There’s something quietly satisfying about making choux pastry.
It’s simple, just a fews ingredients, but it teaches you everything: timing, texture, trust in your hands.
We make this dough every morning at Éclair at the Bay. It’s the foundation of our éclairs, our profiteroles, and the base of so many other creations. There’s no flashy tricks, no shortcuts, just a reliable recipe, good ingredients, and repetition.
In the video tutorial here, Chef Pavel walks through the steps we follow in our shop kitchen each day. And in case you'd like to follow along or try it at home, we’ve included the full recipe and method here:
Ingredients:
(Makes approximately 110 éclairs / 220 mini éclairs)
(watch the video tutorial here)
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Milk (3.2% pasteurised): 1550g
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Butter (82.5%): 600g
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Sugar: 30g
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Salt: 30g
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Flour (Caputo): 900g
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Eggs: 1200g
Method:
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In a saucepan, combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. -
Add all the flour at once.
Stir vigorously until the dough becomes homogenous and a thin white film forms on the bottom of the pan. -
Remove from the heat and transfer the dough to a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment.
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Mix on slow speed (around 40°C) for one minute.
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Add the eggs in batches (about 3 at a time) and fully incorporate before adding more.
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Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a 15mm star tip.
Pipe into éclairs approximately 135mm long. -
Bake at 210°C with steam for 5 minutes.
Then reduce to 180°C, and finish at 165°C until fully baked.
Total baking time: ~28 minutes.
This is our batch quantity, scaled for our pastry shop. If you’re making it at home, feel free to divide it down… or be prepared for éclairs every day of the week (not the worst idea, really).
See you tomorrow. 🙌
Chef Pavel S.
Eclair at the Bay
