Cream Puffs
1/4 cup cooking oil 1 cup boiling water 4 eggs 1 cup sifted pastry flour 1 teaspoon salt Put the water, oil, and salt in a saucepan on the stove. When the mixture boils, throw in the flour all at once, and stir vigorously with a batter whip. Cook, stirring till a stiff paste is formed. Remove from the fire, and allow to cool a little; then add the unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating till thoroughly mixed after each egg is added. Drop on an oiled pan in pieces about the size of a golf ball, one and one-half inches apart. Bake about thirty minutes in a moderate oven. The cakes must be baked till they are cooked through or they will fall when taken from the oven.
With a knife make an opening in each cake through which to fill it.
A standard pâte à choux, made with oil in place of the usual butter. The method is sound; the two things worth watching are the paste's temperature when the eggs go in and the discipline not to open the oven.
- Moderate ovenCommonly glossed as roughly 350-375F; the recipe itself gives no temperature. Some bakers get a better rise by starting hotter, around 425F, for the first 10-12 minutes to generate steam, then dropping to 350F for the remainder; the total time of about 30 minutes still applies.
- Do not open the doorThe instruction that the cakes must be baked through is the hinge of the recipe. Puffs are hollow shells held up by steam and set protein; a draught of cool air before the walls are dry collapses them. Judge by deep brown colour and a shell that feels light and rigid, not by the clock.
- Cool before the eggs"allow to cool a little" means warm but no longer steaming, below the point at which egg would set on contact. Too hot and the eggs scramble into the paste; too cold and they are harder to work in. Two or three minutes of stirring off the heat is usually enough.
- Pastry flourSoft pastry flour runs about 8-9% protein and gives a tender but slightly weaker shell. All-purpose flour is the modern default and holds the puff better; if using pastry flour, dry the paste thoroughly on the stove so it pulls from the pan sides.
- Oil instead of butterA neutral vegetable oil works and keeps the recipe dairy-free. It gives less flavour and slightly less browning than butter, so expect a plainer shell.
- Batter whipA stiff wooden spoon does the job for the cooked paste; a stand mixer with the paddle handles the egg additions cleanly and cools the paste as it works.
- Size, spacing and yieldA golf ball of paste is roughly 2 to 3 tablespoons. Space them further apart than the inch and a half given -- 2 inches on a lined sheet -- as they roughly double. Expect somewhere between a dozen and eighteen puffs.
- SaltA full teaspoon in one cup of flour is on the assertive side by current taste, which suits a sweet filling. Halve it if the puffs are to be filled with something savoury.
- FillingNone is specified here. Pastry cream, sweetened whipped cream or a plain custard are the traditional choices; fill only after the shells are completely cool, or the filling will weep and soften them.