Choux Pastry

Have u heard about eclairs...not the toffee one....a pastry variety...
Eclairs is a pastry filled with flavoured cream and coated with chocolate on one side. You may find this in some bakeries. Well am going to share the recipe for the  pastry base of eclairs called choux pastry
. Eclair is sweet version of this pastry. You can try savoury version or add any flavour(like coffee) to the base for a twist....
Choux pastry puffs up during baking to at least double its original size,creating a hollow centre,into which u can pipe sweet or savoury fillings

Ingredients

Maida-9 tbsp/65gm
Butter-50gm
Eggs-2 No:s
Water- 2/3 cup or 150 mL
Salt- a pinch

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Sift the flour and salt onto a piece of baking parchmment. Heat the butter and water in a pan until the butter melts
• Increase the heat and bring to a rolling boil. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately tip in all the flour. Beat vigorously until the flour is mixed into the liquid
• Return the pan to a low heat and beat the mixture until it begins to form a ball and leave the sides of the pan. This will take about 1 minute. Remove the pan from heat again and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes
• Add the beaten eggs a little at a time,beating well between each addition,until you have a very smooth shiny paste,thick enough to hold its shape ( you may not have to add all the eggs)
• To make eclairs fill the paste into a piping bag with plain nozzle. Pipe 10 cm lengths of the paste onto the greased and lined baking tray. Or you can pipe small or big dollops 2 make puffs
• Bake at 200°c for 15 to 30 minutes depending on the size of your pastry. Then take out the pastries and reduce the temperature to 180°c. Make small slits on the pastry. Return to the oven for further 5-8 minutes 

Note
You can also pipe the pastry into hot oil and fry for 3 minutes or until crisp

Will share an eclair recipie in some other post