Choux pastry, known as a versatile dough, is the base for many pastries – from classic eclairs, profiteroles, craquelins, cream puffs, to savory entrées like gougères (cheese puffs).
As a baker, you might be wondering if choux pastry can be refrigerated. Once it is cooked or filled, how do we store it overnight?
Now, in this article, we will dig deeper into what choux pastry is, and whether we can store it in the fridge.
What is a Choux Pastry?
You must be familiar with pastries. This type of baked goods originates from France and to date, pastries have gained much love from people all over the world. One type of pastry that starts to gain much acceptance in Southeast Asia is choux pastries. But what exactly is a choux pastry?
Choux pastry, often called as choux paste, is a dough made of butter, water, flour, and eggs. In addition, sugar and salt can be added to the dough. The name of this dough comes from a French word, Pâte à Choux which literally means "cabbage paste" because of its cabbage-like finished look.
This dough is often referred to as ‘paste’ because its texture is not as dense as other doughs. Instead, it has a paste-like texture. This dough can be molded into various shapes and is the basic dough of these pastries – eclairs, profiteroles, croquembouche, crullers, beignets, St. Honoré, and gougères. When baked, the eggs in the dough form a hollow space inside the pastry, which can be filled with cream with various flavors.
So… Can Choux Pastry be Refrigerated?
Yes of course! Like other types of dough, choux pastry is safe to store in the refrigerator. Even better, the shelf life of choux pastry can last longer when refrigerated.
When you want to store uncooked choux pastry for a day or two, you can place them in an airtight container (or piping bag, with both ends tightly closed) in the fridge.
Baked, unfilled choux pastry shells can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 day or frozen for up to 1 month, in an airtight container. If you're freezing your pastry shells, make sure to thaw them at room temperature before using them. You can then heat them on a baking sheet at 150 degrees Celsius for 5 to 8 minutes, until it’s crispy.
Once your choux pastries have been filled with cream filling, you have no option but to keep them in the refrigerator.
To store profiteroles, you need to first leave them on a rack to cool down and poke a small hole in the top of each profiterole with a skewer, to release any excess steam that may cause them to crumble. Make sure they are completely cool before freezing or filling.
As you have paid much attention to store the choux paste or baked choux shells correctly, you also need to make sure to use high quality ingredients for the fillings and decorations.
Many choux pastries found in Southeast Asian countries, such as eclairs, cream puffs, craquelins, and profiteroles, are often seen topped or filled with chocolate.
To source your chocolate requirements for your choux pastries, kindly view our wide array of chocolate selection, from compound chocolate, filling, syrup, to toppings and decorations.
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