Choux pastry is a lovely thing. You can do so many lovely things with it (profiteroles, eclairs, Paris-Brest...) so if you've never had any of these delightful morsels, where exactly have you been?
To make the Choux pastry you will need a saucepan and whisk, 2 baking trays and a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle.
Pre-heat your oven to 190ºC.
Ingredients:
For the Choux (makes 500g)
125g Plain Flour
4 Medium Eggs
225ml Water
60g Unsalted Butter
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Small Egg, beaten (for glazing)
Hazelnuts, chopped
For the filling
Entirely your choice. I add two heaped dessert spoons of Hazelnut Chocolate spread to 150ml of double cream
How I made my Choux Rings:
Start off by getting everything prepared. You need to work quickly so having everything measured out, in bowls is good practice.
Before I started, I put a handful of hazelnuts on a tray into a hot oven (200ºC) for a few minutes to toast them. I then crushed them and set them aside for later.
First, I sieved the flour into a bowl, and in a separate bowl I mixed the eggs.
Put the water, butter and salt into a medium saucepan and slowly bring to the boil on your stove top.
Then, add the flour to the saucepan and whisk continuously while you do this. The mixture will cling to your whisk and look like mashed potato. That's OK! At this point, swap your whisk for a wooden spoon and carry on stirring the mixture as it cooks over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes. You want the mixture to look glossy and to come away from the edges of the pan cleanly.
At this stage, take the pan off the heat and then SLOWLY start to add your eggs. You must beat in each addition thoroughly, making sure it is fully incorporated into the mixture before adding more egg. Be careful here and mixture quickly and firmly; you do not want your eggs to turn into scrambled egg! It will feel like a major arm exercise but think of the gains later ;-)
You are aiming for a mixture that is glossy and smooth, and one which will hold its shape for piping. Judge by eye, but you may not need all of the egg. I did. It is better that the pastry be more stiff than runny.
Your dough is now ready to use!
Transfer the dough into a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle.
I piped a mixture of choux rounds, eclairs and larger rings. You can play around or stick with one type, whichever you fancy.
For the choux rings, I used a pastry cutter as a guide (since I have no drawing skills!) and piped an even number of circles across two baking trays. Brush your rings with beaten egg or milk, and scatter some of the crushed hazelnuts on top.
You need to bake these for 12-15 minutes. One tip: open the oven door slightly for the last 4 minutes of baking to allow steam to escape. You want your rings to be golden brown.
Once cooled, you can either cut each ring in half and fill with your filling or, like me (for double choux goodness), I sandwiched two together with Hazelnut Chocolate cream and a sprinkling of the leftover hazelnuts.
Goes really well with a cup of tea.
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