Pâte à Choux

Pâte à Choux? I don't know if you have ever hear of it, but it was a new concept to me. I have now learned that it is a sophisticated, yet simple pastry dough. And though the name is French, it is really much older. I've traced it all the way back to Egyptian Pharaohs and Roman cookery.

In Julia Child's famed cookbook, she identifies Choux paste as a basic recipe, comparing its importance to baking as Bechamel sauce is to saucery.

“Pâte à Choux is one of those quick, easy, and useful preparations like béchamel sauce which every cook should know how to make.” 

It is a twice-cooked dough, initially made on the stove-top, mixing flour into heated liquids, cooling it a bit, adding eggs, then dividing it into individual pastries for further baking, frying or boiling, resulting in a fabulous array of delicious pastries. It is used in many familiar, and even more unfamiliar, pastries. Éclairs and Beignets may be the most well known, While it sounds challenging and difficult to use, in reality it is a relatively simple dough to make and use, whether baking or frying. I explore its history, then leap into other recipes which use it, bringing it to your table.