Good afternoon, today I made an article that will help a BEGINNER hostess make perfect custard eclairs or cakes the first time. I will tell you how to make custard dough according to the recipe.
Choux pastry has a very simple recipe (the simplest of all that can be).
But despite the simplicity of the recipe if you don't know 7 important rules you may not be able to do anything. This is exactly what happened to me: I threw my first custard eclairs into the trash (they didn’t rise, they didn’t swell, they lay on the baking sheet with dead cakes - then I burst into tears).
And when the wounds on my sensitive culinary soul healed, with renewed vigor and faith in success, I began to scour the forums and articles and eventually found THAT INFORMATION that is not often written in recipes choux pastry. But without which it is impossible to bake the correct puffy eclairs and profiteroles.
So that you get EVERYTHING ALREADY FROM THE FIRST EXPERIENCE.
So... let's start in order.
What is custard dough?
This is a dough that, when baked, gives an airy, tender, crispy bun. with emptiness inside.
Air bubbles inside these buns are obtained from that the dough contains a lot of water. In a hot oven, water begins to actively evaporate, and the oil that is part of the dough does not allow air to pass freely through the pores of the dough, and water vapor pressure from inside the bun inflates it like a balloon.
And this very void in a custard ball-eclair or cake is filled with the most different fillings: condensed milk, cream, curd paste, fruit jam.
Choux pastry can be made even by the most novice cook. But for this he will need not just a recipe.
But also some important nuances of baking, without knowing which custard buns or profiteroles may not turn out as airy as you want.
Now you will know all the secrets of custard dough ...
And then you can bake delicious profiteroles with chocolate (first photo) and custard cheesecakes with raspberries (second photo).
So, let's prepare this choux pastry. And we will reveal all its secrets.
- First I will give you the recipe (classic step by step recipe custard dough)
- And then I will explain in great detail WHAT MISTAKES SHOULD NOT BE MADE in the very work of preparing this test.
Dough recipe..
(proportions for 40 small buns)
- 1 glass water + 100g butter - melt.
- Without removing from the fire - pour the sifted flour there ( 1 glass, i.e. 160 grams)
- We brew this flour in hot water with butter (stirring with a spoon or mixer)
- Adding eggs 3-4 pieces. And knead again.
- We spread the dough with a spoon or pastry syringe on a greased baking sheet and bake.
EVERYTHING IS SIMPLE.
But only for those. who knows BASIC RULES FOR PREPARING THIS TEST.
Important rules -
for the custard recipe.
Let's now go through our recipe - step by step - and deal with each rule.
At first it's simple...
Pour water into a saucepan ... put oil in it and bring it all to a boil.
RULE ONE - do not let the water boil for a long time ...
Sometimes it happens that your water with oil already boiled... and you were distracted and she continues to gurgle b…
Because of this, she may partially evaporate from the boil... and liquids in a saucepan will become less. And the proportions of dry and liquid will be violated. As a result, choux pastry will turn out thicker than necessary.
RULE TWO - flour should boil instantly ...
While the liquid is heating up, we will prepare the "flour landing". Namely "landing" - because the landing of troops is always instant and lightning fast. This is how it should happen with our flour.
The first time I made custard dough, I made a mistake - I poured the flour out of the glass too slowly. Because she really slowly gets enough sleep from the glass.
Have to do differently.
- Take a sheet of paper - fold it in half. To have a fold line.
- Pour our (already sifted) flour onto this sheet.
- In this flour - add sugar (for sweet dough) ... or salt (for salty dough).
- And when the mixture of water and oil boils in our pan, reduce the heat ... and ...
- We take our sheet - by the edges, so that it bent in the fold line, and all the flour was ready for instant pouring from the sheet.
- We bring a sheet of flour to the pan - in the second hand immediately take a spoon(wooden spatula... or mixer)
- Pour flour into boiling oily water - in one movement - shukh and immediately ( at the same second) stir quickly, quickly (the sheet was thrown aside, they grabbed the handle of the pan with one hand and quickly mixed all the flour into the water.
The brewed flour must be well BOILED.
Quickly rolled flour must boil down. This takes time. They poured flour, mixed it with boiling water and without removing the pan from the fire (unless the fire was reduced) - we knead it right in the pan. Then we smear it with a spoon along the bottom of the pan - then we collect it in someone - then we smear it again - again in a lump. To dough boiled on all sides. After 2 minutes, it will already boil well.
And it will become a soft homogeneous lump.
RULE THREE - the temperature of the custard dough and the size of the eggs matter.
Now, after the flour has boiled, and the pan is removed from the heat, you need to drive the eggs into it. But not at once- the dough should not be very hot (so that the eggs do not bake in it) - it is better to stick your finger into the custard dough: if the temperature is tolerable for you, then the eggs will not “burn”.
If the dough cool down completely before adding eggs that's bad too. It then becomes slimy. And then we will not be able to bring it to a meaty-creamy texture.
It may turn out that the size of the eggs will violate the proportion of liquid / dryness, and the dough will turn out to be too liquid.
Therefore, we drive the eggs into a separate bowl. And we beat it there.
And then we start little by little add the egg mixture into custard dough.
Added and stirred. Added and stirred-kneaded ..
Until the dough is we need consistency (that is, sometimes part of the egg mixture is still in the mug ... and the dough has already become as it should ... it means that you don’t need to add more egg mixture - that’s enough).
And here there is one more moment. According to my observations, this is how it turns out. If you stir the custard dough with a wooden spoon, then more eggs are required. And if the mixer - then less. The fact is that the mixer stirs the dough too much and intensively, and it becomes more liquid and fluid from mixer whipping, and therefore requires fewer eggs.
You will see for yourself when it is enough to add eggs to our choux pastry. See the consistency.
What does the RIGHT consistency of choux pastry look like.
The desired consistency looks like homogeneous glossy paste. Which keeps its shape for some time. You yourself will already see by the contents of your pan: here you mix the custard dough with a spoon, and divorce patterns in a saucepan (traces of stirring) how frozen ones hold their shape(photo above).
Or you can check like this: I scoop the dough out of the pan with my finger, and if the liquid piece scooped up retains its shape (like toothpaste on a toothbrush), sticking out test tuft up and does not fall, then the dough is as it should be.
Due to this property, the custard dough, when laid out on a baking sheet, completely keeps its shape and pattern (if the syringe had a patterned nozzle).
And after baking, such an eclair will retain its patterned surface.
What to do if the dough turned out too thick or too liquid?
When this happened to me, I naively decided that the density of the dough (in one direction or another) can be changed by adding eggs or flour.
But in fact, these innovations in the recipe will only spoil the whole dough. And it will have to be thrown away.
You need to solve the problem this way.
If the dough is thick, then in a separate saucepan we make a little of the same dough, but more liquid (that is, put a little more water according to the recipe - boiled flour - laid eggs). And then this batter mixed with our first too-thick-dough.
If the dough is liquid, then in a separate saucepan we make a little of the same dough, but thicker. That is, pour water and oil according to the recipe, put the flour according to the recipe - knead and brew the flour. And now we add this dough (which is still without eggs) to our first too liquid dough.
When laying out the dough on a baking sheet, there is another useful rule ...
RULE FOUR - the baking sheet must be wet.
We spread a baking sheet for buns with a VERY THIN LAYER of oil (vegetable or butter) - a thick layer of oil will give a thick crust at the bottom, which will be difficult to tear off the baking sheet.
Therefore, it is better to bake them on a silicone mat (it does not need to be lubricated with anything).
Be sure to sprinkle the baking sheet generously with water. I just pour water on it and then shake the water off the pan. And small droplets remain clinging to the oil.
These same droplets will give us the right humidity inside the oven. And then our buns will rise more amicably.
How to spread the custard dough on a baking sheet.
Put the dough on a baking sheet
- or a spoon (soaked in water).
- or a confectionery syringe with a large nozzle.
- or through the usual plastic bag with a hole cut into it.
- or twist a bag of plain paper.
For profiteroles, it’s better with a spoon - you get a perfect circle (if something is smeared, correct with a wet finger). Or a wide nozzle without a pattern.
Choux pastry MUST BE LOWER IN SMALL PORTIONS
Round - no more than a teaspoon.
Long - no more than two teaspoons by volume.
Otherwise, it will not rise - too much dough is difficult to rise.
Distance between servings custard dough - should be at least 2 centimeters. After baking - eclairs laid out with a spoon will look like round pot-bellied buns.
If long custard cakes - then with a syringe. If the nozzle of the syringe is thin, then you can simply squeeze several sausages next to each other (one on top of the other), and we will end up with a sausage of the thickness we need.
RULE FIVE - do not let the choux pastry lie on the baking sheet for a long time.
If the balls of custard dough pressed onto a baking sheet are not immediately placed in the oven, then moisture will begin to evaporate from the dough, and on top of the dough an unnecessary crust is formed. And then our eclairs (or profiteroles) will not rise.
RULE SIX - there must be hot humidity in the oven.
Preheating the oven up to 180 degrees.
We put our pan with custard eclairs and cakes.
And now we will create an additional steam for the oven. To do this, pour some water on the bottom of the mug and plop it right on the hot bottom. oven. Not on the flame itself, of course, otherwise it will go out, but on the hot walls or bottom of the oven. So our custard profiteroles will definitely go up.
RULE SEVEN - do not open the oven (until they are baked).
You ask, how do we know that they have already been baked if we do not open and look.
Small custard buns or cakes are baked 20 minutes. Until golden brown appears.
If a 20 minutes have passed, you opened the oven, and your profiteroles not yet baked(puffed up but pale), that is, it is likely that in such a pale form they will fall off - they will be blown away. Then you can do this...
When you look into the oven keep a cup ready a small amount vodka at the bottom. In the event that you see that the buns are still damp, and you need to let them bake more ... we plop this water on the bottom of the oven (we give it to the park) and quickly close the oven(without turning it off) - thus we give the buns time to bake until golden brown and not fall because of our premature intrusion into their steam bath.
That is…
While you were poking the buns with a match and assessing their degree of readiness, precious steam escaped from the oven. And we run the risk of getting DEFLATED Eclairs with him ..
Therefore, they looked ... they decided that they were still undercooked ... they flopped some water and closed it ..
So there is less chance that our custard buns will be blown away.
AFTER YOU HAVE DECIDED that the eclairs are already baked. We turn off the oven. We slightly open it, but we do not immediately take out our custard buns. Let's let them rest and get used to the new temperature 5 minutes.
These are the 7 rules - understanding that you will always MAKE YOUR DOUGH and the desired consistency, and right conditions for the perfect Puff of cakes or eclairs.
Let the choux pastry feel your LOVE, CARE and trust the hands of a professional.))
Well, in our next article we will do Cake SWANS - from custard dough. Recipe for beginners.
Good luck with your baking.
Olga Klishevskaya, specially for the site
An article that will help a BEGINNER hostess make perfect custard eclairs or cakes the first time
What is custard dough?
This dough - which, when baked, gives an airy, tender, crispy bun with a Void inside.
Air bubbles inside such buns are obtained from the fact that the dough contains a lot of water ... in a hot oven, the water begins to actively evaporate ... and the oil that is part of the dough does not allow air to pass freely through the pores of the dough ... and the pressure of water vapor from the inside of the bun inflates it like a ball ...
RULE ONE - do not let the water boil for a long time ...
Sometimes it happens that your water with oil has already boiled ... but you are distracted and it continues to gurgle ...
Because of this - it can partially evaporate from boiling ... and there will be less liquid in the pan. And the proportions of dry and liquid will be violated. As a result, the custard dough will turn out thicker than necessary.
RULE TWO - flour should boil instantly ...
While the liquid is heating up... we will prepare the "flour landing". It is "landing" - because landing - is always instantaneous and lightning fast. This is how it should happen with our flour ...
The first time I made choux pastry - and I made a mistake - I poured the flour out of the glass too slowly. Because she really slowly gets enough sleep from the glass.
We need to do it differently.
Take a sheet of paper - fold it in half. To have a fold line.
Pour our (already sifted) flour onto this sheet.
In this flour - add sugar (for sweet dough) ... or salt (for salty dough).
And when the mixture of water and oil boils in our saucepan ... reduce the heat ... and ...
We take our sheet - by the edges ... so that it bends in the fold lines ... and all the flour is ready for instant pouring from the sheet.
We bring a sheet of flour to the pan - in the second hand we immediately take a spoon (a wooden spatula ... or a mixer)
Pour flour into boiling oily water - in one motion - shuh and immediately (at the same second) stir quickly and quickly (the sheet was thrown aside, grabbed the handle of the pan with one hand and quickly mixed all the flour into the water ...
The brewed flour must be well BOILED.
Quickly poured flour should boil down. This takes time. They poured flour - mixed it with boiling water and without removing the pan from the fire (unless the fire was reduced) - we knead it right in the pan. Then we smear it with a spoon along the bottom of the pan - then we collect it in it - then we smear it again - again in someone ... So that the dough boils from all sides. After 2 minutes - it will already boil well.
And it will become a soft homogeneous lump.
RULE THREE - the temperature of the custard dough and the size of the eggs matter.
Now ... after the flour has boiled ... and the pan is removed from the heat .. you need to drive eggs into it. But not immediately - the dough should not be very hot (so that the eggs do not bake in it) - it is better to stick your finger into the custard dough - if the temperature is tolerable for you, then the eggs will not “burn”.
If the dough is completely cool before adding the eggs, this is also bad. It then turns out slippery. And then we will not be able to bring it to a meaty-creamy texture.
It may turn out that the size of the eggs will violate the proportion of liquid / dryness - and the dough will turn out to be too liquid ...
Therefore ... we drive eggs into a separate bowl. And we beat there ...
And then we begin to introduce a little egg mixture into the choux pastry.
Added - and stirred ... Added and stirred, kneaded ..
Until then - until the dough becomes the consistency we need (that is, sometimes part of the egg mixture is still in the mug ... and the dough has already become as it should ... it means that you don’t need to add more egg mixture - that’s enough).
And here there is one more thing ... according to my observations, this is how it turns out. If you stir the custard dough with a wooden spoon, then more eggs are required ... And if with a mixer, then less. The fact is that the mixer - stirs the dough too much and intensively - and it becomes more liquid and fluid from mixer whipping ... and therefore requires fewer eggs ...
You will see for yourself - when it is enough to add eggs to our choux pastry. See the consistency.
Choux pastry recipe step by step
What does the RIGHT consistency of choux pastry look like.
The desired consistency - looks like a homogeneous shiny paste. Which keeps its shape for some time. You yourself will already see by the contents of your pan - here you are stirring the custard dough with a spoon - and the stains-patterns in the pan (traces from stirring) how they hold the frozen shape (photo above)
Or you can check like this - I scoop the dough with my finger from the pan and if the scooped up liquid piece retains its shape - (like paste on a toothbrush) - the dough tuft sticks up and does not fall off ... then the dough is as it should.
Due to this gutta-percha property - choux pastry, when laid out on a baking sheet, completely keeps its shape and pattern (if the syringe had a patterned nozzle).
And after baking - such an eclair will retain its patterned surface.
And what to do if... the batter is too thick or too runny...When this happened to me - I naively decided - that the density of the dough (in one direction or another) can be changed by adding eggs or flour ...
But in fact - these innovations in the recipe - will only spoil the whole dough. And it will have to be thrown away.
You need to solve the problem this way.
If the dough is thick, then in a separate saucepan we make a little of the same dough, but more liquid (that is, put a little more water according to the recipe - boiled flour - laid eggs). And then this batter - mixed with our first too-thick-dough.
If the dough is liquid, then we make a little of the same dough in a separate saucepan, but thicker (that is, pour water and oil according to the recipe, put flour according to the recipe - knead, brew the flour - and this dough (which is still without eggs) - add to our first-too-wet-dough.
RULE FOUR - the baking sheet must be wet.
We spread a baking sheet for buns with a VERY THIN LAYER of butter (vegetable or butter) - a thick layer of butter - will give a thick crust at the bottom, which will be difficult to tear off from the baking sheet.
Therefore, it is better to bake them on a silicone mat (it does not need to be lubricated with anything).
Be sure to sprinkle the baking sheet generously with water. I just pour water on it - and then shake off the water from the pan ... And small droplets remain clinging to the oil.
These same droplets will give us the right humidity inside the oven. And then our buns will rise more amicably.
How to spread the custard dough on a baking sheet.
Put the dough on a baking sheet
Or a spoon (soaked in water) ...
or a confectionery syringe with a large nozzle ...
or through an ordinary plastic bag with a hole cut in it ...
or twist a bag of plain paper ...
For profiteroles, it’s better with a spoon - you get a perfect circle (if something is smeared, correct with a wet finger). Or a wide nozzle without a pattern.
Choux pastry SHOULD BE DONE - IN SMALL PORTIONS
Round - no more than a teaspoon ...
Long - no more than two teaspoons in volume.
Otherwise, it will not rise - too much dough is difficult to rise.
The distance between the laid out portions of choux pastry should be at least 2 centimeters.
After baking - eclairs laid out with a spoon will look like round pot-bellied buns.
If long custard cakes - then with a syringe. If the nozzle of the syringe is thin, then you can simply squeeze a few sausages nearby (one on top of the other) - and we will end up with a sausage of the thickness we need.
RULE FIVE - do not let the choux pastry lie on the baking sheet for a long time.
If the balls of custard dough pressed onto a baking sheet are not immediately placed in the oven, then on their surface moisture will begin to evaporate very quickly from the dough - and an unnecessary crust will form on top of the dough. And then our eclairs (or profiteroles) will not rise.
RULE SIX - there must be hot humidity in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
We put our baking sheet with custard eclairs and cakes.
And now we will create additional steam for the oven. To do this, pour some water on the bottom of the mug ... and plop it right on the hot bottom of the oven
(not on the flame itself, of course ... otherwise it will go out) but on the hot walls or bottom of the oven ...
So our custard profiteroles will certainly rise ...
RULE SEVEN - do not open the oven (until they are baked).
You ask, how do we know that they have already been baked ... if we do not open and look.
Small custard buns or cakes… bake for 20 minutes. Until golden brown appears.
If 20 minutes have passed - you opened the oven - and your profiteroles have not yet been baked (puffed up but pale). That is, it is likely that in such a pale form - they will fall off very much - they will be blown away. (if they are not baked until cooked). Then you can do this...
When you look into the oven - keep a cup ready with a small amount of water at the bottom ... In the event that you see that the buns are still damp and you need to let them bake more ... we plop this water on the bottom of the oven (give it to the park) and quickly we close the oven (without turning it off) - thus we give the buns time to bake to a ruddy state - and not fall off due to our premature intrusion into their steam bath.
That is…
While you were poking the buns with a match and assessing their degree of readiness, precious steam escaped from the oven. And we run the risk of getting DEFLATED Eclairs with him ..
Therefore, they looked ... they decided that they were still undercooked ... they flopped some water and closed it ..
So there is less chance that our custard buns will be blown away.
AFTER YOU DECIDE - that the eclairs are already baked. We turn off the oven. We slightly open it - but we do not immediately take out our custard buns. And we give them to lie down and get used to the new temperature ... 5 minutes.
These are the 7 rules - understanding that you will always MAKE YOUR DOUGH and the right consistency, and the right conditions for the perfect BLOODING of cakes or eclairs.
Let the choux pastry feel your LOVE, CARE ... and trust the hands of a professional.))
As the name implies, choux pastry is prepared by brewing. Rather, flour is brewed, and then eggs are added to it, after which the mass is well mixed.
Choux pastry is delicate and beautiful in products, it perfectly holds cream filling. Choux pastry is unleavened, made without adding sugar, and is used mainly in cakes.
By the way, "Borodino" bread is also made from choux pastry, from rye flour.
Ingredients
- water - 1 glass
- salt - a quarter of a teaspoon
- butter - 100-125 grams
- flour - 1 cup
- eggs - 4-5 pcs.
Cooking
Pour a glass of water into a saucepan, put all the oil, salt. Place the saucepan over medium heat to bring the liquid to a boil.
As soon as bubbles appear, add flour and mix very intensively with a spatula without removing from heat (you can reduce it a little).
When brewing, the flour will gather into a lump of dough, which easily peels off the walls of the pan. At this point, it must be removed from the fire. And let the dough cool down a bit.
Prepare egg mixture. Crack all the eggs into a bowl and mix.
Since eggs play a major role in the choux pastry recipe, it is the right amount of eggs that will make the choux pastry tough enough so that it does not fall off after baking. But you can’t immediately say exactly how many eggs will go into the dough - it depends on the quality of the flour and the size of the eggs themselves.
Therefore, it is better to introduce a mixture of eggs into the dough, and not one egg at a time: it may turn out that it will be enough, for example, 4 and a little bit from the 5th egg (in this case, part of the mixture will remain). But at least it's enough.
While the dough is cooling, prepare a baking sheet: cover with paper, which is smeared with butter. Turn on the oven to 180 degrees.
In a slightly cooled dough, introduce the egg mixture in small portions, kneading first with a fork, and then with a spatula.
You need to stir vigorously. With each new portion, the dough becomes elastic and becomes shiny, smooth.
Properly cooked dough should stretch a little, at this point you need to stop adding eggs.
Place the products formed from the custard dough on a baking sheet ***
Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake, for example, eclairs or shu, for 15 minutes at t 180, and then 10 minutes at t 150. Do not look into the oven so that the products do not fall off. For profiteroles, cut the baking time in half.
*** On a baking sheet, the dough is deposited using:
From custard dough you can cook:
- eclairs - oblong cakes with a variety of creams (butter, custard, protein, whipped cream and others);
- profiteroles - small products (up to 4 cm in diameter) that can be stuffed like sweet stuffing(creams, jam and others), and not sweet (pate, cheese, in general, any meat or fish filling);
- shu - the same as eclairs, only round;
- croquembush - a cone-shaped cake made from stuffed profiteroles, which are fastened together with a special sauce;
- Paris-Brest - custard ring cake and shu;
- custard buns with savory fillings.
Eclairs, profiteroles, custard buns - all this is made from custard dough. If you use different fillings, then you can make a wide variety of desserts and snacks from custard buns.
Whatever you fill such buns with, you will end up with a dish for which you can be completely calm when serving it on the table. Everyone will be delighted with tender, a little with a delicious filling.
The main task of the hostess is to properly make and bake choux pastry buns. But it's not always easy the first time around. Since choux pastry is rather capricious, it is necessary to take into account some nuances that cookbooks are silent about for some reason.
How to cook custard dough
Ingredients
125 g butter
1 glass of water
1 cup flour
A pinch of salt
Step 1
First, you bring water to a boil and completely dissolve the oil in it. And salt. And then you add flour.
Secret 1. Pour the flour all at once and mix very quickly. Then she will not give lumps. After adding flour, the dough will be very dense and thick.
Secret 2. This dough is called custard because it is boiled. Cook for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. You need to mix quickly so that nothing burns and the whole dough boils evenly.
Step 2
Adding eggs. They need to be driven in one at a time, stirring constantly until the dough begins to stretch.
Secret 3. Before adding the eggs, the dough must be removed from the heat and cooled slightly. Just stir it for a couple of minutes.
Secret 4. Eggs should not be straight from the refrigerator. When you start preparing the dough, you need to get them, wash them under running warm water. While you are making the dough, they will heat up.
Secret 5. The number of eggs is determined by eye. If the eggs are large, then usually there are 4 eggs per serving. If small, then 6 eggs may be required. I usually make 2 portions of the dough at once and lay 8-9 eggs.
Secret 6. Don't use a mixer. With it, the dough will be very liquid.
Secret 7. The dough should not be too liquid. As soon as it begins to stretch, immediately stop stirring the eggs. Even if it seems to you that it is still too thick.
Step 3
Grease a baking sheet and spread the dough with a spoon, forming buns.
Secret 8. Be sure to preheat the oven to 200 degrees before placing the first batch of buns. The oven must be turned on at the same time as the dough is being prepared.
Secret 9. When spreading the dough, dip the spoon into the water. It will stick well.
Secret 10. Do not make very large buns, they will bake well. A teaspoon is suitable for their formation. Keep in mind that future eclairs will double in size.
Step 4
Bake the buns for 20-30 minutes.
Secret 11. First, the buns are placed in hot oven, about 200 ° C. And when they rise and turn golden, the temperature must be reduced to 150 ° C and baked. The danger is that if you reduce the temperature earlier, the buns will fall. And if the temperature is not reduced, then they will not bake well. The baking time depends on the size of the buns. But average eclairs are baked for about 15 minutes at a high temperature and 15 minutes at a low one.
Secret 12. To determine if the buns are ready, you need to quickly pull one out. If it does not fall from the cold air, then it is ready and you can take it out.
Secret 13. The second batch of buns should be laid out on a cold baking sheet. So cool it down under running water.
Step 5
The buns need to be taken out, cooled and stuffed.
Secret 14. When laying out the buns on a dish, try to make sure that each one has access to air. That is, the second layer must be made very rare.
Secret 15. custard buns can easily become damp and turn into a rag, so you can only close the dish with buns with paper napkins, leave them in ventilated rooms. Don't put the buns in the refrigerator.
Secret 16. To fill the bun, you need to cut the top. This requires a very sharp and thin knife. A small ceramic knife has proven itself well for these purposes.
Fillings for custard buns
You can fill the buns with both sweet cream and salty fillings: caviar, salads, pate, even cheese with garlic and herbs.
curd cream
250 g cottage cheese
250 g heavy cream
150 g brown sugar
Liquid vanilla on the tip of a teaspoon
Step 1. Whip cream.
Step 2. Add sugar, cottage cheese, vanilla to them and beat everything again.
Pate
500 g chicken liver
200 g heavy cream
100-150 g butter
1 bulb
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Step 1. chicken liver sort, wash and trim the connective tissue.
Step 2. Onion cut into half rings. Fry until golden in 2 tbsp. oils. Transfer to a bowl.
Step 3 Pour 2 tbsp into the pan. oil, heat up and lay out the liver. Fry until crispy on all sides.
Step 4 Pepper, cover with a lid and remove from heat. Cool to room temperature.
Step 5 Turn the liver and onion through a meat grinder. Add liquid with oil from the pan. Mix.
Step 6 Beat the softened butter with a mixer or blender. Add liver to it.
Step 7 Beat everything and gradually add cream. Then salt.
Butter cream
300 g butter
1 can of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Step 1. Bring the oil to room temperature. Start beating with a mixer.
Step 2. Gradually add condensed milk to the butter, without stopping whisking everything. Watch carefully so that the cream does not exfoliate. At the end, add vanilla sugar.
Advice
The smaller your profiteroles, the more effective they perform on holiday table. But they take a very long time to bake. Therefore, I make medium buns, they bake well and do not take much effort: two servings of dough have to be baked in three passes for about 40 minutes each.
The fact that choux pastry balloons, which are used to make cakes - eclairs or profiteroles, can be easily baked at home, I learned when I first got married. A week after my move, a young, or rather not quite young husband, baked a whole pile of cheerful ruddy balls. Only he filled them not with cream, but ... mashed potatoes With fried onions. God, how delicious it was!
It is now that I am running my culinary blog http://easycookschool.com, and at that time I was very far from cooking.
Editorial note. Our reader Irina sent her secrets for making custard dough for publication. Dear friends! If you have tips and tricks for cooking, you can send them to us by email and we will publish them.
And it seemed to me that the process of preparing choux pastry was something akin to an alchemical experience. First, something was boiled in a small saucepan, then some incredible amount of eggs was driven into it and mixed with such force with which physics teachers usually turn the handle of a dynamo. As a result, a viscous incomprehensible mass was obtained, which was laid out in shapeless horned lumps on a baking sheet. How and why they then turned into round balls, hollow inside, was a complete mystery to me. It is not surprising that attempts to repeat this experience for me at first ended in failure. However, patience and work will grind everything. Over time, everything began to work out for me. I hope that by using my simple advice, you will avoid the need to go through trial and error and you will get choux pastry the first time.
Here we go?
Secret 1. Don't save time in the first step
As you know, the first step in preparing choux pastry is to boil butter with water or milk and salt. And already at this stage, many do major mistake. Which one? They are in too much of a hurry. Boil the mixture until the oil stops floating on the surface of the water. Otherwise, it will interfere badly with the dough and your profiteroles simply will not rise.
Secret 2. Be sure to sift the flour
Otherwise, the dough may turn out to be heterogeneous, and the finished eclairs may be uneven.
Secret 3. Flour should get into the “tea tea” all at once
Not everyone is up to this task. After all, if you try to tip a whole cup of flour into a saucepan, then there is a high probability that half will crumble onto the stove. To prevent this from happening, there is one simple trick: sift the flour onto a sheet of baking paper and, lifting the edges of the sheet, pour the flour into a saucepan with boiling water and oil in a neat stream for just a couple of seconds.
Secret 4. Choux pastry must not only be kneaded properly, but also kneaded
Yes, yes, everyone knows that after flour gets into the saucepan, you should immediately grab a spoon and begin to vigorously stir the mixture until it turns into a homogeneous ball of dough that will easily peel off the walls of the saucepan. But if you want to get not just eclairs, but excellent eclairs, be sure to knead the dough with the back of a spoon for two or three minutes.
Secret 5. The dough must cool
Another point that often leads to irreparable consequences is that the dough is not allowed to cool properly before adding the eggs. As a result, the protein is partially curtailed, and eclairs are not obtained. So, ideally, the dough should cool to 60 degrees. Of course, this does not mean that everyone who wants to enjoy profiteroles needs to get a kitchen thermometer. Just touch the dough. Not hotter? So it's time to add the eggs.
Secret 6. When and how to introduce eggs
Eggs must be added one at a time, otherwise they will not mix well with the dough and the eclairs will not rise. Knead for a long time and calmly, until the dough becomes completely homogeneous. It should turn out to be oily, not very dense, but keep its shape satisfactorily. It is not necessary to use a jigging bag with nozzles. You can put the dough on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, with a regular spoon, wetting it each time in water.
Secret 7. Temperature
Ideal conditions for baking eclairs will also ensure you get an excellent result. Bake the custard balls at 220 degrees for the first 10 minutes. And then bake at 190 until a brown crust forms. That's all the secrets.
Finally, the most important thing is a proven recipe: 4 eggs, 150 g flour, 100 g butter, 240 g water or milk. With water, eclairs keep their shape better, and with milk they turn out soft and tender.
Well, as a bonus for those who patiently read our instructions to the end, the answer to the main question: how does it happen that a void forms inside future eclairs during the baking process? So if you remember, we added a lot of water to the dough. Once in a hot oven, the water begins to evaporate intensively inside the balls of choux pastry. Steam, as you know, requires a much larger volume than liquid. He inflates the elastic walls of the eclair from a mixture of flour and eggs. Thanks to long kneading, they become so dense that they do not release steam outside. This is how that amazing emptiness is formed inside the eclair.
Good luck with your baking and bon appetit!
