Chocolate pate choux or the dough for cream puffs and éclairs, is a chocolate lover's delight, especially when paired with a chocolate pudding or chocolate pastry cream filling and chocolate frosting on top. Making this treat requires quite a bit of elbow grease, giving your arm a good workout as you stir the mixture first to dry it out then again to incorporate the eggs. A kitchen stand mixer makes it easier to add the eggs; however, you can certainly make chocolate pate choux with a sturdy wooden spoon.
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit as you prepare the pate choux.
Step 2
Pour the water, butter, salt and sugar into the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium-high heat.
Step 3
Add the bread flour and natural cocoa powder in the small bowl. Mix.
Step 4
Remove the boiling mixture from the stove, then pour in your dry mixture.
Step 5
Use a large wooden spoon to fully mix all the ingredients in the pot.
Step 6
Reduce the heat to medium heat and return the pot to the stove.
Step 7
Move and fold the paste around the pot continuously, drying it out and preventing it from burning.
Step 8
Remove the pot from the stove when the dough leaves a thin film at the bottom of the pot -- about 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 9
Continue to stir the dough around the pot with the wooden spoon or transfer the dough to the bowl of the stand mixer; stir or beat the dough for 3 to 5 minutes to release some of the heat.
Step 10
Crack 1 egg into a coffee cup and beat with a fork, then add it to the dough.
Step 11
Mix the egg into the dough completely before adding another egg. Repeat this process for the third and fourth eggs.
Step 12
Check the consistency of the pate choux; it should be like a very thick muffin batter, holding its shape on a spoon but still soft.
Step 13
Beat the fifth egg in the coffee cup if your mixture still looks and feels like soft dough instead of thick batter.
Step 14
Use a dinner spoon to pour half of the egg into the pate choux. Check the consistency again. Continue adding the rest of the fifth egg and perhaps even a portion of the sixth egg until you reach the right consistency.
Step 15
Spread a 2-foot sheet of plastic wrap on your counter. Drop just under a ½ cup of pate choux at the center of the plastic wrap.
Step 16
Roll the plastic wrap over the choux, twisting the ends like bubble gum and tucking the ends under the mound of choux. Snip one end, inserting this end first into a cake decorating bag fitted with a large star or round tip and a coupler.
Step 17
Pipe the pate choux in small mounds on non-stick, parchment paper-lined baking sheets spaced about 2 inches apart.
Step 18
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for 15 more minutes. Crack the door open during the last five minutes of baking to help dry out the puffs.
Tips and Warnings
- If you end up with a runny pate choux batter that will not hold a piped shape, line regular muffin pans with paper liners. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake as directed. The pate choux will not hold the large shape of muffins, but you should have enough space to fill the choux.
Things You'll Need
- Heavy-duty, 4-qt. pot
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 9 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. granulated sugar
- Small bowl
- 1 cup bread flour
- 3 tbsp. natural cocoa powder
- Large wooden spoon
- Stand mixer
- 6 eggs
- Coffee cup
- Fork
- Dinner spoon
- Plastic wrap
- Cake decorating bag
- Cake decorating tip and coupler
- Non-stick parchment paper
- Baking sheet
References
- "Dessert Circus"; Jacques Torres; 1998
- "How Baking Works, Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science"; Paula Figoni; 2008
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