One of my favorite things to make is pate a choux. I like watching the dough instantly come together after adding the flour to the pot. Pastry nerd alert. Then after piping them into cream puff or eclair shapes, they puff up so beautifully in the oven. The one thing I’ve never been able to master is getting the puffs to have smooth edges, until now. The Bouchon Bakery recipe is great.
One of the steps in the recipe is to freeze the piped choux before baking them. They use a silicone hemisphere mold to pipe the domes into but I tested it out free form. On top is a cookie disc that bakes onto the puff in the oven and crackles as the puff expands. Making the dough was the only tough part for me. It was just way too crumbly and fragile when trying to cut the rounds so they are a bit thicker than they should be.
Beautifully baked puffs and I did a check to make sure they were fully baked. Perfectly hollow on the inside and ready for some pastry cream.
The cream puffs were delicious but honestly the puff just out of the oven was enough for me. The cookie top adds a nice sweetness.
Week 36 of the Bouchon Bakery Book Project
Read the Project recap on the Cream Puffs
Bake with us!
2 Comments
If you are freezing in the moulds do you let them thaw before baking or do you bake from frozen? If so, do you have to adjust the cook times?
Hi David,
I baked mine frozen. The recipe doesn’t say to thaw beforehand so the temperature and time is based on having frozen puffs. It varies though so keep an eye on the puffs and check on them after the designated amount of time. The key is that they feel hollow which means the dough has expanded fully. I usually tap the bottom like with bread. Happy Baking!
Jenn