Choux pastries - general principles and methods of cooking
Verbs, balls, rings, horseshoes, sticks - the form of a custard cake can be the most diverse. After all, the dough is quite thick and with a pastry bag or syringe it can be removed in the most bizarre way. The cake is a hollow bowl filled with a delicious filling - custard cream, butter, curd cream, with condensed milk, from whipped proteins, even ice cream.
By the way, cakes do not always have a sweet filling. If they are served as an appetizer, then fill it with a salty cheese mass, pate, caviar with butter, salads. Choux pastries come in very small sizes - no more than two or four centimeters in diameter, they are called profiteroles. They are usually decorated with festive tables for banquets, buffets. Cakes, a little more profit-sized in size, are called eclairs. Usually they have the form of sticks. Round cakes are called “shu”, although in everyday life the word “eclair” has stuck so much that they call any custard cakes. Sweet custards are coated with chocolate icing, fudge, sprinkled with powdered sugar, ground nuts.
Choux pastries - food preparation
Cakes are pretty easy to make yourself. For some reason, some are afraid to mess with the custard dough, thinking that this is a difficult process. And there is nothing complicated. First, the flour must be boiled in boiling water with salt and melted fat — margarine or butter, and when the mass has cooled slightly, add the eggs. Therefore, the dough is called custard, because It is brewed in boiling water.
With thorough stirring, the mass must be kept on low heat for a minute or two and a half, then the dishes are removed from the stove and continue to knead. At first, the dough does not look very attractive. As soon as the mass becomes elastic, shiny, homogeneous, kneading is stopped.
Allow to cool slightly and begin to inject eggs one by one. Initially, the mass will be bad to connect - the eggs separately, the dough separately. But with constant stirring, the egg is completely absorbed. Once it is absorbed, and the mass becomes homogeneous, introduce the next egg, and so on. The principle is this - the next egg is driven in when the previous one is absorbed. Choux dough is ready.
If it is too thick, you can hammer another egg, but if it is liquid, this cannot be corrected, therefore, when inserting eggs, you need to monitor the consistency of the dough in order to stop in time, even if not all eggs are entered using a recipe. Now it remains to put on a baking sheet and bake. When baking, the product is increased two to three times, therefore, setting the cakes on a baking sheet, between them you must leave a distance of about four to five centimeters. The baking tray with cakes should be placed only in a well-heated oven. Products are ready when they increase in size and become a dark ash color.
Choux pastries - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Brewed cakes with condensed milk cream
Choux pastries are delicious in themselves, and the filling of condensed milk, a favorite treat from childhood, makes their taste divine. They have only one drawback - they are very nutritious. Therefore, those who follow the diet should be careful: after eating one cake, it will be impossible to stop.
Ingredients: dough - a glass of water and flour, 100g of margarine, ½ tsp. lie salt, 4 eggs. Cream - can of condensed milk (400g), a pack of butter (200g).
Cooking method
Pour water into a cauldron, add salt and sliced margarine. Over high heat bring to a boil. As the mixture boils, reduce the fire to a minimum and add flour. Brew with continuous stirring for about two minutes. Remove the cauldron from the heat and rub the mass until it becomes elastic. Cover and let the dough cool (about ten to twelve minutes) so that the eggs do not clot.
Put all the eggs one by one into the still warm dough, carefully rubbing the mass. Put the products on a sheet of baking sheet, grease it with oil, and bake for 15-20 minutes at 220 ° C until they rise, then reduce the temperature to 180 ° C and bake for another ten minutes. Allow to cool and incise the tip to fill the filling.
Cook cream: soften butter, mix with condensed milk and fill cakes. To taste, pre-condensed milk can boil for two or three hours.
Recipe 2: Choux pastry with custard
Custard - a classic of the genre. With him, perhaps, get the most delicious cakes. To give them the status of elegance and nobility, pouring cakes should not be fudge, not icing, but real melted chocolate. A white or black - let everyone be determined to your taste.
Ingredients: a glass of flour, half a glass of water and milk, 4 eggs, 100g of butter, a pinch of salt. Cream - 0.5 liters of milk, 2/3 stack. sugar, no slides 2-3 table. lie flour, 2 eggs, vanilla sugar - 1 bag (or ½ vanilla pod), a pack of butter (200g). Decoration - 1.5 bars of chocolate (150g).
Cooking method
At first it is worth making a cream, because until it cools, you can bake eclairs.
For the cream, boil the milk with vanilla and half a serving of sugar. Mix flour, eggs and the rest of the sugar, grind thoroughly and pour hot sweet milk into the mixture. Mass put on fire, constantly stirring and keep until thick, not allowing it to boil. You can cook in a water bath. As the cream is almost completely cooled, put the softened butter in it, mix with a whisk so that the mass becomes fluffy and homogeneous. Close the lid and put in the cold.
For dough, pour water and milk into a cauldron, add salt and butter, put on fire. As the water boils, pour the whole portion of flour and stir quickly, without ceasing, for about a minute or two, reducing the heat to minimum. Well made dough should easily fall behind the walls. Remove it from the stove and cool to a warm state. Introduce all the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly each time.
Cover the baking sheet with a sheet of baking paper or brush with butter and deposit the dough. Bake at a constant temperature (190C) - 30-35 minutes. Or, first, bake at 220 ° C for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then reduce the degrees to 160 ° C and bake for another ten or fifteen minutes.
Fill the cakes with cream: cut the top off and fill with a spoon or fill a small pastry syringe with a small hole. Sprinkle chocolate over the top of the water bath.
Recipe 3: Choux pastry with curd cream
Almost classic choux pastry, only mixed not with butter, but with vegetable oil. A soft curd cake melts itself in the mouth, leaving behind pleasant memories and a slight vanilla-creamy aftertaste.
Ingredients: dough - a glass of water and flour, 4 eggs, half a cup of vegetable oil, a pinch of salt. Cream - 300 g of fat cottage cheese, 200 ml of fat sour cream (or thick cream), vanilla sugar, a glass of powdered sugar.
Cooking method
In a cauldron mix water, oil and salt, bring to a boil. Pour the flour and brew the dough, stirring, over low heat for about a couple of minutes. Cool a little and drive all eggs on it.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (220С), then reduce the fire to 180С and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
For cream cheese, grind with powdered sugar, vanilla, cream (whisk in advance) or sour cream to a gentle homogeneous consistency. Fill it with a spoon eclairs, cutting off the top. Instead of powder, you can take sugar, just rubbing the cream will take longer to dissolve the grains.
Choux pastries - useful tips from experienced chefs
- In order for freshly baked cakes not to settle, you need to make two or three punctures with a toothpick so that the steam comes out faster.
- For brewing dough, it is better to use a cast iron or thick bottom dishes so that the mass does not burn.
- If you do not have a pastry syringe for dropping dough or filling products with cream, you can use a plastic bag from milk or kefir, cutting off one corner.
- To ensure that the cake rises well during baking, and that a void is formed inside, you cannot open the oven for the first fifteen minutes.
- Dump out the dough on a sheet of baking sheet can be two teaspoons or tablespoons. One needs to scoop the dough, and the second - scrape it off the spoon. So that the mass does not stick, spoons can be dipped in cold water.
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