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Original post published July 14th, 2019. Post last updated on August 21st, 2024.
Made with a classic French choux pastry recipe, these miniature choux buns filled with vanilla bean pastry cream, dunked in caramel glaze, and finished with a sprinkling of crushed pistachios are sure to delight. Learn how to make choux buns with this traditional recipe, including step-by-step photos!
What are Choux Buns?
Pâte à choux (a.k.a. choux pastry) is a French pastry dough comprised of eggs, flour, butter, and water. It plays an important role in a variety of classic French pastries, including éclairs, croquembouche, Paris-Brest, the traditional St. Honoré cake, and of course, choux buns.
Back in Basic Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu London, one of our exam dishes (coffee èclairs) utilized choux pastry. For these dishes, we were required to memorize the recipe, and be able to reproduce it in a timed examination setting. So needless to say, after many weeks of drilling choux pastry over and over and over again, I feel pretty confident in my ability to make this staple dough!
How to Make Choux Pastry
Choux pastry is surprisingly simple to make from scratch. To start, add water, whole milk, butter, and kosher salt to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in all-purpose flour, and continue stirring until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan. Turn the dough out into a bowl and allow it to cool (if it’s too hot, the eggs will cook!) then gradually add whole beaten egg, a little bit at a time, making sure to mix thoroughly with a spatula before adding more egg. Once the dough “plops” easily from the spatula, it’s ready to go! Transfer it to a piping bag, pipe rows of dots on a well-buttered baking tray, and bake until crisp, puffy, and deeply golden brown.
Choux Bun Ingredients
Although the resulting pastries feel very fancy, pâte à choux requires very simple ingredients. In fact, if you bake regularly, you probably already have everything you need.
To make choux buns, begin by gathering the following: whole milk, unsalted butter, kosher salt, granulated sugar, eggs, and all-purpose flour. You’ll need 1/4 cup of water, too.:
Pastry Cream Ingredients
Although you can fill choux buns with whipped cream (for a traditional “cream puff” pastry) I’ve opted to use a classic vanilla bean crème pâtissière (pastry cream) for this batch. (I suggest making the cream first, so it has time to cool while you prepare the choux pastry.)
To make pastry cream, you’ll need whole milk, egg yolks, all-purpose flour, cornflour (cornstarch in the US), vanilla bean paste, and granulated sugar.
Filling the Choux Buns
Learning how to fill choux buns or cream puffs can take a tiny bit of practice. It isn’t difficult, but here are a few tips to make it easier:
- Poke a hole – Use a wooden skewer, cake tester, sharp knife, or even a metal piping tip to poke a hole in the bottom of each bun. That way, you can simply insert the piping tip in the pre-made hole, rather than trying to poke and pipe at the same time.
- Don’t overfill – The bun should feel full and slightly heavy, but be careful not to add too much cream. If you overfill your choux buns, the pastry cream will leak from the cracks in the bun, or the hole in the bottom.
- Scrape away the excess – If you do notice a small amount of cream popping from the bottom hole, use a butter knife or bench scraper to wipe it away.
Making the Caramel and Dipping the Choux Buns
This choux bun recipe includes a simple caramel glaze, which adds a touch of crunch and sweetness and allows the pistachios to adhere to the buns. It’s similar to the type of caramel used to join cream puffs to form a croquembouche.
To make the caramel, combine sugar, water, and a small amount of corn syrup or liquid glucose in a saucepan. Cook until the caramel turns a light golden color, similar to honey:
Take caution not to let the caramel get too dark, since it will continue to cook after you remove it from the heat. It also burns easily! This is an example of too-dark caramel:
Then, tilt the pan and quickly dip the very top of each bun in the hot caramel, being very careful not to burn your fingers.
Finish the buns with a sprinkling of pistachios. But do it immediately—once the caramel cools, the nuts won’t stick.
Make-Ahead and Storage Suggestions
Choux buns should be baked on the day you plan to enjoy them. However, you can make the pastry cream up to 24 hours in advance, and refrigerate until you’re ready to fill the buns.
Other French pastry recipes you might enjoy:
Classic French Macarons
Brown Sugar Palmiers
And if you do make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!
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Choux Buns with Caramel and Pistachio
- Total Time: About 2 hours
- Yield: About 24 2-inch buns 1x
Description
Miniature choux buns filled with vanilla bean pastry cream, dunked in caramel glaze, and finished with a sprinkling of crushed pistachios.
Ingredients
Pastry Cream:
240 milliliters whole milk (1 cup)
50 grams granulated sugar (1/4 cup), divided
60 grams egg yolks (about 3 large yolks)
15 grams all purpose flour (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon)
15 grams cornflour/cornstarch (2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Choux Pastry:
60 milliliters water (1/4 cup)
60 milliliters whole milk (1/4 cup)
45 grams unsalted butter (3 tablespoons), plus more to prepare the tray
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
75 grams all purpose flour (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon), sifted
125 grams whole eggs, beaten (about 2 large eggs)
1 egg, for egg wash
Caramel Glaze:
105 grams granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
45 milliliters water (3 tablespoons)
20 grams light corn syrup or liquid glucose (1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, optional
To Decorate:
30 grams crushed pistachios (3 tablespoons)
Instructions
Pastry Cream:
Line a quarter-sheet tray with a silicone mat. Set aside.
Add the milk to a saucepan and whisk in half of the sugar. Warm over medium heat until steaming. (Do not boil).
Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks, flour, cornflour, vanilla bean paste, and remaining sugar in a medium bowl.
Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking well after each addition. Do not to pour too quickly or add all of the milk at once.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continuously with a whisk or spatula. Mixture will thicken as it cooks.
Bring thickened pastry cream to a low boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously.
Pour pastry cream onto prepared tray, and use a rubber spatula to spread.
Wait until the pastry cream stops steaming, then cover with a sheet of clingfilm/plastic wrap, and use your hands to pat it down so that the plastic directly touches the pastry cream. (This prevents a rubbery “skin” from forming on top.)
Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate tray while you prepare the choux pastry.
Choux Pastry:
Preheat oven to 350° F / 176° C. Generously grease a half-sheet rimmed baking tray with butter.
In a medium saucepan, combine water, milk, butter, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and stir in the flour.
Return to medium heat and cook until the mixture clumps together and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 30 seconds.
Tip mixture into a large bowl. With a rubber spatula, spread the pastry up the sides of the bowl. (This promotes faster cooling.)
Once cool, add the beaten egg in small portions, using a rubber spatula to incorporate. (The mixture will seem clumpy at first, then pasty, before forming soft, but not overly sticky, dough.) Continue adding egg, a small amount at a time, until the pastry drops easily from the spatula, making a “plopping” sound. You might have a small amount of beaten egg left over.
With a rubber spatula, scoop choux pastry into a large disposable piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip. On prepared tray, pipe 1 1/2-inch dots of choux pastry, about 1 inch apart.
With a pastry brush, egg wash the top of each dot.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 165° C / 330° F and bake for 25-30 minutes more, or until choux buns are crisp and deeply golden brown.
Transfer choux buns to a wire rack. (They should lift easily from the tray.) Allow to cool.
Assembly and Decoration:
Scoop refrigerated pastry cream into a medium bowl. With a wire whisk, “knock back” the cream by whisking vigorously until it is smooth and creamy.
Scoop pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with 1/4-inch round tip.
With a wooden skewer, metal cake tester, or sharp paring knife, poke a hole in the bottom of each choux bun.
Insert piping tip into the hole and fill the bun with pastry cream.
Use the flat side of a knife to scrape away any excess pastry cream.
Sit buns on a wire rack. Place rack over a sheet of parchment or a parchment-lined tray.
Caramel Glaze:
In a small saucepan, stir together sugar, water, glucose, and sea salt, if using.
Bring to a boil, brushing down the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush as needed.
Cook the caramel over medium heat until the mixture resembles honey, about 10 minutes. Do not stir the caramel. If necessary, you can swirl the pan occasionally to keep the caramel moving.
Remove from heat. Tilt the pan. Working quickly but carefully, dip the very top of each bun in the caramel. Sprinkle with crushed pistachios.
Allow choux buns to sit until caramel cools. Serve immediately.
- Cook Time: 35-40 minutes
- Category: French Pastry
- Method: Oven + Stovetop
- Cuisine: French
