I'll tell you today about the choux pastry for eclairs, our favorite cakes. The recipes in my book have accumulated different, so I decided to share with you.
Probably everyone knows what should be the product of choux pastry? Lush, light, with a shiny surface and empty inside. Due to this peculiarity of the dough, to form a void when baking, it is very convenient to use it for making cakes.
We have heard, among the pastries, not only eclairs, but profit profit and shu. The dough for all of them use about the same. What is the difference? Size:
- Eclairs are long, usually stuffed with cream and poured over the top with glaze
- Profiteroles are usually round-shaped, no more than six centimeters in diameter, filled with both sweet creams and savory stuffing, meat or fish, also glaze on top, or sprinkling with nuts
- Shu - these are such tiny fluffy buns with a diameter of not more than two centimeters. Sometimes they don’t fill them up with anything, they make them less often with pirozhinki, they are often found at buffets and similar events
Besides all these pastry delights, choux pastry is used for the base of the cakes. Popular cake Lady Fingers, which I bake about twenty years, is prepared on the basis of choux dough.
Traditional recipe for choux pastry for eclairs
In general, the preparation of this type of dough requires a certain skill from the housewives. Not everyone can immediately bake cakes. It happens that someone they burn, stick so that it is impossible to tear off the pan, someone get wet, it happens that they do not rise, baked cakes, but it happens that they seem to have risen in the oven, and as soon as they pulled out, same settled. I thought and thought, what did you get at the beginning, the secrets of cooking or the recipes themselves. Perhaps, I'll start with recipes, and leave all the tricks for later, so that you can read everything through to the end.
This classic recipe is basic, it is basic and I do not recommend violating the recipe better. And yet, I will sign in detail all the nuances of cooking and baking.
We'll take:
- Glass of Water
- One hundred grams of natural butter
- Two hundred grams of sifted wheat flour
- Four eggs
- A pinch of ordinary salt
How to make a good choux pastry for eclairs:
First of all, prepare a couple of saucepans so that one enters the other, a pastry syringe and a convenient stirrer, a wooden spatula or a spoon.
We need the saucepans, as you already understood, for the water bath, we select it so that the top one does not stand on the bottom bottom, as a last resort, we put something or use a special stand.
The smaller pan should be wide enough so that the whole dough not only fits, but also makes it convenient to knead. I will say right away for beginners, kneading is the most responsible and time consuming process.
Inventory is prepared, now we get eggs from the fridge so that they take room temperature. Driving cold eggs into warm dough is strictly prohibited.
Now about butter, there are, of course, recipes for choux pastry on margarine, but the real, the most delicious is obtained only with high-quality butter.
Well, let's get started. Pour a glass (250 ml) of water into a saucepan, cut butter into cubes and throw to the same place, add some salt. We place a small saucepan in a large one, where 1/3 volume of water is already poured and begin to heat.
While heated, let's sift the flour, it is also important that it is saturated with oxygen and our products are especially airy. As soon as the oil has melted everything without any residue in water, we take the mixer in one hand, the container of flour in the other. We begin to fill the flour, mixing everything as intensely as possible, so as not to get lumps. We pour it out quickly and immediately stir it.
As soon as all the flour is evenly mixed with water and butter, pull out the saucepan, but do not stop interrupting. There is no need to prevent pasting the dough, as it is not quite ready yet.
In about fifteen minutes his temperature will drop for a comfortable one, in order to drive in eggs. The process is also complicated. We drive in one egg and stir until it is completely dissolved in the dough. Do not make such a mistake, do not break all the eggs at once.
The finished dough turns out to be viscous, a little blurred, but it is rather tight. It is more convenient to spread it on a baking sheet with the help of a pastry syringe. If you need a tart cakes, you can spread with two spoons.
A baking sheet is most likely to cover the paper for baking so that the products do not stick. It is better to turn on the oven in advance, set the temperature to 200 degrees and let it heat up while we squeeze the dough. Close to each other, do not sculpt, expect that the buns will be two times larger so as not to stick together. The most optimal distance is five centimeters from each other.
We put the pan in the oven only when it is well warmed up. We notice ten minutes, baking at 200 degrees allows the dough to quickly rise and form a void, due to evaporation of the liquid.
After the past ten minutes, we set the temperature at 180 degrees and wait twenty minutes until ready. Chur into the oven does not pry, otherwise the output will not get buns, and cakes, the dough will fall off when the temperature drops.
We take the finished buns and let them cool completely, then fill them with cream. The final stage will be the decoration, here you can use different types of glaze, milk, fruit, chocolate, whipped proteins. You can sprinkle with nuts, coconut flakes, wafer crumbs.
Baked blanks are very well stored in the freeze, up to three months, so it makes sense to put a bigger one and put the bag in the freezer so that you can quickly make cakes.
Choux pastry for eclairs, step-by-step recipe with photo
I think, step by step with photos, the recipe will benefit more for novice confectioners, those who will make such a dessert for the first time. Personally, I have got good eclairs from the third time.
We take:
- 150 grams of high-grade wheat flour
- 250 ml of water
- 100 grams of butter
- 4 eggs
- 2 grams of salt
Cooking process:
Sift flour.
For convenience, break eggs into a bowl.
Put a piece of butter in a metal dish.
Pour water and salt there.
Set to bask on fire.
Bring to a boil while stirring so that the oil completely disperses, because it is impossible to boil for a long time.
Remove the liquid from the heat and pour out the flour, beginning to stir it intensively.
Stir the dough until smooth, crushing all the lumps as much as possible.
We transfer the dough to another bowl and begin to drive in one egg. The dough should cool slightly, but not become cold.
Knead the dough to a creamy consistency, so that it is not too liquid. When a characteristic brilliance appears, it means we got what we need.
Squeeze the dough on a baking tray with a bag.
Fork draw on the surface of the stripes. We put the pan in the oven, heated to 220 degrees, after five minutes we reduce to 190 degrees, bake for thirty minutes until done.
We cut our blanks with a sharp knife, at the same time we check that the sides are not soft, but well dried. Inside we lay the cream that you like. Sometimes on top you can just tart the cakes with powdered sugar.
Choux pastry for eclairs according to GOST
Many already do not remember those most delicious eclairs with an oil cream, in boxes. It seems that they could be eaten forever. I always tried to buy these when I was able to wade through the crowd to the counter.
We'll take:
- One hundred and eighty milliliters of water
- Two hundred grams of sifted flour
- Three hundred grams of eggs without shells, these are five pieces of OS category
- One hundred grams of butter
- Whispering salt
Cooking process:
Pour the water into a saucepan and lay out the oil, it is better to cut it into slices to dissolve faster, just salt it.
Heat the saucepan to a boil, dissolve the butter, move it to the edge of the plate and pour in the previously sifted flour. Stir the dough without stopping; you can take a mixer with special nozzles for this.
We interfere until a homogeneous substance is obtained. At the same time the dough will cool slightly. Ideally, its temperature should be +60 degrees, with such added eggs not coagulate.
For convenience, we will break the eggs in a separate bowl with a fork and will gradually pour into the dough, stirring carefully. The dough should be slowly incised when incising with a knife.
If we make eclairs, then we will need a pastry bag, and if profiters, then we can do with a spoon. Spread dough on a baking sheet at a great distance and set to bake in the oven, heated to 200 degrees
We bake the first ten minutes at high temperature, then reduce to 180, do not look into the oven for twenty minutes, so that the dough does not fall, then you can slightly open it to release the accumulated steam, so the eclairs will get fried faster.
Dough for eclairs on margarine
Such is the budget option on margarine, when there is no butter. However, it is very often used and pretty well obtained.
We take:
- A glass of sifted flour
- Glass of water
- Four eggs
- Two hundred grams of margarine or spread
- Half a teaspoon of salt
Cooking process:
Pour the water into the dishes, in which we will bake the dough, put it on the stove, add salt and lay out the margarine pieces. Bring to a boil and stir to melt the margarine. Remove immediately from the stove.
Sift flour in advance and pour hot margarine into the water, stirring quickly. Stir until all the flour disperses. Dough a little dry on low heat, stirring intensely. The fact is that margarine contains a large amount of water and, when baking, our blanks can be wet inside.
Next, give the dough a little cool, preventing it for about three minutes, so that when adding eggs, they do not curl. We start to drive one at a time and stir.
After cooking the dough is laid out in any way on a baking sheet and bake for forty minutes at 200 degrees. Twenty minutes before the end of baking, the oven can be opened for a few seconds, the temperature should be reduced to 180.
Dough for eclairs - recipe for milk
The test version for milk can also be considered a classic. Eclairs are surprisingly light and crispy.
We'll take:
- One hundred milliliters of water and milk
- One hundred grams of butter
- Two hundred grams of wheat sifted flour
- Five eggs
- A pinch of salt
Cooking process:
Mix milk and water in a saucepan, season with salt and add butter, cut into pieces. Heat to boil, but do not boil. Immediately, without removing from the heat, but only turning it down, we fall asleep the flour and begin to interfere as soon as the flour absorbs all the liquid, remove it from the stove and stir it so that the dough is slightly cooled. After we begin to introduce eggs one by one. Stir the dough until there is a characteristic shine. Next you need to fill a pastry bag or a regular bag and using it to squeeze the dough on a baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes at two hundred degrees.
Dough for vegetable oil eclairs
Honestly, I never baked it myself, but I tried it. Vegetable oil for the recipe needs to be refined, odorless, otherwise eating a cake will not be very pleasant.
We take:
- A glass of clean water
- A half glass of sunflower oil
- A glass of sifted flour
- Half a teaspoon of salt
- Four eggs of category 1C
Cooking process:
In a saucepan, mix the water with the oil, salt and heat to a boil, pour the flour, begin to mix intensively and remove from the stove. Only the dough will be homogeneous, we begin to drive eggs one at a time. Stir very carefully.
Baking pan with baking paper, spread the dough at a great distance. At 200 degrees we bake for twenty minutes, then we reduce the temperature to 160 minutes and also dry for about twenty minutes.
Rules for making choux pastry
When you perform them, you will immediately make puffy buns of air and you will not have to, like me, to throw out the sad peanuts.
- The first rule is that water and oil should not boil, while a large amount of it will evaporate and the consistency will be different, the proportions will be broken.
- Secondly, the flour must be brewed instantly. I always sift it in advance and put it next to a boiling pot. I quickly get out with one hand, immediately stir the other. Everything has to be done very quickly.
- Third, when adding eggs, the dough should be hot, not so that they cooked. I check with my finger, if I can tolerate temperature, then I can drive in.
- The fourth rule, the size of eggs, depends on it the correct consistency of the test. If you take it with two fingers and unclasp your fingers, then there should be spikes. It should not flow down from a spoon in a stream, but in big thick drops, leaving a bird's tongue on the spoon, well, you will understand. Therefore, it is best to break the eggs into separate dishes, mix the whites with the yolks and pour in little by little, checking the dough after each serving.
- Fifth rule - if you grease a baking sheet with a thick layer of margarine, then the buns will surely stick, while you tear them off, they will crumble, lose integrity. Therefore, a win-win option - the use of baking paper.
- The sixth rule, do not lay out the dough in large portions, remember, it swells up a lot, and when there is a lot of it, it will not be able to rise and form voids.
- Seventh, we lay out the dough when the oven is already heated, you cannot let it lie for a long time just on the baking sheet.
- The eighth rule is very important, no matter how much you want to look, do not open the oven for the first twenty minutes, otherwise you will get, like me, sad tortillas.
Cream for eclairs
Finally, I'll give you some of my favorite recipes. Some of them were given to me by my son, who works as a cook in a restaurant.
With butter and boiled condensed milk
Perhaps the fastest option, very often I do eclairs with this cream.
Take:
- A bank of condensed milk
- Two hundred grams of oil
Cooking:
Condensed milk can be cooked by yourself, in the microwave it is not for long, let it cool and whisk well with soft butter. After we fill pirozhenki.
Protein cream
We take:
- One hundred grams of water
- A glass of sugar
- Two eggs
Cooking process:
Squirrels are immediately separated from the yolks, we will need only them. Cook the syrup to keep the shape when cooled. Pour into a squirrel in a hot thin stream and beat until the entire pass has cooled completely.
