Foolproof choux pastry/idiotsikker vannbakkelsdeig

These past three days while I've been working on this post the rain has been pouring down. This is my favourite kind of weather for several reasons. Number one: Great food photography light. Number two: It's allergy season and the rain prevents the pollen from spreading too much which makes me happy. Number three: My concience is clear even though I've stayed inside working on this post far too long (while having a vlogbrothers marathon).

Now you're propably wondering how I could spend three whole days on a post with foolproof choux pastry. This is not the fault of the dough as it was successfull the first time, the way it always is. The villain of this post was the pictures of the finished eclairs. Eclairs are a French dessert and my brain always tells me that everything French is elegant and photogenic, but this is not the case with eclairs. They are surprisingly unphotogenic and awkward in pictures. Lucky for them they taste absolutely marvellous so I didn't give up and today my persistence payed off. I love the simplicity of the pictures and although you don't need a fork to eat an eclair, the fork is very photogenic so it was allowed in the pictures. It is times like these that I love my inner perfectionist, had I not been a perfectionist the pictures would have been bad bad bad and you might not have wanted to make eclairs. Patience pays off people!

Read before you begin: This really is a foolproof pâte à choux or choux pastry dough. The only time it has failed me was when I undercooked them, so make sure that they are properly done (not wet on the inside) before you take them out of the oven (check by taking one out and opening it). With this recipe there is no need to have room-temperature ingredients, so it doesn't take as much planning as a cake would. This is a classic choux pastry dough so you can make profiteroles, eclairs, croquembouche (like they did on masterchef, definitely trying that sometime) or beignets (deep-fried choux pastry!) from this, as you can tell by the picture above, I chose eclairs. Eclairs are a classic French pastry usually filled with a custard and dipped in chocolate. This post only provides the recipe for the choux pastry, the custard recipe will come soon in a separate post. Now let's begin!

Vannbakkelsdeig (lager ca 13 små eclairs) © min egen oppskrift

70 g smør

2 dl vann

90 g mel

2 egg

Choux Pastry (makes about 13 small eclairs) © my recipe

70 g butter

0,9 cups (200 ml) water

90 g flour
2 eggs

Sett ovnen på 200 celcius (190 varmluft)/Set the oven to 390 fahrenheit

Ha vannet og smøret i en gryte på lav/medium varme

Put the water and butter in a pot on low/medium heat

La smøret sakte smelte uten at det koker

Let the butter slowly melt without boiling

Når smøret har smeltet blander du det sammen og skrur opp varmen på maks

When the butter has meltet stir and set the heat to maximum

Når blandingen har begynte å koke tar du den av platen med en gang

When the mixture is boiling immedeately remove from the heat

Ha i alt melet på en gang

Put in all the flour at once

Rør sammen til deigen slipper kantene og ser slik ut. La deigen stå og kjøle seg i 10 min før du går videre til neste steg.

Stir until the dough lets go of the edges and looks like this. Let the dough cool down for about 10 mins before you move on to the next step.

Ha i det første egget

Put in the first egg

og rør sammen

and mix

Ha i det andre egget

Put in the other egg

Og rør sammen. Deigen bør se slik ut.

And mix. The dough should look like this.

Ha deigen i en sprøytepose. Den enkleste og reneste måten å gjøre dette på er å ha posen i et glass og brette kantene over glasset. Da holder toppen seg ren og du slipper å bli så klissete på hendene.

Transfer the dough to a piping bag. This is easily done by putting the pipingbag in a tall glass and folding the bag over the glass edges. This will keep the top clean so your hands wont get sticky.

Ha bakepapir på et brett, klipp et ganske stort hull i posen (ca 2 cm bredt) og sprøyt i vei! Mine er ca 7 cm lange og blir ganske små, men lag gjerne større (eller mindre). Sett brettet inn i midten av ovnen og la dem steke i ca 30 min til de er gyldne og harde på utsiden. Ikke ta dem ut for tidlig, da vil de falle!

Put a baking sheet in a sheet pan, cut quite a large hole in your bag (about 2 cm) and start piping! Mine are about 7 cm long and quite small but feel free to make bigger (or smaller). Put the pan in the middle of the oven and let them cook for about 30 mins until they are golden and hard on the outside. Do not take them out early, if you do they will deflate!

Ta brettet ut av ovnen og legg eclairene på en rist. Skjær en strek i siden på dem med en gang for å slippe ut den varme luften.

Take the pan out of the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Immediately cut open one side of the eclair to let the varm air out.

Hvis du har fulgt alle stegene nøye kan jeg med 99% sikkerhet si at du har perfekte eclair foran deg :) 

If you have followed these steps closely I can say with 99% certainty that you have perfect eclairs in front of you :)

 Enjoy! :)

- Citona Marie