Pichet Ong's Pate Choux

[spaghetttti]

Daniel, here are the two things :

I didn't do the egg wash (had the little bowl right next to me, but completely forgot), and.......

I didn't leave them in the oven long enough (they're suppossed to be deep golden brown, but due to personal preference, I do seem to like my puffs a bit on the pale side)..

If you do decide to bake them, what will you fill them with?

Edited October 24, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[Daniel]

If i decide to bake them and they come out anywhere as good as yours or Patricks, I will happily cross that bridge when I come to it..

Edited October 24, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Patrick S]

Patrick is a P I M P when it comes to baking so. . .

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Well, my stand mixer does have hydraulics and a large subwoofer, and sure, I do pipe choux paste from a jewel-encrusted pastry bag, but my pastry pimpology leaves much to be desired.

[tan319]

Patrick is a P I M P when it comes to baking so. . .

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Well, my stand mixer does have hydraulics and a large subwoofer, and sure, I do pipe choux paste from a jewel-encrusted pastry bag, but my pastry pimpology leaves much to be desired.

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I think you're wayyyy too modest not to mention that you're a P I M P on the Photography

Phront too ( true P I M P S have to 'P' all 'F's, yo???).

Spaghetttti is 'pimpin' on the the photography too!

[Malawry]

I made these the other day. They really are delicious hot out of the oven--I normally don't much care for plain choux buns but these were so fabulous that I had to force my own mitts off of them. I had to bake them for a LOT longer than recommended though. They were too wet and not yet hollowed out after 30min and I thought they were a lot better with 30-40 minutes at the lower temp. (I was not using convection.)

[forever_young_ca]

I think they will make for awesome gougeres

I am planning to make cheese gourgeres to serve with pre dinner drinks this weekend.

I would like to try this recipe, but am wondering if the sweetened condensed milk will be to sweet for a savory bite and how much cheese I should add?

[Patrick S]

These choux puffs are not sweet. The 2T of sweetened condensed milk contains maybe a little over 1T of sugar, which is not enough to make them sweet. I would add about 3-5ozs of cheese to make the gougeres, and sprinkle some on top before baking.

[forever_young_ca]

My standby cheese gourgeres from the French Laundry cookbook calls for 5 oz (1 1/4 cups of gruyere) for 4 eggs, so I think I will try that. I may add a hint of mustard to the batter to give it a bit of a lift. What do you think of a bit of Dijon in the batter?

[Patrick S]

What do you think of a bit of Dijon in the batter?

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I've never tried Dijon in choux batter, so I don't know if it would affect the way they bake.

[Wendy DeBord]

You can add mustard, either wet or dry. Just not too much as to effect the proportions of the recipe moisture wise. You can also add seasonings as in herbs, garlic, onion, etc... and egg wash the top and sprinkle more on before baking.

P.S. Personally I wouldn't use Ong's recipe for gougeres. It does have a sweet taste in your mouth when baked regardless of how little sweetened condensed milk it has. I'd choose a drier fimer pate choux recipe as my base to add cheese too. Ong's recipe will taste great fresh out of the oven as a gougere but I fear that when it sits and then gets reheated it will become a bit too soft.

[Patrick S]

Maybe you're more sensitive to sugar than me, or used a SCM that has more sugar. They didn't taste at all sweet to me.

[Ling]

I finally got around to trying out this recipe--it's fabulous! It turned out nicer-looking puffs than the other recipes I've tried (I've only tried two other recipes before, though.)

I baked them for 12 minutes at 400, then only 15 minutes at 350 and they were done and hollowed out. They are tasty! I used a Chinese brand condensed milk (called "Longevity") and the puffs were barely sweet. I think they're fine to use with a savoury filling.

Here's a pic:

[kaneel]

NIce looking cream puff, Ling! Did oyu fill them with something?

I made some about a month ago ....wow these are really good!!!

They were filled with almond pastry cream, whipped chocolate ganache and flavored whipped cream. I was planning on making a croquembouche but my firends and i only made to the second layer.

I really liked the whipped cream filling, soft and creamy covered with the crunchy caramel layer.

HAs anyone here made a croguembouche before? I had trouble taking the cream puffs apart....I don't know if it had to do with the caramel if the sugar had reached the hard crack stage. I had to keep warming the caramel in the microwave because it would harden up on me.

Ashiana

[Ling]

This was just a "test" batch (I made the whole recipe, but there are only, like, 5 left on the plate--my mom and I were eating them hot out of the oven) so I didn't fill them with anything. I am still trying to get the hang of using a piping bag...so these were just for practice. Plus, I wanted to see if I could use them with a savoury filling.

Actually, I made these today b/c I watched Harry Potter 4 on Friday and there's this scene where they have amazing croquembouche on the dining tables, and I was thinking of this recipe when I saw that!

For Christmas, I'm planning to do a batch of these filled with smoked salmon cream cheese and dill, and also do another batch for part of my dessert buffet. I will probably do something simple, like a flavoured whipped cream, and them top them with chocolate glaze. Or perhaps chocolate mousse.

[amccomb]

I was thinking about making these (my first time making pate choux!) and filling them with this pumpkin mousse and drizzling them with caramel for a party this weekend. The recipe recommends chilling the mousse for at least 3 hours to firm up before serving. Should I pipe the filling into the puffs before chilling and then chill the puff and all, or should I wait until the mousse has set up and then pipe it in?

Also, any advice on filling these? Should I cut them in half with a serrated knife, or just punch a hole in with the tip of the pastry bag and then fill it, or...?

[Patrick S]

HAs anyone here made a croguembouche before? I had trouble taking the cream puffs apart....I don't know if it had to do with the caramel if the sugar had reached the hard crack stage. I had to keep warming the caramel in the microwave because it would harden up on me.

Ashiana

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You can find some really good threads on croquembouche using the search functions. I believe there was a long thread active on this forum about a year ago.

amccomb, you don't need to go to the trouble of cutting them in half. What I did was just kind of twist the tip into the bag into the puffs. If you find that this pushes your tip back up into the bag, then just pre-hole-poke your puffs with another tip.

[spaghetttti]

<snip....>

For Christmas, I'm planning to do a batch of these filled with smoked salmon cream cheese and dill, and also do another batch for part of my dessert buffet. I will probably do something simple, like a flavoured whipped cream, and them top them with chocolate glaze. Or perhaps chocolate mousse. 

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Lorna, your puff looks great and that filling of smoked salmon cream cheese and dill sounds fantastic. Something I'd like to copy if I may

Here are some of the puffs I made following Chef Ong's recipe (with a tuna salad filling). I used locally made Carnation brand scm, which is not very sweet. So, the pate choux is excellent for both sweet and savory applications.

Edited December 13, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[Ling]

I baked off six racks of pate choux today. They are going in the freezer now, and will be filled with salmon mousse for Christmas dinner.

The bottoms of my puffs are browning too quickly. They aren't burnt, but they're dark brown. I am baking on ungreased parchment paper. Is it my oven?

[nightscotsman]

Ling - are you baking in a convection or deck oven? We get good, even results in our convection at 360 for 30 minutes, baking frozen, raw, dough on ungreased parchment.

[Ling]

I'm baking from a deck oven (a regular home oven).

I find that if I bake them at 400 for 7-8 minutes, and then 25 minutes at 350, the bottoms are golden brown, which is how I want them. The tops, however, are more pale.

When I bake them for the full 10 minutes at 400, and then 25 minutes at 350, the tops are a beautiful deep brown, but the bottoms are very, very dark. I had to pare away some of the bottom, because they were bitter.

[mochihead]

Ling - what kind of pans are you using? If you're using dark non-stick pans, they will tend to darken the bottoms faster than the tops. If you're using regular non-stick pans, have you tried using silpat or a double pan to bake with to provide some insulation against the direct heat?

[Ling]

I used a Silpat the last time I made them, but they turned out the same way. I had them in the middle rack that time. Today I used parchment and regular non-stick pans, and put them on a higher rack in the oven.

[CanadianBakin']

You might need to get some shiny aluminum pans to use with parchment. The commercial grade 18x13 sheet pans at Russell Food Equipment (in Vancouver) are around $9.

[Ling]

I have a shiny alumininum pan, but it's the one we use for roasting meat (i.e. they have 3" sides.) Would that work?

[CanadianBakin']

I have a shiny alumininum pan, but it's the one we use for roasting meat (i.e. they have 3" sides.) Would that work?

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It would probably work best if you used it upside-down. Just put a bit of pan spray under your parchment so it doesn't slide off. I don't think they would brown or crisp properly with 3"sides.