Pate a Choux (cream puff/eclair pastry)

Drizzled with chocolate! Like an eclair

Also good just filled with filling and topped with powdered sugar.

Saw this on the Kids Championship website- Pate a Choux swans-piped tear drops and then candy canes using a smaller piping tip.

I have been watching the Kids Baking Championship. These kids are so adorable- but they are also such amazing bakers! One of the shows was on making Pate a Choux dough- which can be used for cream puffs and eclairs. I was impressed by what these kids did. I wanted to give this a try myself! Baked the dough Sat night. Filled and drizzled with chocolate Sunday so that it would be ready for a work party on Monday! Big hit with husband and oldest daughter!

1 edit- baked this a 2nd time and brushed it with milk and it had a more carmelized look. It still wasn't as crunchy though as when it first came out of the oven. Next time- might try keeping it in oven for 10 min with oven open to dry out the cream puff.

Here's what I did:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2) Heat butter with a pinch of salt. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to boil
3) Turn the heat down to low. Add 1 cup of flour at 1 time. Quickly stir in 1 direction until forms a ball.
4) Transfer to mixing bowl and let cool for 4-5 min
5) Mix and add egg 1 at a time.
6) Pipe dough into circles (2 layered circles). Press down tops since they might burn. Brush with milk wash
7) Bake for 20 min
8) Right after baking, make sure to puncture it to let out steam.
9) Let cool, and use scissors to cut 1 whole in the puffs
10) Make filling
11) Cut puff in half and fill with the filling
12) Ice with chocolate (Microwaved 5 oz 60% cocoa chocolate with 1/2 tablespoon shortening for 1 min, then additional 15 min. stir. Then use spoon to drizzle top with chocolate)

Baked Pâte à Choux (~From New York Times)

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing the baking sheet
• Salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet with butter. Put the butter and a pinch of salt in a saucepan over high heat; add 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and add all the flour at once; stir constantly until the mixture pulls away from the pan and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time; use an electric mixer if you like, and beat until the mixture is smooth. (At this point, you can cover the dough and refrigerate it for up to two days.)
2. If you’re planning on piping out the dough, scoop it into a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch tip, or a plastic freezer bag with a corner cut off. Pipe the pastry onto the baking sheet, or just use two spoons to form your desired shape. Cream puffs should be circles about 1 inch wide and a little over 1 inch tall; éclairs should be 3-to-4-inch fingers, about 1 inch wide.
3. Bake until the pastries are golden brown, nicely puffed up and sound hollow when you tap on them, about 30 minutes for cream puffs and 40 minutes for éclairs. Use a skewer to prick one or two holes in each one to allow the steam to escape; transfer to a rack and let cool to room temperature.
4. To fill the pastries using a pastry bag, poke a hole into the pastry and pipe the filling into it, or cut off the top caps of each pastry, spoon in the filling, and close it up like a sandwich. (Éclairs can be slit open and filled, too.) Serve as is, or drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Vanilla Filling (~adapted from allrecipes.com)

-Note! discovered that cannot half the recipe- especially the pudding+milk. Tried combining just 1.7 oz pudding with 1 cup of milk and was unable to get the mixture to gel.

Ingredients:

• 3.4 oz vanilla pudding
• 2 cups cold milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine vanilla pudding with cold milk
2. Whip heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks. Add in 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla
3. Combine vanilla mixture with whipped cream

Chocolate Icing(~adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons hot water

Directions:

For the icing, melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in hot water, one tablespoon at a time, until icing is smooth and has reached desired consistency. Remove from heat, cool slightly, and drizzle over filled eclairs. Refrigerate until serving.