Introduction to Pastry and Baking Class Five: Pastry - Pate Choux

First impressions are the most lasting including when it comes to desserts.  Beautifully crafted puffed pastries made from pate de choux baked to perfection and filled with a simple, yet buttery and flavorful pastry cream, are the quintessential eye candy (and dessert) in my book. 

Eclairs filled with pastry cream and dipped in chocolate glaze

@ChefMelanie made it look easy to pipe the dough for perfectly round cream puff pastry shells and long and symmetrical eclairs. But when Cammi and I took a go at it we ended up covered in wet pastry dough with a gooey mess all over our baking pan. 

Paris Brest almond ring filled with praline mousseline

Cammi dipping stuffed eclairs in chocolate glaze

Rather than live with the sloppiness we created, we scooped up the dough from the pan, relined the half sheet with parchment and started over.

Hot pastries just out of the oven

In baking as in life, if at first you don't succeed try try again.

Cream puffs filled with pastry cream and dipped in chocolate