 A cake made from choux pastry and filled with cream. | |
| Alternative names | Pâte à choux |
|---|---|
| Type | Pastry |
| Place of origin | |
| Main ingredients | Butter,flour,eggs, water |
Choux pastry, orpâte à choux (French:[pataʃu]), is a delicatepastrydough used in many pastries. The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs.
Instead of araising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in the dough evaporates when baked, puffing the pastry. The pastry is used in many European cuisines, includingFrench andSpanish, and can be used to make many pastries such aseclairs,Paris-Brest, cream puffs,profiteroles, crullers, beignets,churros and funnel cakes.
The full term is commonly said to be acorruption of Frenchpâte à chaud (lit. 'hot pastry/dough'). The term "choux" has two meanings in the early literature. One is a kind of cheese puff, first documented in the 13th century; the other corresponds to the modern choux pastry and is documented in English, German, and French cookbooks in the 16th century.[2][3] This dough was sometimes baked, sometimes fried. Choux pastry is later widely documented in the 18th century, under names including Pate a la Royale or Paste Royal.[2]
Popelins were common aristocratic desserts in the 16th century, and were flavored with cheese or citrus (for example lemon peel, orange blossom water, etc.).[4] They were prepared from dough that had been dried over a fire to evaporate its water, which was calledpâte à chaud.[5]
The royal chefs Jean Avice, apâtissier, andAntoine Carême, who worked in the court ofMarie Antoinette, made modifications to the recipe in the 18th century, resulting in the recipe most commonly used now forprofiteroles.[6]
The namepouplin (lit. 'baby, small child'), laterpopelin orpoupelin, is attested in around 1349 for a kind of cake made with flour and eggs.[7]
A widely repeated story claims that choux pastry was invented in 1540 by a Pantanelli and a Popelini (neither of whom is ever cited with a first name), supposedly the pastry chefs ofQueen Catherine de' Medici, the Italian wife ofKing Henry II of France.[8] This is part ofthe fiction that Italian cuisine was introduced to France by her retinue,[2][9] apparently first mentioned in the 18th century.[10][11] Pantenelli supposedly invented the dough in 1540,[12] seven years after the arrival of Catherine in France. He is said to have used the dough to make agâteau namedpâte à Pantanelli. Over time, the recipe of the dough evolved, and the name changed topâte à popelin, which was used to makepopelins, named after Pantanelli's successor Popelini. However, the story of Popelini, also called Popelin, only appears in the beginning of the 1890s in the writings of the French pastry chefPierre Lacam [fr].[13][14] The story is clearly fictional given thatpoupelins are attested long before the 16th century,[7] with the name Popelini being created from the wordpopelin and not the other way around; similarly, Pantarelli appears to be derived frompâte.[13]
The ingredients for choux pastry are butter, water, flour and eggs. LikeYorkshire pudding orDavid Eyre's pancake, instead of a raising agent, it employs high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry. The high moisture content is achieved by boiling the water and butter, then adding the flour. The mixture is cooked a few minutes longer, then cooled before adding enough eggs to achieve the desired consistency. The boiling step causes the starch in the flour to gel, allowing the incorporation of more water.[15]
This pastry is used to make choux (small puffs), as the name implies, but alsoprofiteroles,croquembouches,éclairs,religieuses, Frenchcrullers,beignets, andgâteau St-Honoré.
It's used in savory recipes also like Parisian gnocchi, dumplings,[16]chouquettes (unfilled choux pastry paired withpearl sugar),[17]pommes dauphine andgougères.
Choux pastry is usuallybaked, but for beignets, it is fried. In Spain and Latin America,churros are made of fried choux pastry, sugared and dipped in a thick hot chocolate for breakfast. In Italian cuisine, choux pastry is the base forzeppole di San Giuseppe, which are cream-filled pastries eaten on March 19 for the feast of Saint Joseph. InAustrian cuisine, one variation ofMarillenknödel, a sweet apricotdumpling[18] cooked in simmering water, uses choux pastry; in that case it does not puff, but remains relatively dense. Choux pastries are sometimes filled with cream after baking to make cream puffs or éclairs.[19]
Acraquelin is covered in a "crackly" sugar topping — and often filled with pastry cream, much like an éclair.
Achouquette (French:[ʃukɛt]), a diminutive ofchoux, is a small, round, hollow choux pastry covered withpearl sugar.[20][21] Unlikeéclairs, which are also made with choux pastry,chouquettes are bite-sized and the hollow inside is not filled.
Chouquettes originate fromParis, France, and can be enjoyed at anytime of the day, typically for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.[22]
The dictionary definition ofpâte à choux at Wiktionary
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