Pate a Chou and Crème Patissiere

Éclairs and cream puffs.

         This is a long post, which is fitting because it is a long process to make these recipes, One that I’m not sure is worth it for me. I worked on making these for the better part of about two day. I am however, glad I have made these. To make pate a Chou and pastry cream is (in my humble opinion) a must for a person who wants to be considered a baker. It is a labor and like most French food that I’ve experienced, simple and complex at the same time. I must admit  though, that I am not as fanatical about éclairs and cream puffs as other people I know. They are enjoyable and yummy. But I find the versatility of the recipes far more appealing than eating these two treats. Pate a Chou can be used for many desserts yes, but it is also great for savory foods. For instance, one could add herbs to the dough and fill them with crab salad. 

A few points of interest to the prospective preparer of profiterole, crème puffs or éclairs:

 Make the pastry cream first- that’s all. Do it first.

Mix the dough by hand or use a mixer?: I mixed everything by hand including the dough (I rant more about this later) the dough has to be mixed by hand while on the stove but once it comes to the egg adding part, one could use a mixer, be it stand or hand.

Make small batched- no, seriously. I developed blisters on my hand mixing the dough. It would have been less strenuous in smaller batches.

Crème Patissiere

A quick search of the conveniently located Internet yields a wealth of recipes and information.  In my hunt I saw a few variances on pastry cream, those that use cornstarch to thicken and those that use flour. The use of cornstarch will cause the mixture to thicken quickly, under a minute kind of quickly but, you pay for that in texture. It is still yummy but one can feel the cornstarch. The use of flour will give a smoother more velvety final product but, it takes more patients in preparation. Other variables include what type of dairy. Some use cream, other half and half and other use milk and some call for the addition of butter and extracts to finish. 

But being a person who has been cooking several years, I have a fair collection of cook books. I ventured into my library and pulled one of my favorites, Larousse Gastronomique. It is more or less a hefty lesson on all things related to the French table and cooking packed into a mere 1000 pages. While my edition, printed in 1961, has instructions printed in English thankfully, it maintains the proper French names for all of the recipes. I often fancy things with a vintage. So, I chose to go with a recipe in the book. It called for the use of flour, It was the oldest I could find and it methods were preferable to me.

You have to make the Pastry Cream first. It needs to chill over night.

o    2 Cups Whole milk

o    ½ half vanilla bean

o    6 Eggs Yolks

o    1 Tablespoon butter- good quality

o    ½ Cup flour

o    1 Cup Sugar

Begin by putting the milk and vanilla bean in a pan and put it on medium heat.

In a heavy pan whisk together everything else. Paying close attention to not burn the milk, bring it to a boil. Then temper into the egg mixture. Over medium heat brings this to a boil, stirring constantly. For the last few minutes I used a whisk but the rest of the time I used a silicone spatula. After it thickens, pass the crème through a sieve into a bowl and chill.

When I made this, I made a double batch.

Pate a Chou II

For the pastry I relied on Larousse Gastronomique again. This dough it used for many things both savory and sweet.  I did look around on the Internet at various recipes to see what they said but settled on the recipe from the above-mentioned book.  Many of the recipes I saw called for bread flour or cake flour rather than all-purpose or surprisingly small amounts of eggs. The recipe from the book used all-purpose, so I did too.

I made the recipe as printed. One could divide the recipe by half which would equate in fewer cream puffs or éclairs but who wants fewer of either of those? But, honestly unless you have supreme upper body strength (or a mixer)I would recommend that you do divide it.  Because mixing 4 cups of milk into 4 cups of flour isn’t simple. And it doesn’t get any simpler when mixing in the FOURTEEN eggs, one at a time nonetheless.

o    Four cups whole milk

o    ¾ cup butter- good quality

o    1 ½ teaspoons salt- I used Fleur de Sel.

o    4 ¾ Cups Flour

o    12-14 Eggs- good quality

The method is pretty simple but, intensive. First, in a heavy bottom saucepan, bring to a boil the milk, butter and salt. While that is heating sift the flour.  When the milk mixture boils, remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon Return to the heat and keep stirring, continually. 

Cook until the dough pulls away from the pan. The purpose of cooking it at this point is to cook the flour. Once the dough comes together and forms a ball, keep stirring and cooking a few more minutes. 

Then pull the pan off the heat and start beat vigorously, start adding eggs one at a time. Fully incorporate each egg before adding the next.   

When all the eggs are fully mixed in and the dough is smooth transfer some of the dough into a piping bag. I used disposable piping bags and a cloth one. I suggest the disposable ones and I don't use a tip, just cut the tip to the size desired.  Pipe onto parchment lined pan in desired shape. It helps to use water to make the parchment stay in place while piping. Smooth the point of each on using your fingertip dipped into water. Then egg- wash each one. I will admit that getting the piping correct took me until my very last pan.

 Egg Wash- 2 egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of cream or milk.

Bake in a 425º oven for 15 minutes THEN drop the temperature to 350º and continue baking for 15-20 more minutes. The high heat gives the lift and sets the dough while the lower temperature dries the pastry. Be sure not to short them on the baking time. I think a few of my batches were a bit under baked. The desired outcome is that they be light, dry and almost crisp. If you thump on the bottom and it sounds hollow, it’s done.  When they are done remove from oven and let cool. They cool relatively quickly.

Once the shells and the pastry crème are chilled, the two may be brought together! To fill the éclairs,  cut them open length-wise and pipe in some crème, using a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice. To fill the crème puffs, use a star tip on the bag and use the point to poke through the bottom and fill each. Top the éclairs with gancahe and the cream puffs with a dusting of powdered sugar.

For the chocolate topping I used a ganache. This deviated from the information in the book. The recipe there in is a mixture of chocolate and sugar syrup cooked to short thread stage.  A ganache is Chocolate and heavy cream. Some people add butter, vanilla or corn syrup to ganache.  Generally speaking, I do not. For this I added a bit of honey.

Ganache-

o    3.5 oz of good quality dark chocolate

o    2-3 Tablespoons of Heavy cream

o    About a tablespoon of honey or Golden syrup, if desired. This will result in a softer final product.