Eclairs won't puff...

baker1 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Are we to take it that you've already baked them and they didn't puff? If so, there's nothing else you can do at this point.

The choux paste should be fairly stiff, and not at all thin. The oven should be fairly hot and dry, around 400°F. It's the eggs and heat that give the "puff". I don't have Julia's recipe, but I use the following one with regular success.

Choux Paste

----- Step One ----- 2 Cups Water 1/2 pound Butter ----- Step Two ----- 2 Cups Flour ----- Step Three ----- 8 Whole Eggs

[1) In a round braiser, melt Butter in Water, and bring to a boil. [2) Add Flour and stir with either a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Stir until batter leaves sides of braiser. [3) Take off heat and put in Mixer with paddle. [4) Mix on low speed and add eggs one by one, allowing each egg to mix into the batter. [5) Pipe out of a pastry tube into 1" by 5 1/4" eclairs, onto a lightly oiled full sheet pan. Pipe 2" rounds for cream puffs. [6) Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Inside should be dry.

Open oven door, turn off oven and let pan sit on open door to cool slowly so they do not collapse.

Yeah, they didn't rise, tossed them all out. Perhaps it was a bit too thin. I saw Alton Brown the other day making elairs and it looked pretty cool. I'll try again. Thanks

Without seeing the recipe, it is hard to tell what happened but considering that Julia's recipes are pretty sound, I would say it most likely has to do with technique. In general, you should be using high gluten flour for choux pastry. Make sure you continue to beat it over heat once the dough comes together. This evaporates enough water so you can add the eggs without it being too runny. Make sure you are using large eggs, not extra large or jumbo. Bread flour will absorbed more water and produce a stiffer dough. You might also consider using 4 whole eggs and 4 egg white instead of six whole eggs. The whites will give you more structure and help trap more steam.

It is important in the preparation of the choux paste that the procedure is followed and understood. It is very common with home cooks to be good reader of recipes but poor followers of the steps involved. Choux paste is just a simple pastry base but each preparation step must be done properly. IF you say that your paste resulted in flat bread instead of plump looking and open textured product you made a mistake elsewhere in your step. Try to retrace what have you done. I am not familiar with the so called Julia's recipe but I assume that recipe was well tested by the author. The fault that arises comes from the user of the recipe who may have missed some very important detail in the process. Indeed Vox is right it is important that you use a strong flour. But all purpose flour can still produce a satisfactory choux if you know what you are doing. You have to boil the water and fat, and when its rolling boil, add all the flour and stir until it forms a cohesive ball that does not stick to the pot. Remove it and place in the mixing bowl and cool slightly to warm then add the eggs in multiple portions. That is , Add it one by one while beating and ensure that the its properly incorporated before each subsequent addition. As I am not familiar with your mixer I can not say about the timing but I presume that you know what Imean. The batter should not be too stiff nor too fluid. If you scoop it out with your hand and drop in on the surface it should form mound with slight flattening on the bottom. IF the ratio of the components were appropriate you may have added the eggs when the paste is too hot or too cold and you did not aerate it properly during mixing. Another thing is if the product comes out flat it can come possibly that there was an improper mixing of the eggs with the roux components.And you cannot bag that out and still maintain its slightly heaped appearance. Another thing also was did you bake it at the right temperature? Assuming there is a fault in the recipe that it is not users friendly as others have you tired other recipes as a comparison? A lot of people can have peculiar success with alternative recipes but failure in others. I suggest give your choux paste another try and see if it comes out the same. Just be careful in its preparation. If possible try another recipe as well for comparison. There is plenty of examples of choux recipe in the web to try. But before you embark on such trials try to understand the recipe so that you will have more likelihood to succeed. BTW, bake it in a hot oven not lesser than 200 deg Centrigrade.. And if possible do not be anxious to open the oven door while the paste is baking as that can also cause the choux to collapse. Bake it out thoroughly. Roy

CHOUX PASTRY PÂTE À CHOUX CREAM PUFF DOUGH Recipe can be doubled

1 cup water 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 tablespoon sugar plus 1/8 teaspoon salt (for sweet) or 1 teaspoon salt (for savory) 1 cup all-purpose flour 4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bring water, butter, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat, while stirring to melt butter. Remove from heat. Add flour all at once and cook over medium heat, beating with a wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from side of pan and dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add eggs 1 at a time, beating well with wooden spoon after each addition. A standing mixer can be used to add eggs. Use within 2 hours.