Originally Posted at Chuck-It Cook 7 July 2010
I’m lead to believe that every cook has something that they’re nervous about making. It doesn’t matter how many people tell them it’ll be fine, or how easy it is to do, they’re still scared to do it. In my case it was choux pastry. I desperately wanted to try making choux pastry as it is an integral ingredient in one of my favourite desserts, profiteroles. And no matter how many times I was told how easy it was, I was still a little nervous. I’m not good with pastry.
I’ve tried my hand at a few pastries and they turned out exceedingly mediocre. I put it down to my having warm hands which isn’t good for rubbing butter and flour together. Anyway, that’s not a problem with choux pastry. What I was worried about was ending up with scrambled eggs.
But I took a deep breath and had a go. I’ve now made them twice and, to be honest, they turned out pretty well the first time, and even better the second. I don’t know if the second batch were so good because they were cooked in my mum’s halogen oven. I don’t think I’ll ever cook choux pastry in a conventional oven again, because that second batch was absolutely magical.
The second batch were also extremely fun to make because I had my first ever go at piping. The first time around I did the old cut the top of the pastry off and spoon cream in method. Which isn’t as good and I used whipped Elmlea, which really isn’t the same as whipped double cream.
The piping went fairly well though I did end up squirting cream all over the kitchen. There were one or two issues with getting the cream into the piping bag and then controlling the flow of cream into the profiteroles. The cream also kept squirting out the wrong end and hence all over the kitchen.
But the most important thing is they were damn tasty, and I’m now armed to be ale to combine my two favourite desserts to create the ultimate decadence of a profiterole cheesecake. I’ll keep you posted on that one.
The recipe I used can be found here, and I baked the profiteroles in the oven at 200*C (gas mark 6) for 10 minutes, then at 220*C (gas mark 7) for15-20 minutes. They went nice and golden brown and were utterly delicious.
I’d post pictures but I’m afraid they all got eaten before I could get a camera out!
I’ve tried my hand at a few pastries and they turned out exceedingly mediocre. I put it down to my having warm hands which isn’t good for rubbing butter and flour together. Anyway, that’s not a problem with choux pastry. What I was worried about was ending up with scrambled eggs.
But I took a deep breath and had a go. I’ve now made them twice and, to be honest, they turned out pretty well the first time, and even better the second. I don’t know if the second batch were so good because they were cooked in my mum’s halogen oven. I don’t think I’ll ever cook choux pastry in a conventional oven again, because that second batch was absolutely magical.
The second batch were also extremely fun to make because I had my first ever go at piping. The first time around I did the old cut the top of the pastry off and spoon cream in method. Which isn’t as good and I used whipped Elmlea, which really isn’t the same as whipped double cream.
The piping went fairly well though I did end up squirting cream all over the kitchen. There were one or two issues with getting the cream into the piping bag and then controlling the flow of cream into the profiteroles. The cream also kept squirting out the wrong end and hence all over the kitchen.
But the most important thing is they were damn tasty, and I’m now armed to be ale to combine my two favourite desserts to create the ultimate decadence of a profiterole cheesecake. I’ll keep you posted on that one.
The recipe I used can be found here, and I baked the profiteroles in the oven at 200*C (gas mark 6) for 10 minutes, then at 220*C (gas mark 7) for15-20 minutes. They went nice and golden brown and were utterly delicious.
I’d post pictures but I’m afraid they all got eaten before I could get a camera out!
