Choux pastry for eclairs and profiteroles - unique in its simplicity and delicious in taste

At 750 gr. finished product (I got 22 eclairs and 20 profiteroles

Water - 125 ml

Salt (incomplete teaspoon)

Butter - 110 g
Wheat flour - 140 g
Chicken egg - 5 pcs

Water - 125 ml
Milk (fat content 3.5% (or 3.7%)) - 125 ml
Salt (incomplete teaspoon)
Sugar (incomplete teaspoon)
Butter - 110 g
Wheat flour - 140 g
Chicken egg - 5 pcs

These are the products you will need:
TIP FROM THE CHEF: “choux pastry is made only on the basis of equal amounts of water and milk. If only water is used, the dough will be hard.”

1. Mix milk, water, salt and sugar in a saucepan (preferably with a thick bottom. I have a Zepter saucepan, so you can beat it with a mixer without problems), add butter, bring to a boil.

2. As soon as the water boils, add all the flour IMMEDIATELY (it is better to sift it first, because then it is saturated with oxygen and the baking will be more airy). Beat well to make the dough soft.

3. Beat for another 2-3 minutes until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. We do all this while the pan is on the stove. We form a big ball.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the dough to a deep bowl. I have a separate bowl in the photo, although it looks the same as the pan (THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT POINT, because you need to add eggs one at a time for a uniform and light dough structure). And we begin to add the eggs one at a time, beating until the egg is completely mixed with the dough. The finished dough should look like this, i.e. the consistency is thick enough, such that it does not drip from the whisk, but slowly falls off. After that, you can fill the pastry syringe and proceed directly to baking.

5. ADVICE FROM THE CHEF: “It is best to freeze the workpieces. Form either eclairs (approximately 8-9 cm long) or profiteroles (4-5 cm), lay them on parchment at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other and put in the freezer. I usually do this because I usually make dough and cream in the evening and bake the next day. It is convenient to do this, because you need to fill the eclairs immediately before serving, otherwise they will get wet. And messing with the preparation of the dough (albeit simple) is not always convenient. Of course, I take the dough out 20 minutes before baking, and just leave it in the refrigerator.
We heat the oven to 180 degrees (who has gas - 4), lay out our blanks (or if someone bakes right away - with a pastry syringe of the shape you need on a baking sheet covered with parchment. The chef advises sprinkling eclairs or profiteroles for a sweet filling with crushed almonds and sugar I don't always do it, but it turns out delicious.

Here are the profiteroles:


Note: I make profiteroles with different fillings. This time, on a whim, there were walnuts, a lot of garlic, Astoria sauce, Onion with sour cream, paprika, red and black ground pepper, cheese, grated on a fine grater. And the second filling was with the same sauce, eggs, processed cheese + leftover cheese, garlic and finely chopped chicken salami.

Choux pastry for eclairs and profiteroles ingredients 6. Put in the oven and bake for 7-8 minutes (the eclairs should increase in volume and rise, but remain the same in color). Then open the door and continue to bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown. After that, I turn off the oven (I have an electric one) and leave them there to cool.

7. Here. Actually, that's all. For the filling, I use French buttercream. The recipe can be viewed below. I cut the profiteroles lengthwise and fill them with cream using a culinary syringe. I make the icing according to the recipe of Alex Eustace (the recipe is also below) I liked it (the photo of the finished eclairs, however, no, I still don’t have time to take a picture, they are eaten instantly))

Bon Appetit everyone!

1) The oven should be opened just PRIOR, no wider than a matchbox. If you open wide, nothing will save, they will fall off. And you can’t slam the oven door, and don’t shake the tiles and the surrounding space at all.
2) For those who do not know: mix with a mixer, with a spoon in one direction only, do not add the next egg until the dough has "eaten" the previous one. Then you can immediately determine by consistency whether you need to add more eggs. As I already wrote, I once needed 6 eggs and 1 yolk to bring the dough to the desired state.
3) The problem with removing the baked from the paper. “Sticks to death. I tried both smeared paper and dry, the result is the same ”- when the eclairs are frozen, they themselves are easily removed from the cling film, on which I usually lay them out before freezing. But in general, with regard to any baking: I was once taught to sprinkle even parchment paper with flour (or semolina). Of course, semolina is not applicable to eclairs (I often use it for biscuits). But flour has never been a problem.
4) There was a comment when the eclairs cracked during baking (without freezing). Honestly, I don’t know if freezing was a key factor, but the last time I made profiteroles (these are the photos I post), my dough also cracked. I didn't have time to freeze. I had to bake right away. Also advice: either freeze well or bake immediately. I decided to put it in the freezer for at least 20 minutes to “freeze”. In the end, I had to scrape off the profiteroles from the film.
5) Flour must be well fried. This is exactly the "custard" dough. It should look like a smooth, shiny ball. First, when I add flour, I stir with a mixer, then, when the mass already looks like dough, I start working with a wooden spatula (we stir in one direction).
6) If someone sees that the eclairs are not completely baked inside, then you can simply turn off the oven and leave them to stand there. In principle, I always leave mine in the oven to cool. The temperature drops gradually.
7) In conventional ovens, there is usually no fan. I have it. Described in the manual as "convection mode". So, by trial and error, I realized that neither eclairs, nor biscuits, nor yeast dough can be cooked in this mode. It just won't rise. Maybe my handles are growing out of the wrong place, but it has never worked well with convection to make pastries.

The consistency of the dough before freezing: the dough should be similar in structure to mashed potatoes, i.e. the dough should not flow out of the syringe, but keep its shape. In order for the dough to have such a consistency, it is not necessary to add 5 eggs, less can be.

Eclairs after 8 minutes in the oven

This is what profiteroles look like after 8 minutes in the oven (closed)