The incredible dough with the funny name

If you’ve come around here with any regularity you know that cooking is a big release for me. I love trying new things in the kitchen and surprising friends and family.

Back in the early of December my wife was working a stretch of third shift, which meant she got home a little after seven in the morning and would go straight to bed. During the quiet hours when she’d still be sleeping and little man would be down for his nap I would bide my time reading blogs when I came across a blog post by author Michael Ruhlman about a simple pastry dough called Pate a Choux.

Ordinarily baking isn’t my domain, but I was bored and eager to add something new to my repertoire. Also, I had a lot of time to kill.

While it has a funny name, this very simple cream puff dough is amazingly versatile in both sweet and savory applications. In his blog post Ruhlman outlined just a few of the many different uses from making gourgeres (cheese puffs), cream puffs and eclairs, dumplings for soups, and even as an ingredient in meat loaf.

In his latest book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Ruhlman espouses the idea that if you know the ratios for things you don’t need to memorize recipes. Armed with this new knowledge I set off for the comfort of my kitchen to make Pate a Choux for the very first time.

The batch that I made started with 1/2 cup of unsalted butter melted into 1 cup of water, which was then combined with 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of eggs.  You could easily halve or double the batch because the basic ratio behind the dough is easy to remember. After letting it rest, I put it in a plastic bag, cut off one of the corners and piped it out onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

While the dough can be as sticky as mastik, it is still relatively easy to work with and after about 25 minutes in the oven (10 minutes at 425 degrees, then 15 minutes at 350 degrees) I had perfectly cooked pastry puffs. Before I baked them I sprinkled some grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese on half of them, while I left the rest plain so I could fill them with whipped cream.

After making Pate a Choux the first time I became obsessed with it and tried out many of the various applications. Since then I’ve made gougeres, cream puffs, eclairs, parisienne gnocchi and even replaced the day old bread in my meatball recipe with half a batch of the dough.

Before actually trying it I never would have believed it, but the Pate a Choux helped me make the most tender, delicate meatballs I’ve ever made in my life. Who knew that a French pastry dough would improve my Italian grandmother’s recipe?

So far my favorite application has been the basic, yet delicious cream puff, which I made for a dinner party I had for some friends over the holidays. I filled them with chocolate whipped cream and topped them with a dark chocolate sauce.

To illustrate how easy it is to make this dough I’m going to shoot some video for the peaches en risotto blog that I hope to have up next week.

If you are looking for a new way to surprise your family, then I highly encourage you to give Pate a Choux a try. It will only take about 35 minutes of your time and I assure you, your effort will be rewarded.

UPDATE: My video post about Pate a Choux is up over at peaches en risotto now!