I don't know why people are scared of choux pastry. It's not hard to make but does require plenty of elbow grease particularly if you beat in the eggs by hand. There is a slightly heart stopping moment the first time you make it perhaps when it comes to adding the eggs as the mixture splits and looks like it's a complete disaster. Persevere and it all comes right again quickly.
Basically you bring some water, milk and butter to the boil in a pan and then shower in some flour all in one go. After a minute or two of manic mixing with a wooden spoon it forms a dough like mixture that leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball - you continue to cook it for a couple of minutes to 'cook out' the flour and then add your eggs one at a time until you have a lovely shiny mixture.
Here they are - little crispy choux buns ready to be filled with crème patissière.
You can fill them with whipped cream or ice cream but I prefer a rich vanilla crème patissière.
A dark chocolate sauce in the business so here I melted 70% cocoa chocolate with some unsalted butter and then added a couple of tablespoons of golden syrup, some caster sugar and milk. It gives a rich shiny sauce that doesn't go hard when it cools down.
Et voila - here they are - filled and drowned in chocolate sauce.
Yes, there are a few different processes involved but the great thing is that you can make a batch of the choux buns and put them in the freezer. Bring them out and pop them in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp up and then continue with whatever filling you prefer.
It's a classic and rightly so - bon appetit!
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