Today I’m teaching you how to make choux pastry (pâte à choux) with about 100 pictures to show you how it’s done. If you’re not digging all the step-by-step photos, video tutorial, and explanations, scroll down to the recipe to get started. 🙂
Welcome to the September Baking Challenge! By popular request, we’re working on a French pastry dough this month: choux pastry, pronounced shoe pastry. Or, in French, pâte à choux. I learned how to make choux pastry in the French baking class I took earlier this summer. We spent an afternoon diving deep into this versatile classic and I’m sharing everything I learned with you today.
“Choux” means cabbage and pâte means paste. So, in other words, cabbage paste. Why is it called “cabbage paste” you ask? The name comes from the resemblance the pastry has to tiny cabbages. When baked, the pastry puffs up with little crinkles and ruffles– pictured above. Little cabbages! But instead of cabbage paste, let’s simply call it choux pastry.
Choux has the reputation for being difficult, but– as I witnessed with several other bakers in our French pastry class– it’s surprisingly simple. Master this easy recipe and you can make many pastries most bakers are scared to try. Pipe logs and fill with pastry cream for eclairs, pipe dollops and sandwich with whipped cream or ice cream for cream puffs and profiteroles, mix it with cheese and herbs for savory gougères, deep fry it for churros, French cruller donuts, choux beignets, the list goes on.
Choux pastry is a wonderful recipe for a monthly baking challenge because if you stick to the 1 basic recipe below, the door to DOZENS of other pastries is wide open.
Today I’m showing you how to make sweet cream puffs and profiteroles. Later this week, I’ll show you how to make eclairs. (Update: here is the eclairs recipe!) Feel free to use this basic choux dough in any of the pastries listed above!
TWO SIMPLE RULES FOR CHOUX PASTRY
- stick to the ingredients and measurements
- don’t open the oven while it bakes
The 7 ingredients are staples that you likely have in the kitchen right now: butter, water, milk, sugar, salt, flour, and eggs. Some recipes use all water instead of milk + water, but I find the combination yields a slightly softer and richer pastry. Not many choux pastry recipes call for sugar, but only 2 teaspoons provide a little flavor. The bulk of the pastry dough is eggs. Eggs provide some leavening, allowing the pastries to puff up when baked. The centers are soft, light, and airy. The exterior is golden and crisp. A beautiful marriage of textures!!
Choux pastry comes together in about 10-15 minutes. Most of the ingredients are cooked together on the stove; this initial cooking causes the starch in the flour to gelatinize, which will help the pastry hold onto steam and puff up. The Spruce Eats has an interesting article explaining the science of choux pastry if you’re into that!!
After the choux pastry dough is gently cooked on the stove, transfer to a mixing bowl and add AROUND 4 beaten eggs. That’s the finicky part– the number of eggs in choux pastry isn’t really consistent between batches. Humidity, the exact size of egg, or an accidental extra 1/2 teaspoon of flour creates inconsistencies. 4 beaten eggs is an ideal starting point, though. Only add as much as you need to create a shiny, thick, and smooth dough with a pipeable consistency. I usually leave a few teaspoons of beaten egg behind, which can be used with the egg wash.
The yolks in the eggs bring most of the flavor and color to choux pastry:
At this point, our choux pastry dough is complete! Yes, that’s really all you need to do before shaping/baking it. Cook 6 ingredients on the stove, then beat in the eggs.
Now let’s make our cream puffs or profiteroles.
CREAM PUFFS
Filled with flavored whipped creams. Today I’m using homemade vanilla whipped cream, aka Crème Chantilly. Top with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar or a spoonful of chocolate ganache.
PROFITEROLES
Filled with ice cream and frozen. Topped with chocolate ganache. Profiteroles were my FAVORITE!!! We used butter pecan ice cream and coffee ice cream.
Watch me make the choux pastry and shape/bake into cream puffs and profiteroles:
ONE TRICK I LEARNED
And it makes a huge difference in (1) how much the pastry puffs up and (2) how delicious the pastry tastes. Bake the pastries on parchment paper, the BEST nonstick surface for this choux pastry dough. But before you pipe the dough onto the parchment paper, moisten it with water. You can see me doing this in the video tutorial above.
Why? Think of cheesecake. We bake cheesecakes in a water bath, right? Cheesecake, like choux pastry, is egg-heavy. Eggs need a moist and humid environment in the oven to (1) properly rise and (2) avoid drying out and burning.
Water moistened parchment paper = perfectly puffed up pastries with a deliciously light center and crisp exterior. Pastry perfection.
For cream puffs and profiteroles, use Wilton 1A piping tip. Pipe 2-inch mounds about 3 inches apart. (Watch the video above for a good visual.) You could also use a zipped-top bag and cut off the corner for easy piping. Using a water moistened finger, smooth down the peaks and lightly brush each mound with egg wash.
↑ These mounds bake into this golden puffy pastry! ↓
Split open the baked and cooled pastries, then fill with homemade whipped cream, lemon curd, jam, pastry cream, a combination of these, or your favorite filling!! You can also poke a hole in the pastries and pipe the filling inside.
Check out these beautiful hollow pastries, thanks to the steam created from the moisture inside and outside the baking dough!
And for profiteroles, ice cream with a generous shower of ganache. I teach you how to make these pictured cream puffs and profiteroles in the recipe notes below.
Join the September Baking Challenge
Make the choux pastry recipe below and turn it into your favorite pastry such as the cream puffs or profiteroles pictured today and detailed in the recipe notes. You can also use my choux pastry recipe below to make eclairs, churros, croquembouche, French cruller donuts, choux beignets, or gougères. Let your creativity shine this month because with the choux pastry recipe below, your possibilities are endless!
If you’re not into this recipe, here is the alternate September Baking Challenge:
- any challenge recipe from the past
- caramel apple spice thumbprints (yay Fall!)
After you make the pastry or alternate recipe, share your photos throughout September using #sallysbakingchallenge on your public Instagram or Twitter, or upload a photo of your recipe to my Facebook page or Facebook group. Or email it to me. By sharing or sending your photo, you’re automatically entered in the $250 giveaway!
Choux Pastry (Pâte à Choux)
Ingredients:
Choux Pastry
- 1/2 cup (115g; 8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 1/2 cup (120ml) water
- 1/2 cup (120ml) 2% or whole milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon milk or water
Equipment
- medium saucepan
- wooden spoon or rubber spatula
- handheld or stand mixer
- large mixing bowl
- 2 baking sheets
- parchment paper
- pastry brush
- piping bag
- piping tip
Directions:
- Watch the video in the blog post above; it will help guide you through the next few steps.
- Make the choux pastry dough: Combine the butter, water, milk, salt, and granulated sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted. Bring mixture to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to low and add the flour all at once. Stir until the flour is completely incorporated and a thick dough clumps into a ball. Mash the dough ball against the bottom and sides of the pan for 1 minute, which gently cooks the flour. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or, if using a handheld mixer, a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool down for a few minutes before adding the eggs in the next step.
- Read this step in full before starting. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the eggs in 3-4 separate additions mixing for 30 seconds between each. The mixture will look curdled at first, but will begin to come together as the mixer runs. Pour in the final addition of beaten eggs very slowly. Stop adding when the choux pastry has reached the desired texture: shiny, thick, and smooth with a pipeable consistency. I usually leave a few teaspoons of beaten egg behind, which can be used with the egg wash.
- Your choux pastry dough is complete! You can use it immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- For cream puff and profiterole shells: Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly brush the parchment with water, which creates a humid environment for the pastry shells allowing them to puff up without drying out or burning.
- Transfer choux pastry dough to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1A piping tip. Pipe 2-inch mounds about 3 inches apart. Watch the video in the blog post above for a visual. You can also use a zipped-top bag and cut off the corner for easy piping. Using a water moistened finger, smooth down the peaks and lightly brush each with egg wash.
- Bake for 20 minutes then, keeping the pastries in the oven, reduce oven to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for 10-15 more minutes until golden brown. Do not open the oven as the pastries cook, as cool air will prevent them from properly puffing up. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before filling.
- Split open pastries and fill with homemade whipped cream, lemon curd, pastry cream, jam, a combination of these, or your favorite filling. You can also poke a hole in the pastries and pipe the filling inside. For my pictured cream puffs and profiteroles, see recipe notes.
- Cover and store leftover filled pastries in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Cover and store unfilled pastries at room temperature for 1 day, in the refrigerator for 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before filling and serving.
Make ahead tip: Prepare choux pastry dough through step 3. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before shaping and baking.
Recipe Notes:
- For the pictured cream puffs: Crack open each cooled pastry shell and generously spoon homemade whipped cream (it's vanilla flavored, so it's called Crème Chantilly) inside each. Top with a dusting of confectioners' sugar or drizzle of chocolate ganache (ganache instructions below).
- For the pictured profiteroles: Crack open each cooled pastry shell and fill with a scoop of your favorite ice cream. Freeze for 1 hour or up to 1 day. Top with chocolate ganache. For the chocolate ganache, finely chop two 4-ounce semi-sweet chocolate bars and place in a medium bowl. Heat 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream in a small saucepan until it begins to gently simmer. (Do not let it come to a rapid boil-- that's too hot!) Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 2-3 minutes to gently soften the chocolate. Slowly stir until completely combined and chocolate has melted. Allow to cool for 3 minutes before pouring over pastries.
Adapted from Baltimore Chef Shop, where I took my pastry class 🙂
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Here are some items I used to make today’s recipe.
KitchenAid Stand Mixer | 5-qt Tilt-Head Glass Mixing Bowl | Glass Measuring Cup | Wooden Spoon | Copper Saucepan | Baking Sheet | Wilton #1A Round Piping Tip | Piping Bags | Pastry Brush
Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! Thank you for supporting Sally’s Baking Addiction.
I started my choux pastry adventure last year. We made classic and banana. They were so good. And very easy. However… i would LOVE if you would share how to do the french cruellers! They are my all time favorite donut! I had no idea how many things you could make with this dough! So cool!
Isn’t it great? Choux is so so versatile! I’ll have to eventually try my hand at French crullers. Thank you for the suggestion!
Is it important to use 2% or whole milk? We normally keep 1% milk and fat-free Lactaid in the house, so I’m wondering if it would be ok to use one of those, and if I should alter anything with the recipe if I used milk or Lactaid with less or no fat. Thanks.
Hi Evelyn! Your best bet is to use all water instead of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup lactaid.
Thanks, what about 1% milk? Would that work, or would it be better to use water in place of that as well?
Hi Evelyn! 1% milk would be fine.
We made these and they came out very good. I had my teens from church over and it was a blast making these. Next time I will make a little bigger. They came out smaller than expected.(my own fault)I should have baked them for less time . But overall very easy to make. Instead of ganache on top. The girls put it inside with their Ice cream. Thankyou for all the pictures and the video. They really helped us alot.
What a fun group activity! I’m glad you all had fun 🙂
Hi Sally! When making the profiteroles, do you out the ganache on right before eating? Or can I assemble them as a whole & freeze until ready to eat?
Hi Michelle! You can do it either way. I like serving them with warm ganache on the cold pastry/ice cream 🙂
Thank you so much!!! Mine didn’t puff up as much, but they taste delish! I will try again next weekend!
Hi, sally! I want to make these smaller, but idk how to adjust the time because there are two temperatures.
Normally, i would time the eyeball the first batch, then adjust on the succeeding. But i’m not sure how to do that here. Help please? Thanks
Hi Tricia! I recommend about 5-10 minutes at 400F, then reduce to 350F and bake until you think they’re ready 🙂
Incredible, in-depth recipe for a beginner like me! If anyone worries about the right consistency of the choux (like I did), I learned online that, if you put it between your thumb and forefinger and then pull the fingers apart, the bottom peak of choux should be limp and fall over. This was perfect for my eclairs!
I’m so glad to read this, thank you so much for reporting back about your experience with this choux pastry!
I just finished making these they were much better than my first attempt a year or two ago, but my husband mentioned that they tasted eggy. Is that just the nature of choux dough or do you think I added the eggs too early? Or too many? I intentionally let it cool before adding them and it did not look like the eggs cooked in the batter.
Some of them ended up being beautiful, but I had a couple that ended up being quite flat. All in all, they were actually easy to make and your instructions were easy to follow! I will be exploring more with these soon like, maybe tomorrow!
Hi Andrea! They naturally taste a little eggy. You didn’t add the eggs too early. How was the consistency? Very thin? If so, maybe there was too much egg. I’m so glad that you gave choux pastry another try!
How long will the baked choux pastry keep for at room temperature?
I want to bake the eclairs today and full them tomorrow.
Hi Holly! See the recipe instructions. 🙂 Cover and store leftover filled pastries in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Cover and store unfilled pastries at room temperature for 1 day, in the refrigerator for 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before filling and serving.
Hi Sally,I just made my prfitrols,,but I changed a little in the way of baking,,I didn’t brush the parchment paper, baked them on silicone mat ,I sprayed the profitrols with water and took longer in the oven to turn golden brown.i filled hem with my homemade vanilla ice cream… inspired by yours… thanks Sally…
Thanks for sharing, Azza! That’s good to know!
Hello, Sally! I am curious how long these would keep filled with whipped cream/pastry cream before they would get soggy? Pastry cream, especially. Would it be okay to keep them filled overnight in the fridge? Thank you!
Hi Sophia! They’ll be just fine filled and refrigerated overnight.
I made the cream puffs and eclairs today! Possibly the best thing I have ever made. I could have eaten the pastry cream by itself right out of the bowl. Ok I sort of did eat some out of the bowl-it was so delicious!! Thanks again Sally for the best recipes and instructions ever!
Hello, I was wondering if it matters that I use real butter and lactose milk? I might be trying to make it for a lactose-free crowd.
Hi Emily! You can use water in place of the milk.
Can you double this recipe? Or is it better to make two separate batches? I’m feeding a crowd lol made this for last month challenge and it was delicious and way easier than I ever thought with your tutorial!
Hi Nikki! For the best results, I recommend making 2 separate batches. Don’t want the texture to be ruined from working with too much batter.
I’d like to make savoury puffs, cheese and herbs. Can you help?
Hi Michelle! After the eggs are added, you can beat in 4 ounces of shredded cheese (any kind) and some fresh or dried herbs. Bake as directed.
Hi Sally I made up the mixture last night covered it and put it in the fridge but the texture was thicker this morning HELP
Hi Mary! That’s expected since it’s so cold now. Let it sit at room temperature before you pipe/bake.
HI Sally that was fine and it did pipe nicely my other problem was they all fell flat I thought it was maybe too much moisture . Could that have been the case I wet the parchment paper beforehand ?
Just made these today and they are perfect! I used my food processor since I don’t have a mixer (stand or hand). They cooked faster than recipe, but my oven is tiny and fickle. We live in a 3rd world country and having easy luxuries like these is great. I also made your pastry cream from your Boston Cream Cake recipe and it also is a great success! Found you on Pinterest and so glad I did.
Thank you for the Recipe, Sally! Love it even before filing the puff with cream. <3
Hi Sally! Is unsalted butter necessary for this recipe? Or can we use salted butter and then adjust the salt quantity?
So excited to make these!
Hi Ikhlas! Salted butter may be substituted for the unsalted butter. I would reduce the salt to 1/8 teaspoon.
Hi Sally!
I made these yesterday and they turned out beautifully with lots of air in them. I made them again today and the did not puff up at all. They didn’t fall flat, they just didn’t puff up. I was so disappointed and perplexed! Do you have any suggestions as to what I may have done wrong?
Hi Anna! Did you do anything differently the 2nd time? Is the weather a little more humid today? Maybe you used a little more egg than yesterday? A couple factors could definitely be the culprit! Sorry you had trouble today.
Thanks for the reply Sally! I think what I did wrong was that I didn’t let the water, butter, salt, sugar, flour mixture cool at all and put the eggs in to the hot pan. I tried again today and followed instructions to a T and even used weight in grams rather than cups and it worked. phew! I thought that I just got lucky the first time but it really is just like a chemistry protocol and needs every detail to be followed. 🙂