How do I make choux pastry that actually rises?

Choux is a batter that steams itself into a hollow shell. It rises entirely on the water it contains, so everything about making it is a balance between enough water to create steam and enough structure to hold the shape.

Step by step

1. Bring water, butter and salt to a full boil together.The butter must be fully melted before the water boils, so start with it cut small. If the water boils first, some of it evaporates and the ratio is wrong.
2. Add the flour all at once, off the heat.Tip it in and beat hard with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a ball. Adding it gradually gives lumps.
3. Dry the paste on the heat.Back on a medium heat for two to three minutes, stirring constantly, until a thin film forms on the base of the pan and the paste comes away cleanly. This drives off excess water and is the step most often skipped.
4. Cool it before the eggs go in.Tip it into a bowl and beat for a couple of minutes, or leave it five. Hot paste scrambles the egg.
5. Add egg gradually and judge by consistency.Beaten egg, a little at a time. The recipe's egg count is a guide — humidity and how much you dried the paste both change it.
6. Stop at the V.Lift the spoon: the paste should fall away slowly leaving a V shape, and a ribbon drawn through it should close slowly. Too stiff and it will not rise; too loose and it spreads.
7. Pipe onto a lined tray and flatten the peaks.A wet fingertip presses the tips down. Peaks burn before the rest is baked.
8. Bake hot then lower.200°C for the first 15 minutes to generate the steam and set the shell, then down to 170 to 180°C for another 15 to 20 to dry it out.
9. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes.The shell is held up by steam pressure until the structure sets. Cold air at that point collapses it irreversibly.
10. Pierce and dry them out.A small hole in each base as they come out, then back in the switched-off oven for ten minutes. It lets the steam escape so the inside does not go soggy.

Tips

• Judge the egg by consistency, never by count. It is the single most important habit.
• Do not open the oven. Choux is less forgiving of it than any cake.
• Unfilled baked choux freezes well and refreshes in a hot oven for five minutes.

Common mistakes

• Adding all the eggs the recipe lists — Egg size varies and so does how much water you drove off, so a fixed number regularly gives a batter that is too loose. Loose choux spreads into flat discs instead of rising into shells.
• Opening the oven to check — Until the shell has set, the whole structure is held up by internal steam pressure. Cold air drops that pressure and the buns deflate, and unlike a cake they do not recover.

If it doesn't work

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