Recipe: choux pastry

Choux pastry or pâte à choux is a light, airy pastry used in many traditional pâtisserie items from profiteroles, to éclairs, rings for a Paris-brest or even savoury gougères. Unusually for pastry it needs to be cooked over heat which has perhaps given it an unfair reputation as being difficult to master. If you follow these instructions carefully, it is actually fairly simple to put together. It should come out of the oven golden and crisp on the outside, puffed up and almost hollow on the inside, ready to be cooled and then stuffed with a delicious filling.

Ingredients

MAKES APPROX. 500g

• 145ml whole milk
• 145g butter
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ½ teaspoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 145g white bread flour
• 4 eggs

Method

1. Combine the milk and butter with 145ml water in a small saucepan. Set over medium heat and bring to the boil.

2. Once boiling, immediately stir in the salt, sugar and vanilla extract until combined. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all in one go. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until the mixture comes together into a smooth ball of paste that leaves the sides of the pan.

3. Put the pan back on the heat and let the flour cook out for 5 minutes, stirring to make sure the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

4. Remove the pan from heat and gradually but firmly beat the eggs into the hot pastry, one by one, until fully combined and the mixture is smooth, soft and glossy. When you lift the spoon up the mixture should drop off when lightly shaken.

5. Your choux paste is now ready to be transferred to a piping bag and used. I will normally instruct you to brush with a little beaten egg before baking to give the pastry a glossy shine when baked.

Japanese Patisserie by James Campbell, published by Ryland Peters & Small (£22).

Photography by Mowie Kay © Ryland Peters & Small

See also: Mont Blanc recipe