Big Choux's to fill.

What is it with the French pronouncing "oux" as "Oooo"?
I see that suffix on anything and I think "ow-ex". So when I came across the Baker's version of Roux, titled "Pate a Choux," I was naturally curious, both linguistically and culinarily speaking. I mean was this "Pat-eh ah Shoo", or "Pot-a-Shoe", or what? And what could you do with something so oddly named.
Turns out, you can do a LOT with this stuff. Cream, puffs, chocolate eclairs, jelly desserts, savory salad holders, the list goes on and on. And according to this new-fangled information superhighway, the stuff is really easy to make. Plus, I saw it would give me the chance to play with the most manly, masculine, macho, and all around Rambo meets Terminator badass kitchen implement ever devised. I speak of course, of the pastry bag...(ok, so I MIGHT have exaggerated a little bit there).

What I instantly liked about this stuff was the ease in which butter, water, flour, salt and sugar come together. Literally the wet stuff is brought to a boil, the dry stuff goes in, then you beat the tar out of it until it forms a yellowish ball. Then it all goes into a mixing bowl and eggs get beaten in until it's the stickiest mass of gelatinous goo this side of Capitol Hill.

Now let me publicly proclaim: "I apologize to every pastry chef I ever made fun of for using a piping bag for anything." These devices are amazing. They have the ability to lay with precision materials that are so sticky, that I'm convinced God used it to paste the universe together.
I will probably be cleaning Choux paste from my piping bag, mixer, counter, sink, and floors well into the next century, but it was still really fun to play with in a distinctly Macguyver sort of way.

I piped my paste onto some parchment, and tossed it into an oven and let it bake, wondering if I really had done everything right to provide a slightly crispy exterior, filled with a giant air pocket that would be ripe for filling.

The short answer is "No." But that hardly makes for good blogging, so I'll say that once again, I am happy to have technically failed in the kitchen. My little cream puffs were far too small to have any filling placed in them, and they looked "pasty" on top at best. I am thinking next time, I'll cook them a bit longer for more steam-powered leavening, and make them bigger in the hopes of achieving a more cavernous inside.

Techincals aside, There was major thing I forgot about. Fillings! I got so caught up in making giant-pastry-contained air bubbles that I forgot to do anything for the fillings. So a bunch of little mutant Easter-egg pastries hardly will do for Photography. So I'll try this again tomorrow I think, with a better understanding, and perhaps some chocolate ganache, some whipped cream, a bit of traditional vanilla filling, and maybe even some high quality Jam.

Sweet dreams everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow; and this time the Choux will be on the other foot!

still 475 to go!