeans rolled up to my knees calf deep in water. 

Am going to admit that being an apprentice chef is not very fun. Prawns will never be the same to me after cleaning kilos of them and removing hundreds of poop shoots. Seriously no joke, we must order the greediest prawns in at work because I have never seen so much prawn poop in my life. Blurrkkk! But back to the fun stuff... College!

The Ossobucco is a simple Italian stew which tastes rich, robust and full of flavour (wanted to say delicious then but will save that for later on). The couscous had peppers throughout it which made it sweet and buttery. Now for what I thought was the Queen dish for the day and maybe so far; Profiteroles. DEEELICIOUSS!

I've never made profiteroles before and was super excited being the nerd I am and it also helped with my sugar fix for the day. Since working at the restaurant I have had such a sweet tooth and can only ever think about desserts, chocolate and everything else the dentist would disapprove of. My theory is that I am craving everything I am not working closely with and unfortunately that is sweet, divine goodies. Thinking I chose the wrong apprenticeship here.... or would it be the same if I work with chocolate and sugar all day???

Anyway back to what I was saying; to make profiteroles you need to make a choux paste (pronounced shoe- like the shoes you wear on your feet), Chantilly cream and chocolate sauce topping. To make the choux paste you combine butter, water, strong plain flour, eggs and a lot of muscle power. The Chantilly cream is a fancy way of saying sweetened cream- be sure not to make butter which I have done many a times-  most memorable occasion was high school when I cried and a friend had to steal more cream for me from another classroom. And finally the chocolate sauce... is your mouth watering yet or what?!

Choux Paste

100g butter

250mL water

190g strong plain flour

6 eggs (total 350g)

pinch salt
Arm muscle power

1-   Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcius. 

2-   Sift flour and salt together.

3-   Melt the butter and water over the stove until it starts to boil.

4-   Add the sifted flour & salt mixture to the butter, take off the heat and mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball.

5-   Make sure the butter & flour mixture has cooled down and then add your eggs one at a time. Apply your muscle power here. After each egg the mixture will look like it has separated but with some force and beating it all comes together.

  Tip:   If you lift your spoon the dough should fold over.

6-   Transfer your mixture to a piping bag and pipe walnut sized balls on a baking tray. If you get little tails on your balls, dip your finger in some water and tap them. This will remove the point and give you the walnut shape.

7-   Bake in the oven until golden.

Once you've let your golden balls cool you can fill them with the Chantilly cream which is 250mL cream, 25g (sifted) icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence whipped to piping consistency- Not butter. To fill your balls stick the nosel of the piping bag full of cream in the base and squeeze until the ball is full.

Top filled rolls either by dipping or drizzling this chocolate sauce over them or using melted chocolate.

Chocolate fudge sauce.

300g caster sugar

250mL water

60g cocoa

1-   Combine sugar and sifted cocoa and add water.

2-   Bring to the boil and reduce until thick. Be careful not to take this too far but make sure it won't run off the back of a metal spoon.

3-   Cover profiteroles in sauce and devour.

I thoroughly enjoyed stuffing my face before my exam with these delicious parcels of goodness and hope you do too. 

Thanks for reading! Keep watching and wish me luck for the (predicted) disastrous poaching lesson next week.