Pate A Choux Waffles Recipes

PATE A CHOUX: A CLASSIC PASTRY GOES MEXICAN

Steps:

• Place liquid, butter, salt and sugar, if using, in a medium saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Turn off heat and add the flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball. Return to medium heat to dry the paste so it will have the maximum puffing ability: turn the ball around in the pan, pressing it against the sides and flipping it over, until butter starts oozing out and the paste no longer sticks to your fingers. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. Turn the paste into a medium bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle and beat in the eggs, one at a time, with a wooden spoon or the paddle. Each time you add an egg, the mixture will become slippery and messy but will then come together, at which point you can add the next egg.
• Load mixture into pastry bag with a round tip (1/2 or 1-inch depending on size puff desired) and pipe out as required. It will give the fullest puff if used right away but can be held for several hours.
• Basic proportions for Pate a Choux are 1:1:1:1/2, or 1 cup liquid, 1 cup flour:1 cup egg:1/2 cup butter. Water makes choux more crisp, milk makes them more tender,
• Puffs expand when cooked as water in batter turns to steam and explodes the dough.
• Pate a choux is an extremely versatile pastry that can be the base of many sweet and savory dishes. It can take many forms: be poached as gnocchi, baked to form hollow puffy balls that can be filled with various things, or fried as fritters and sprinkled with sugar. It is neutral in flavor so is adaptable to any cuisine.

FRENCH CRULLERS

Steps:

• 1. Place the water, butter, sugar, and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a brisk boil over medium high heat. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely incorporated. Continue to cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes to steam away as much water as possible. The more moisture you can remove, the more eggs you can add later and the lighter your pastry will be. The mixture is ready when a thin film coats the bottom of the pan.
• 2. Move the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Although you can mix the pâte à choux by hand, this can be rather arduous, so use a mixer if you have one. Stir the mixture for about 1 minute to allow it to cool. Then mix on medium speed and add the first egg. Let it mix in completely and then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining eggs, one at a time, and mix in completely. Add the egg whites, a little at a time, until the paste becomes smooth and glossy and will hold a slight peak when pinched with your fingers. Be careful not to add too much egg white or your crullers will become heavy. Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star piping tip.
• 3. To fry the crullers, heat at least 2 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until a deep-fat thermometer registers 370°F. While the oil is heating, cut out twelve 3-by-3-inch squares of parchment paper and lightly grease them. Pipe a ring onto each square. When the oil is hot, place one cruller at a time in the oil, paper side up. Remove the paper with tongs. Fry on each side until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel for at least 1 minute. Once cool to the touch, the crullers can be glazed.
• Crullers also bake very well, although they will have slightly firmer crusts than the fried versions. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe the crullers onto it, at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, open the oven door slightly and let the crullers sit in the cooling oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove, dip in glaze, and cool on a rack until the glaze has set.
• Beignets, the classic New Orleans fried dough treats, use this same batter and are even easier to prepare. Simply drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the batter into the oil. As the dough puffs, the beignets will turn themselves over-but keep an eye on them and flip any that need a little help.

PâTE à CHOUX

Steps:

• Bring to boil the water, with butter and salt over high heat in a deep, wide pot or pan (we use a soup pot for its wider surface area).
• Add flour, reduce heat by 1/4 and stir vigorously and continuously to form a smooth, uniform dough, about a minute or 90 seconds. Take care not to scrape up the crust that forms on the bottom of the pan or reintroduce dry bits back into your smooth paste.
• Transfer to a mixing bowl, and vigorously beat in the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each egg before you add the next, ending with a sticky, smooth, tender and matte paste.
• Heat oven to 350, and place rack in middle.
• Transfer the choux paste into two disposable plastic piping bags, unequally divided; put 4 ounces (or about a cup) in one for the necks and the bulk of the paste in the other to form the bodies of the swans.
• Prepare two half-sheet pans by greasing and fitting with parchment. (Or use silpats; the greasing is only to keep the parchment from slipping when you are trying to pull your tip away during piping.)
• Cut just the very tip off the pastry bag with the smaller quantity, leaving the diameter of the opening quite small - just wide enough to pass a whole peppercorn or a lentil, for example.
• On one of the prepared sheet pans, pipe big, exaggerated question marks, like the ones on the deck of "Chance" cards in Monopoly. Start each question mark with a short drag of the tip against the parchment, creating a tiny beak as you go. There is ample paste to make mistakes and to practice - you will have plenty of necks even if you mess up a few.
• Now cut the tip of the other pastry bag with the bulk of the paste to leave the opening circumference about the size of a dime. Leaving a 1/2 inch between them, pipe plump little 2-to-3-inch teardrops of dough onto the other prepared sheet pan. I make some a little bigger than others so I can end up with cobs and pens - males and females - just for fun.
• Put both sheet pans into the oven together, and bake the bodies and necks for 8 to 10 minutes, until the necks are fully golden brown, leaving the oven door closed the whole time.
• Remove the necks, and linger for a few seconds with the oven door open, allowing the steam to escape. Close the door again, and finish baking the bodies 25 to 35 minutes more, until they're fully golden brown and toasted. Shut off oven, and let swans dry inside for 20 minutes before removing.
• With a small, sharp knife, slice the domes off the bodies of the swans, and cut them in half, creating two wings, placing them back into the cavity of the swan for now.
• Run the tiny tips of the necks through a flame - a candle or match or Bic lighter are all fine - to briefly blacken. They often catch on fire; blow them out!
• Fill the bodies with diplomat cream, place the wings cut edge up in the cavity, place the necks and gently dust with powdered sugar.