I like to think that I'm adventurous in the kitchen, so I thought I'd challenge myself and make a French staple that I didn't get to try in France: Chouquettes! This was my first time trying my hand at any sort of bread-y pastry--seriously, you guys, not even a homemade pizza dough. Pâte à choux is one of the in-betweeners of the baking world, stuck in the land of not-quite-breads and not-quite-pastries. So for my intents and purposes it's going down in the mange tout dictionary as a "bread-y pastry". In any case, it's delicious and worth the effort. Not gonna lie, it's a pretty hefty task, making homemade pâte à choux---on a scale of homemade pasta to homemade puff pastry, i'd say it lands in the middle, BUT don't be intimidated(!) it's most defenitely doable.
This recipe is originally from this book (which my thoughtful and AWESOME sister gave me for christmas).The book is geared towards, well, "the professional pastry chef", the bakers, the fine people that need batches large enough to fill bakery racks, but the great thing about this book is that it also includes 'small-batch' measurements for every recipe, which work great for any not-so professional pastry chef. And, even greater, I found this post by Beth of A Bread A Day on working with this recipe, which turned out to be immensely helpful on account of her step-by-step guidance and visual aids--due to my insufferable desire for artsy photography for this blog, my visuals are not so aid-y, so feel free to head over to her post for a more detailed visual walk-through.
Pate à choux is the pastry used to make cheese puffs (gougères) and éclairs (... and also these things), I went for making the traditional chouquettes, better know as cream puffs, but not always filled with cream, so just 'puffs'? yes, puffs, filled with almond cream.
It is quite an elaborate production to make these little guys, but trust me, it is so so worth it.
read on for recipe and method
