You may have just stumbled across our blog or you may be an avid follower of Perfectly Pastry. Either way we want to say welcome. We are a local bakery who started doing wholesale and selling to local customers. We then saved up money and moved into a rented space at our commercial kitchen. Now we run our storefront and wholesale business in St. Louis, MO.
Through our journey we have been sharing everything that we have learned to help other bakers and bakery entrepreneurs grow their business or just plain improve their baking skills. We get questions from our audience all the time through email and social media.
The other day we received this question in our inbox. Now I (the nonbaking president of the company) have always found the thought of pate a choux dough intriguing since my mom (our pastry chef) was in school. The thought of a twice baked dough always stuck with me.
Fast-forward to few weeks ago my daughter started asking about beignets and wanted to make them. She found this “recipe” on TikTok that she wanted to try. Let’s just say it was more like a fried biscuit than a beignet. I told her that we would call “Nana” and have her show us how to make a true pate a choux dough for our beignets.
It was pretty ironic when a reader messaged us a few days later on IG [LINK] asking us if we had any tips or tricks on how to do pate a choux. She was having an issue getting her recipe to turn out perfect every time. So, I asked my mom what tips she had for our fellow baker when it came to perfecting her pate a choux dough.
Now the tips below may seem intimidating, but I promise you they are not. Both my 12 year old and I (nonbaker) made the dough using the tips and tricks provided below. If we can do it, then you will be able to master it too.
Tips To Make The Perfect Choux Pastry Dough:
- It is really important that you use a strong flour that is high in gluten like bread flour.
- Make sure all the butter is melted in that water and that the water is boiling.
- As soon as the butter is melted and the water is boiling, add the flour.
- Stir, stir vigorously until all the liquid is absorbed. Continue to stir and cook for about 1 minute until it forms a ball and pulls away from the side of the pan.
- Then put it in a mixer. Start whipping it with the paddle. Let it cool slightly before adding the eggs so that you don’t cook the eggs. Your mixer bowl can be warm but not where it burns your hands when you touch it.
- Make sure to add one egg at a time until it is completely incorporated. If you do not add one at a time and let completely incorporate or your batter will break. The number of eggs you use will vary based on the size of the eggs.
- Stop adding eggs when the dough just begins to fall away from the beaters.
- Pate a choux dough should never be runny. It is smooth and pliable and will hold its shape.
Tips For Baking Pate A Choux Dough
Now that you know how to make the perfect choux pastry dough, our pastry chef provided a few tips on how she bakes the perfect pate a choux dough. She said she always bakes at 400 degrees for 15 mins and then reduces the heat to 350 for another 35 mins for a pastry like eclairs. DO NOT open the oven door in between.
