John Barricellis Pate A Choux Recipes

Steps:

• Bring butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on bottom of pan, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled, about 1 minute. Raise speed to medium; add whole eggs, 1 at a time, until a soft peak forms when batter is touched with your finger. If peak does not form, lightly beat remaining egg white, and mix it into batter a little at a time until it does.

Steps:

• Pate a Choux:Preheat oven to 450 degrees with rack in bottom third. Line three rimmed baking sheets with parchment. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water over medium heat; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides of pan and a film forms on bottom, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on low speed until slightly cooled, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated and a soft peak forms when you touch dough with your finger.
• Transfer about half the dough to a large pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #808). Pipe into rounds, about 1 1/4 inches in diameter, onto prepared sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Smooth peaks with a wet finger, rounding tops to ensure even rising. Repeat with remaining half of dough. Place baking sheets in freezer while you repeat with remaining dough and make craquelin topping.
• Craquelin Topping:In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in flour and salt. Add pink food color, a drop at a time, until desired color is reached. Roll out topping between two sheets of parchment to an 1/8-inch thickness. Transfer to a baking sheet and freeze 30 minutes.
• Using a 1-inch round cutter, cut out 72 rounds of craquelin dough and place one on top of each puff. Return to freezer.
• Transfer one baking sheet of puffs to oven; reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until bottoms are golden brown and tops are crackled and crisp but not browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Repeat process with remaining baking sheets. (For crispier puffs, remove from oven after baking and use a small paring knife to create a small slit in the base of each puff. Turn off oven; return puffs to oven until crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool completely.)
• Strawberry Buttercream:Combine egg whites, sugar, and salt in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over (not in) a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch and feels completely smooth when rubbed between fingertips.
• Transfer bowl to mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Starting on low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high, beat until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Continue beating until mixture is fluffy and glossy and bottom of bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in butter, a few tablespoons at a time, until combined. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue beating until completely smooth. Beat in jam. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in chopped strawberries. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and a filling tip (such as Wilton #230).
• Insert pastry-bag tip into base of each puff; fill. Return filled puffs to baking sheets in a single layer as you work.
• Caramel:Prepare an ice-water bath. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil, washing down sides of pan often with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Cook, without stirring, until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high and cook, swirling pan gently to color evenly, until caramel is light amber, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and dip bottom of pan in ice-water bath for a few seconds to stop the cooking. Use immediately.
• Working quickly, dip bottom of each filled puff in caramel (be very careful not to burn your fingers) and adhere puffs closely together in circular pattern, working upwards from the base to top of croquembouche mold.
• Use macarons and meringue kisses to fill in spaces between puffs, as needed.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and immediately remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour until combined. Return pan to medium-high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on the bottom of the pan, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium, and add whole eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding the next. Test batter by touching it with your finger and lifting to form a soft peak. If a soft peak does not form, the batter needs more egg. If you have added all the whole eggs and batter still does not form a soft peak, lightly beat remaining egg whites, and add a little at a time.
• Immediately transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip (such as an Ateco #808), and pipe puffs onto a parchment paper or Silpat-lined baking sheet 1 inch apart. Gently smooth any pointed peaks with a moistened finger, rounding tops to ensure even rising. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until puffs are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Boil water, butter, and salt or sugar. Add flour and remove from heat. Work mixture together and return to heat. Continue working the mixture until all flour is incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture into bowl of a standing mixer and let cool for 3 or 4 minutes. With mixer on stir or lowest speed add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all eggs have been added and the mixture is smooth put dough into piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately into golfball-size shapes, 2 inches apart onto parchment lined sheet pans. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Once they are removed from the oven pierce with a paring knife immediately to release steam.

Steps:

• Put the water, butter, salt and sugar in a stainless pan and bring to a boil.
• As soon as the mixture reaches the boil, and the butter is completely melted, take it off the heat and add all the flour at once.
• Place the pan back on a medium flame and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon for about 30 seconds, or until the mixture thickens and forms a mass that does not stick to the pan. The mixture should be dried out by stirring over heat for another 1 to 2 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mixture to a clean bowl.
• Crack the eggs into a bowl "before" adding to the dough. Add the eggs to the dough, 1 at the time, making sure that each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Use the mixer paddle tool for this job.
• The mixture should be firm but smooth. It has absorbed enough eggs when:
• -the spatula runs through the batter and leaves a channel that fills in slowly
• -a dollop of batter lifted on a spatula curls over on itself and forms a hook.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Place water, butter, sugar and salt in heavy saucepan and bring to boil.
• Add flour all at once and stir until mixture comes away from sides and forms a ball.
• Remove from heat.
• Put mixture in mixer with a paddle and mix on low to cool to warm, not hot.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate each before adding the next.
• After last egg is added, beat until smooth.
• With a piping bag and round tip, pipe mixture on to a parchment lined sheet pan.
• You can make as big or as long as you want.
• They will about double in size when cooked.
• Bake at 375 until they become,brown, light and hollow.
• Cool.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet with butter. Put the butter and a pinch of salt in a saucepan over high heat; add 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and add all the flour at once; stir constantly until the mixture pulls away from the pan and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time; use an electric mixer if you like, and beat until the mixture is smooth. (At this point, you can cover the dough and refrigerate it for up to two days.)
• If you're planning on piping out the dough, scoop it into a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch tip, or a plastic freezer bag with a corner cut off. Pipe the pastry onto the baking sheet, or just use two spoons to form your desired shape. Cream puffs should be circles about 1 inch wide and a little over 1 inch tall; éclairs should be 3-to-4-inch fingers, about 1 inch wide.
• Bake until the pastries are golden brown, nicely puffed up and sound hollow when you tap on them, about 30 minutes for cream puffs and 40 minutes for éclairs. Use a skewer to prick one or two holes in each one to allow the steam to escape; transfer to a rack and let cool to room temperature.
• To fill the pastries using a pastry bag, poke a hole into the pastry and pipe the filling into it, or cut off the top caps of each pastry, spoon in the filling, and close it up like a sandwich. (Éclairs can be slit open and filled, too.) Serve as is, or drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Steps:

• Place pastry cream in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip; pipe cream into puffs, inserting the tip into the bottom of each. Set aside.
• Prepare an ice water bath. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water; bring to a boil over medium heat. Wash down the sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent crystals from forming. Continue cooking without stirring until sugar has dissolved, 5 to 6 minutes. Raise heat to high, and cook until syrup is amber-colored, about 5 minutes, swirling pan to brown evenly. Remove from heat, and dip bottom of pan in the ice bath 3 seconds to stop the cooking. Transfer pan to a heatproof surface.
• Dip bottom half of each filled puff into caramel, letting excess drip back into pan. Place puffs, dipped side down, on a serving platter. Make sure the puffs are touching and adhere to one another. Once ring is complete, make another one on top of the first ring, forming a pyramid shape. If at any point the caramel begins to harden in the pan, reheat briefly over a low flame.
• For the spun sugar, make a second batch of caramel with remaining 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water. Let cool slightly. Test by dipping a handheld whisk with the top cut off into the caramel and holding it over the pan; the caramel should fall back into pan in long golden threads. Dip whisk into caramel, and spin caramel threads over a large piece of parchment paper or onto a wooden rack. Transfer spun-sugar to croquembouche, swirling to cover.

Steps:

• Combine water, butter, sugar, and saltin a medium saucepan over medium-highheat. Bring mixture to a boil, and immediately remove from heat. Stir in the flour.When flour is combined, return to heat. Thismixture is called a panade. Dry the panadebystirring constantly for 4minutes. It isready when it pulls away from the sidesand a film forms on the bottom of the pan.
• Transfer panade to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment,and mix on low speed, about 2minutes,until slightly cooled. Add the eggs one at atime on medium speed, letting each oneincorporate completely before adding thenext. Add the last egg a little at a time until the batter is smooth and shiny. Test thebatter by touching it with your finger andlifting to form a string. If a string does notform, the batter needs more egg. If youhave added all the egg and the batter stilldoesn't form a string, add water 1 teaspoon at a time until it does.
• The batter may be used immediately orstored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2days. To use chilled,remove from the refrigerator, and stir tosoften before filling piping bag.