Choux Pastry Recipe (Pâte à Choux)

"Choux Pastry Recipe (Pâte à Choux) Choux pastry (pronounced "shoo") is used for making beignets, cream puffs, éclairs and gougères, among other things, and it's leavened entirely by steam, not by baking powder, baking soda or yeast. How this is accomplished is by baking the choux first at a high temperature to generate the steam, and then finishing at a lower temperature to set the pastry and brown the outside. It's traditional to use a pastry bag with the ½-inch plain tip to pipe the choux dough onto your baking sheet. You could just spoon it out into little mounds, or for éclairs, shape the dough into little cylinders with your hands. But a pastry bag will definitely give you a nicer result. NOTE: The only slightly tricky thing about this recipe is that I've written it in a way you might not be used to seeing — which is to say, I'm using weights rather than volume measurements for the ingredients. This isn't very common in the U.S., but it will make it easier for you to use the right amount of everything, and your choux will turn out much better. I've indicated approximate volume measurements for each, just to give you an idea, but you should definitely go by weight. This means you'll need a digital scale that can be set to grams. Finally, it's important to use bread flour, not all-purpose flour or cake flour, so that the choux will have good structure and not deflate...."