The CookingBites Cookalong: Choux Pastry

This time I still used the same recipe but followed my gut after reading a few articles in particular the one @morning glory pointed me in the direction of.

  • So the batter was too thick last time as I thought it was at the time. The finger was too long at 12cm to get 8 adequately thick strips of batter/dough.
  • I added in 1/4tsp of Xantham gum to the cornflour .
  • I actually used 2 large eggs this time not the one the recipe states, roughly 60g each and the shells weighed in at 7g (something I must look into, they seem a little thin but it is the end of the laying season and time for the 'orrible moult). My batter therefore weighed much more this time than last time, 235g instead of 176g. As a result, I aimed for 30g per finger of dough instead of 20g knowing that this would not make 8. It made 6 fingers and 1 blob, so I guess after weighing the first 1, I must have become a little heavy handed! It should have made for 7 full sized and 1 slightly skinny one. It seems that I used between 35-40g per finger.
  • And I ignored the totally irrational instructions of starting with 180°C and increasing to 200°C after 10 minutes, and just did 15mins at 200°C (fan assisted), then wedged the door ajar and turned the oven off leaving them in for an hour before removing which was really difficult.
  • I also managed to overheat my stick blender so had to do the final egg into batter mix by hand. Oops.
Much as before, hot fat and boiling water into cornflour
DSC_4000.JPG

Then egg beaten into that mixture (first image is first attempt which failed, second image is second attempt which...)
DSC_3971.JPG DSC_4002.JPG
It's yellower, glossier and floppier, but still holding its shape.

Piping the fingers out using a plastic bag.
Again first image is first attempt, clearly in getting better with practice and apologies for the second picture being through the oven door. I forgot to photo them before putting them into a hot oven.

DSC_3979.JPG DSC_4005.JPG

And so after 15 mins at 200°C, then in the oven for another hour (turned off) with the door ajar, I have these .

DSC_4012.JPG

DSC_4019.JPG

They are slightly soft inside but crisp on the outside. Just starting to brown which seems to be a no no, but so what. They actually rose !

Success

:woot:
 
Last edited:
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
It's the replacing butter that doesn't work. Butter is not pure fat in the same way that vegetable fat like Trex or the ones in using here are 100%, mine is coconut oil hardly surprisingly. A direct replacement of these doesn't work especially in pastry. You basically end up with too much fat and not enough water using a direct replacement. Also because butter and milk contain protein and nut milks in particular do not, you can't always successfully substitute these directly either . Mostly it is better to substitute with soya milk because it has protein in it, but that still leaves you with the butter issues.
Click to expand...

Maybe the addition of oil replacing the vegetable fat could work?
 
Last edited:
MypinchofItaly said:
Maybe the addition of oil replacing the vegetable fat it could work?
Click to expand...
Oil will leave you with more problems here because you need a solid fat due to the nature of the fat, and tbh even if I was using refined coconut oil, I'd still have the issue of replacing something that is only 66% (I don't know the exact figure off the top of my head) with something that is 100% fat. That is the main issue with all pastry making trying to get it dairy free. You can't just take a dairy pastry recipe and do direct swaps with hard fats such as butter. It's why I usually purchase our dairy free pastry . Some of my sweet shortcrust pastry had been closer to bring sweet shortbread ! (they are biscuits I used to be very fond of ). :whistling:
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
This time I still used the same recipe but followed my gut after reading a few articles in particular the one @morning glory pointed me in the direction of.

  • So the batter was too thick last time as I thought it was at the time. The finger was too long at 12cm to get 8 adequately thick strips of batter/dough.
  • I added in 1/4tsp of Xantham gum to the cornflour .
  • I actually used 2 large eggs this time not the one the recipe states, roughly 60g each and the shells weighed in at 7g (something I must look into, they seem a little thin but it is the end of the laying season and time for the 'orrible moult). My batter therefore weighed much more this time than last time, 235g instead of 176g. As a result, I aimed for 30g per finger of dough instead of 20g knowing that this would not make 8. It made 6 fingers and 1 blob, so I guess after weighing the first 1, I must have become a little heavy handed! It should have made for 7 full sized and 1 slightly skinny one. It seems that I used between 35-40g per finger.
  • And I ignored the totally irrational instructions of starting with 180°C and increasing to 200°C after 10 minutes, and just did 15mins at 200°C (fan assisted), then wedged the door ajar and turned the oven off leaving them in for an hour before removing which was really difficult.
  • I also managed to overheat my stick blender so had to do the final egg into batter mix by hand. Oops.
Much as before, hot fat and boiling water into cornflour
View attachment 22887

Then egg beaten into that mixture (first image is first attempt which failed, second image is second attempt which...)
View attachment 22888 View attachment 22889
It's yellower, glossier and floppier, but still holding its shape.

Piping the fingers out using a plastic bag.
Again first image is first attempt, clearly in getting better with practice and apologies for the second picture being through the oven door. I forgot to photo them before putting them into a hot oven.

View attachment 22890 View attachment 22891

And so after 15 mins at 200°C, then in the oven for another hour (turned off) with the door ajar, I have these .

View attachment 22892
View attachment 22893
They are slightly soft inside but crisp on the outside. Just starting to brown which seems to be a no no, but so what. They actually rose !

Success

:woot:
Click to expand...

Well done!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom