My choux story begins with cream puffs, the very first pastry I ever learned how to make on my own. I was probably about 12 or 13 years old. By then Mom trusted me to fend for myself in the kitchen, having managed to not set anything on fire (that she knew of). I was itching to bake more than the occasional Nestle Toll House cookies–which only happened when chocolate chips went on sale.

Mom stocked the bare basic baking ingredients in the panty–flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, raisins (she liked them in pound cake), extracts (vanilla, lemon, almond), and salt (we’re not talking Kosher). Sometimes she bought walnuts, the one nut I despised and still do.

Coincidentally Mom had an odd distain for butter–“it goes bad too quickly,” she argued–so we only used margarine–Imperial margarine to be exact, ironically also known as “the butter of margarines.” Her apparent dislike of butterfat extended to cream as well, so no whipped cream in a can for us. In our house it was Cool Whip all the way. You get the picture. Whatever I aspired to make had to fit within these parameters.

And so, armed with margarine, Cool Whip, eggs and pantry ingredients, I consulted my cooking bible–Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. I longed to make to something fancy.

There, on the back side of “Consider Desserts The Grand Finale” chapter listing, I found cream puffs. It required only 4 ingredients–water, batter, flour, and eggs. Sold!

• 

• 

I followed the step by step pictured instructions, which in hindsight were grossly lacking in detail–come on, there were only 3 steps–cooking the four, water, and butter dough until it “left the pan and formed a ball.” Had no clue how dry I was really supposed to cook the dough mass. As soon as I saw a hint of film developing in the pan, I pulled it off the heat. Beating the eggs in one at a time by hand was a bit challenging given how loose and slimy the mixture got after I added each egg. Then, using a spoon and rubber spatula I plopped 8 mounds of batter onto a cookie sheet and stuck it in the oven. The instructions told me to bake at 400F degrees for 45-50 mins. “until dry,” which was somewhat vague. Dry on the outside or dry on the inside…or both? What happened if the puffs got too brown on the outside before they were dry? Nervous about burnt puffs, I erred on the side of caution and pulled them when they were golden brown. According to the instructions any “filaments of soft dough” would be “scooped out” to make room for the whipped cream filling, which in my case was Cool Whip.

My first attempt was deemed a success by my family, proclaiming them “just as good as the ones from the Chinese bakery,” so I kept making them that way for the next couple of years, sometimes layering in fresh sliced strawberries. Cream puffs became my thing, something I’d serve on special occasions or as a dessert intermission during one of Grandma’s marathon mah jong sessions….that is until I learned how to make crepes…then crepes became my thing…invariably filled with Cool Whip and fruit.

Culinary school ushered in a new era of refined baking. I began to fill in the blanks left by my cooking bible–like how to really bake pate a choux or the fancy term for cream puff pastry. I discovered all those moist bits I’d been scooping out of my cream puffs–which were sprinkled with sugar and happily nibbled on as bonus snack–were actually an indicator that the pastry wasn’t done yet. To properly bake pate a choux, no matter the size, you have to bake it at different temperatures in 2 stages–at 425F degrees for the first 20 mins. to set the pastry and at 325F degrees for another 40-50 mins. (less for mini profiteroles) to dry out the insides and create a crisp shell.

Of course, then there were the fillings–creme patissiere, chocolate mousse, bavaroise–not an artificial ingredient in sight. Cream puffs were now called choux puffs. They were piped out in fancy shapes and configurations, assembled to resemble swans with halved choux tops for wings and delicate piped S-curves for their necks and beaks. I remember setting my dessert swan on a pool of chocolate sauce surrounded by the ring of spun sugar. I was a total sugar geek back then.

In my professional life I’ve made countless iterations of pate a choux, both sweet and savory (e.g. gougeres), More often than not, they’ve been some form of profiterole–either filled with ice cream and drizzled in chocolate sauce, or injected with custard and dipped in caramel for croquembouche or gateau st. honore…or even a wedding cake.

Cream puffs just weren’t on my radar until I came across a little shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with a line out the door. It was called Beard Papa. I didn’t know it then, but Beard Papa–a very popular chain of Japanese bakeries specializing in cream puffs–was about to take the U.S. by storm. Intrigued, I got in line for what turned out to be a delightfully delicious surprise. These cream puffs were unbelievably light and crispy with an outer crust that was flaky, almost layered, filled with creamy custard that was just sweet enough. I gobbled up the first plain vanilla puff and immediately ordered another one and their special flavor of the day, matcha.

While I wouldn’t call myself a Beard Papa fanatic–my friend Amy would gladly accept that moniker–I do appreciate the distinctive quality of their product, which is probably why there are so many copycat recipes out there claiming to have cracked their code. Most of them feature a variation of craquelin, a French pastry term used to describe a sweet cookie crust baked on top of pate a choux.

Beard Papa’s crust isn’t quite as sweet as craquelin and in fact seems to have a pastry DNA more similar to puff pastry, a notion my friend Irene and I concluded after enthusiastically dissecting our first Beard Papa cream puffs years ago. I wanted to recreate an approximation of a Beard Papa cream puff. I did not, however, want to have to buy puff pastry, much less make it. Instead, I set about to make a less sweet craquelin that would still give me the characteristic crispy, flaky outer shell. First, I had to nail the choux pastry.

I tweaked my tried and true pate a choux recipe a little to give it a slightly more tender crust while still retaining its airy crispy texture, adding some whole milk rather than using all water and increasing the proportion of whole egg to egg white. I’ve always added a small amount of egg whites, as well as a tiny bit of baking powder (a tip from Alton Brown) to create a light crisp shell. I substituted pastry flour for all-purpose, although you can easily use 3 T. cake flour and 1 c. all-purpose to slightly lower the protein content.

As for the craquelin, I adopted parts of several recipes to come up with a crust that was flaky and noticeably less sweet, adding a touch of sea salt to offset the sugar. I tried 2 different methods of forming the craquelin–forming the dough into a log, chilling, then cutting it into 1/8″ thick slices, and rolling the dough out to 1/16″ thick between layers of plastic wrap, chilling, then punching out disks. The latter method produced the thin puffy, flaky texture I was looking for.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In true Beard Papa fashion, I injected the baked choux puffs with a pastry cream custard lightened with whipped cream, flavoring some of the custard with matcha powder. By special request, I made strawberry filling with fresh pureed strawberries, a little gelatin to set, sweetened whipped cream, and ground freeze-dried strawberries to pump up the strawberry flavor. The intense strawberry creme mousse proved a hit with everyone, especially strawberry aficionado Krislyn, who also requested strawberry chocolate eclairs.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Speaking of eclairs, I confess to having a weakness for them. It’s that divine combination of choux pastry, custard and rich chocolate glaze that gets me every time. Oddly enough, I’m not a big fan of the Beard Papa version because their glaze it more like a hard chocolate shell. Call me crazy but I’m of the opinion that your teeth shouldn’t have to work so hard to bite through the chocolate coating. Nor should the coating be a chocolate fondant icing shellacked with a thin shiny sugar crust. Yeah, I know it’s pretty, but it doesn’t fulfill the chocolate mission. No, for me the ideal chocolate eclair glaze is bittersweet chocolate ganache. Period.

I did not conclude my choux batter 2.0 experiments with eclairs. As this is a story about my adventures with choux, I decided to turn some of it (I’d made a double batch) into crullers, which are essentially deep-fried choux donuts. Who doesn’t want donuts? Using a 1/2″ star tip I piped rings of choux batter onto little squares of parchment, then fried them in batches at 370F degrees for about 2-3 mins. on each side. Like the choux puffs, these crullers puffed up beautifully–tender honeycombed interior, crispy light exterior.

• 

• 

• 

To glaze, I mixed some fresh strained peach puree and a little peach blossom water (souvenir from my last trip to Maine) with powdered sugar and a pinch of sea salt for one flavor, and matcha powder, whole milk, vanilla extract and sea salt for the other. There’s no specific recipe. I winged it with ingredients I had on hand, starting with about 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, then gradually adding in the wet ingredients until I came up with the right consistency to properly glaze the crullers.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Since I had a pot of frying oil going, I made one more variation of choux, although this time it would be a totally different recipe because I was making churros. The batter for churros is basically pate a choux, but with less eggs and butter in proportion to water and flour, making a much stiffer dough that retains the piped shape when fried. As with the crullers, the churros are fried at between 370F-375F degrees for about 3-4 mins. until golden brown.

You can pipe the churros strips onto a greased, lined sheet pan, pop them in the freezer for a few minutes to set up, then drop the sticks into the oil in batches. However, if you’re not a stickler for uniformity, it’s much faster and more fun to pipe the dough directly into the oil, using a paring knife or kitchen shears to snip off lengths of dough. Just don’t overfill your pastry bag. This dough is stiff so you’ll have a hell of a time piping out of a full bag. Toss the hot churros into cinnamon sugar to coat.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

They’re so damn addictive, you can inhale them plain…or dipped in salted caramel and chocolate sauce if you’re feeling extra decadent.

It’s been a long journey with choux pastry, from my initial forays via Betty Crocker to my Beard Papa experiments…with no “grand finales” in sight..just more sweet intermissions down the road.

Custard Filling

• 2 T. all-purpose flour
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/8 t. sea salt
• 4 large yolks
• 2 c. whole milk
• 1 t. vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 2 T. unsalted butter
• 1 c. heavy cream

1. Combine 2 T. sugar with milk in a medium heavy bottom sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, cornstarch, yolks, salt, and remaining sugar until smooth and pale yellow.
3. Gradually temper some of the hot milk into the egg mixture, then return everything into the pan.
4. Cook custard on medium low heat, whisk constantly, until very thick and it begins to slowly bubble. Cook for another minute to cook out the flour taste.
5. Remove from the heat, then whisk in vanilla and butter. Transfer custard into a bowl and press a layer of plastic wrap onto the surface to prevent skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
6. Whip cream to medium firm peaks. Fold into chilled custard.

Craqueline for Cream Puffs

Yield: enough for 16 cream puffs

• 2 1/2 T. unsalted butter, barely melted
• 5 T. powdered sugar
• 6 T. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 t. baking powder
• pinch of baking soda
• pinch of sea salt

1. Using a fork. combine all the dry ingredients in a small bowl, then add the butter and mix until everything clumps together to form shaggy dough.
2. Use your hands to press the clumps into a cohesive dough mass, then transfer onto a big piece of plastic wrap.
3. Fold half of the plastic over the dough and flatten into a 1/4″ thick disk. Use a rolling pin to thin it out to 1/8″ thick. Refrigerate until firm. Punch out 1 3/4″-2″ diameter disks. Re-roll and cut more as needed.
4. Place a disk on the top of each piped choux round.

Pate a Choux 2.0

Yield: about 16 cream puffs or 12 eclairs or 15 crullers

• 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. whole milk
• 4 oz. or 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1 t. sugar
• 1 c. + 3 T. pastry flour or 1 c. all-purpose + 3 T. cake flour
• 1/4 t. baking powder
• 4 large eggs + 1 white, slightly beaten

• 

• 

1. Sift together flour and baking powder; set aside.
2. In a deep medium sauce pan, bring to a boil water, milk, butter, salt, and sugar, then lower heat to a simmer.
3. Add in all of the flour at one time, then stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to incorporate everything to form a dough mass. Increase heat back to medium.
4. Stirring constantly, cook the dough until it pulls away from the pot, forming a distinct crusty film on the surface of the pan.
5. Remove pan from the heat. Beat in the the egg mixture either by hand with wooden spoon or with an electric hand mixer a little at a time, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides of the pan. *Alternatively, you can transfer the hot dough into a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until the batter is velvety smooth.
6. Scoop batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2″ tip (plain for puffs and eclair, star for cruller). Pipe 1 3/4″-2″ diameter rounds for puffs, 3″ long 1″ wide strips for eclairs, and 3″ rings for crullers.
7. For puffs and eclairs, bake in a pre-heated 420F degree oven for about 20 mins., then rotate the pans, lower the temperature to 325F degrees and bake for another 40-50 mins. until the interior is mostly dry and hollow. *Can test by piercing one with the tip of a paring knife.
8. Transfer baked puffs or eclairs onto a cooling rack.

Crullers

1. Cut parchment squares, approximately 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″. Pipe 3″ rings or “wreaths” with a 1/2″ star tip. Transfer onto to a sheet pan.
2. Heat a wide pan of oil at least 2″ deep to 370F degrees. Gently lower 3-4 piped rings into the hot oil. Once they float to the surface, use a pair of tongs or long chopsticks to slide the parchment out from under each one.
3. Fry each side for about 2-3 mins. or until nicely golden brown. Transfer the crullers onto a rack set over a sheet pan with a spider or slotted spoon.
4. Allow crullers to cool completely before glazing.

Churros

Yield: about 3 dozen pieces

• 2 c. water
• 1 T. oil
• 3 T. unsalted butter
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 t. salt
• ½ vanilla bean, scraped or 1 t. vanilla extract
• 2 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten

1. Combine water, oil, butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a heavy bottom pot and bring to a boil.
2. Remove pot from the heat and quickly stir in flour all at once.
3. Return pot to the heat (medium) and vigorously stir the mixture until it forms into a ball of dough and a film has developed inside the pot. Remove from heat and beat in the egg until smooth.
4. Allow mixture to cool a bit. Fill a pastry bag about halfway, fitted with a 1/2″ star tip. Carefully pipe 3” strips directly into the hot oil, using a paring knife or kitchen shears to cut off the dough. Don’t do more than 4-5 at a time.
5. Fry strips until golden brown. Lift churros out with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.
6. Toss hot churros in cinnamon sugar (1 c. sugar + 1 T. ground cinnamon).

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

Yield: about 2 1/2 cups

• 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 3/4 c. heavy cream
• 2 T. corn syrup or honey
• 1/4 t. sea salt
• 1 t. instant coffee

1. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
2. In a sauce pan, combine cream and corn syrup (or honey) and bring to just a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in salt and instant coffee.
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit undisturbed for about 3 mins. Whisk together until smooth.

.