Recipe: Choux Pastry

1 Preheat your oven to 430°F (220 °C) (gas mark 6/7).

2 In a fairly thick saucepan, pour the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter cut into squares and heat.

3 As soon as everything boils, add the flour all at once then, still on the heat, stir with a spatula and mix vigorously for at least 2 minutes until the dough pulls away completely from the sides and bottom with no streaks of dough remaining. Transfer to a bowl.

4 Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until everything is well combined.

5 Pour your choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle about 2 cm in diameter and on a non-stick baking sheet or parchment paper, pipe your dough into éclairs or choux shapes, then dust them with powdered icing sugar, that's an old pastry chef's trick.

6 Watch out for cooking: bake for 1 minute at 430°F (220 °C) (gas mark 6/7), then leave the oven door slightly ajar with a wooden spoon and lower your oven to 390°F (200 °C) (gas mark 6) for another 15 minutes. There you go, let cool and you'll just have to fill your éclairs or choux with pastry cream flavoured with your choice of flavourings and what festive tastings lie ahead! If you have savoury recipes to make with this choux pastry, omit the sugar and the icing sugar dusting from the recipe.