Eclairs, Chouquettes & Religeusse

Choux Pastry.

Well, it’s said that this is the basic pastry every chef must have in his or her repertoire. More or less, it is the type of pastry that can be mastered with practice. It is neither easy nor difficult to make a good choux.

Recipe for Pate a Choux:

Ingredients:

Water 250g
Salt 5g
Sugar 5g
Butter 125g
Flour 150g
Eggs 220g (4-5)

Instructions:
1. Heat the water, salt, sugar and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Remove from the flame, add the sifted flour.
3. Mix well with a spatula and put it back on the flame for 20 seconds until the mass moves in the saucepan just by moving the pan.
4. Add the eggs little by little and keep mixing with a spatula until the dough is smooth and shiny.

How do you know that the pate a choux is perfect ?

Make an indentation with your finger, the dough should not fall back.

The method i prefer to use is the hook method. Take some dough on your finger, if it curves into a hook it is ready. 🙂

To pipe the choux use piping bag and pipe the choux onto a lightly buttered baking tray.

For the choux to bake evenly, eggwash or brush with melted, clarified butter with a brush and push down the point of the choux without deflating the piped choux. Bake at 180C with the door open slightly.

NOTES:
1. Water can be replaced by milk in a 50:50 proportion.
2. If the eggs are not enough, the baked product will be soft.
3. It is important to leave the door of the oven slightly open so that the steam created can escape. Else, the steam once rises will fall on the choux and it will collapse.

CHOUQUETTES :

Pipe the pate a choux in a round shape and sprinkle with sugar grains and bake immediately.

CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE ECLAIRS:

Pipe the pate a choux into eclairs and bake at 180C.
Pierce the underside of each éclair 3 times with the tip of a pointed nozzle, and gently pipe pastry cream into the éclair as you do so.

For the recipe of pastry cream, click here.

Glaze with chocolate and coffee fondant.

RELIGIEUSES :

Pipe smaller and big rounds on a baking tray.

Once baked, glaze with the fondant and top the smaller ones on the bigger choux. Decorate with coffee buttercream.

There are so many things you can do with choux pastry. So many flavors to play with. I want to share with you all the things I saw and tasted at some of the top patisseries in Paris.
It’s always tricky to get a regular shaped choux and I have noticed that all the famous patisseries in Paris use a crumble topping on the choux to give it an even and uniform look. Also, checkout eclairs and religuesses at the famous patisseries in Paris :

Pierre Herme’s famous ispahan :

Rose flavored pastry cream with litchi

From top Left to Right: patisserie de l’eglise , Laduree, Carl Marletti, Carette

Eclairs covered with marzipan and neutral glaze by Arnaud Larher

Last, but not the least Philippe Conticini’s La Patisserie Des Reves take on chocolate eclair:

Chocolate eclair enclosed in chocolate

Next post, I will be sharing the recipe for Raspberry Religuesse!