Choux pastry#History

{{Wiktionary|pâte à choux}}

The full term is commonly said to be a corruption of French {{lang|fr|pâte à chaud}} ({{literally|hot pastry/dough}}). The term "choux" has two meanings in the early literature. One is a kind of cheese puff, first documented in the 13th century; the other corresponds to the modern choux pastry and is documented in English, German, and French cookbooks in the 16th century.{{Cite journal |last=Potter |first=David |date=July 2003 |title=Powches, Puffs and Profiteroles: Early Choux Paste Receipts |url=https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/ppc/ppc-073-july-2003-pdf-only/ |journal=Petits Propos Culinaires |volume=73 |pages=25–40}}{{Cite web |title=Trésor de la langue française informatisé |url=https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/chou |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=www.cnrtl.fr |publisher=Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales}} s.v. 'chou' This dough was sometimes baked, sometimes fried. Choux pastry is later widely documented in the 18th century, under names including Pate a la Royale or Paste Royal.

Popelins were common aristocratic desserts in the 16th century, and were flavored with cheese or citrus (for example lemon peel, orange blossom water, etc.).{{cite web |access-date=5 Jan 2021 |url=https://www.parisunlocked.com/food/food-history/french-choux-pastry-a-short-history/#A_Bit_of_History |title=French Choux Pastry: A Short History |date=29 Jul 2021 |first=Courtney |last=Traub |website=Paris Unlocked}} They were prepared from dough that had been dried over a fire to evaporate its water, which was called {{lang|fr|pâte à chaud}}.S.G. Sender, Marcel Derrien, La Grande Histoire de la pâtisserie-confiserie française, Minerva, 2003 {{ISBN|2-8307-0725-7}}, {{p.|98}}.

The royal chefs Jean Avice, a {{lang|fr|pâtissier|italic=no}}, and {{lang|fr|Antoine Carême|italic=no}}, who worked in the court of Marie Antoinette, made modifications to the recipe in the 18th century, resulting in the recipe most commonly used now for profiteroles.{{cite book |last=Juillet |first=Claude |title=Classic Patisserie: An A–Z Handbook |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann |year=1998 |isbn=0-7506-3815-X}}

The name {{lang|fr|pouplin}} ({{literally|baby, small child}}), later {{lang|fr|popelin}} or {{lang|fr|poupelin}}, is attested in around 1349 for a kind of cake made with flour and eggs.{{Cite web |title=Trésor de la langue française informatisé |url=https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/poupelin |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=www.cnrtl.fr |publisher=Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales}} s.v. 'poupelin'

A widely repeated story claims that choux pastry was invented in 1540 by a Pantanelli and a Popelini (neither of whom is ever cited with a first name), supposedly the pastry chefs of Queen Catherine de' Medici, the Italian wife of King Henry II of France.e.g., {{cite book |title=Le Cordon Bleu patisserie foundations |date=2 December 2011 |publisher=Delmar |isbn=978-1-4390-5713-1 |location=Clifton Park, New York}} This is part of the fiction that Italian cuisine was introduced to France by her retinue,{{Cite book |last=David |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWGtAAAAQBAJ&dq=imagination+of+one+or+the+popular+historical+novelists+elizabeth+david&pg=PT10 |title=Italian Food |date=1987 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-1-4059-1737-7 |language=en}} apparently first mentioned in the 18th century.{{cite book|author=Barbara Ketcham Wheaton|title=Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTzZT_3DQTcC|year=2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-4373-5|pages=43–51}}

b. {{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Mennell|title=All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wdRnNPb8z3sC|edition=2nd|year=1996|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-06490-6|pages=65–66, 69–71}}{{cite book |last1=Diderot |first1=Denis |title=Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers |last2=le Rond d'Alembert |first2=Jean |date=1754 |publisher=Briasson, David, Le Breton and Durand |location=Paris |page=vol. IV, p. 538}} Pantenelli supposedly invented the dough in 1540,{{cite web |last=Broder |first=Jaye |date=19 Jan 2014 |title=Pâte À Choux |url=https://sites.psu.edu/doughries/2014/01/19/choux/https://sites.psu.edu/doughries/2014/01/19/choux/ |access-date=5 Jan 2022 |website=Doughries}} seven years after the arrival of Catherine in France. He is said to have used the dough to make a gâteau named {{lang|fr|pâte à Pantanelli}}. Over time, the recipe of the dough evolved, and the name changed to {{lang|fr|pâte à popelin}}, which was used to make {{lang|fr|popelins}}, named after Pantanelli's successor Popelini. However, the story of Popelini, also called Popelin, only appears in the beginning of the 1890s in the writings of the French pastry chef {{ill|Pierre Lacam|fr}}.Bienassis, Loïc; Campanini, Antonella (6 December 2022), Brioist, Pascal; Quellier, Florent (eds.), "La reine à la fourchette et autres histoires. Ce que la table française emprunta à l'Italie : analyse critique d'un mythe", [https://books.openedition.org/pufr/32492 La table de la Renaissance : Le mythe italien], Tables des hommes (in French), Tours: Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, pp. 29–88, {{isbn|978-2-86906-842-1}}, [https://books.openedition.org/pufr/32517 full text] retrieved 5 October 2023{{Cite book |last1=Lacam |first1=Pierre |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9735327k |title=Le Glacier classique et artistique en France et en Italie |last2=Charabot |first2=Antoine |date=1893 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=2329610289 |edition=2021 reprint |language=fr}} The story is clearly fictional given that poupelins are attested long before the 16th century, with the name Popelini being created from the word {{lang|fr|popelin}} and not the other way around; similarly, Pantarelli appears to be derived from {{lang|fr|pâte}}.

The ingredients for choux pastry are butter, water, flour and eggs. Like Yorkshire pudding or David Eyre's pancake, instead of a raising agent, it employs high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry. The high moisture content is achieved by boiling the water and butter, then adding the flour. The mixture is cooked a few minutes longer, then cooled before adding enough eggs to achieve the desired consistency. The boiling step causes the starch in the flour to gel, allowing the incorporation of more water.{{cite book |last1=McGee |first1=Harold |title=On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen |date=2004 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York, New York |isbn=0-684-80001-2 |pages=552–553, 612 |edition=Completely rev. and updated. }}

{{Main|List of choux pastry dishes}}

This pastry is used to make choux (small puffs), as the name implies, but also profiteroles, {{lang|fr|croquembouches|italic=no}}, éclairs, {{lang|fr|religieuses|italic=no}}, French crullers, {{lang|fr|beignets|italic=no}}, and gâteau St-Honoré.

It's used in savory recipes also like Parisian gnocchi, dumplings,{{cite book| first1= Henri-Paul |last1= Pellaprat| first2= Jeremiah |last2= Tower| title= The Great Book of French Cuisine| year= 2012| publisher= Vendome Press| isbn= 9780865652798}} {{lang|fr|chouquettes|italic=yes}} (unfilled choux pastry paired with pearl sugar),cite web |last1=David |first1=Lebovitz |url=https://www.davidlebovitz.com/les-chouquettes/ |access-date=24 October 2021 |language=en pommes dauphine and gougères.

Choux pastry is usually baked, but for beignets, it is fried. In Spain and Latin America, churros are made of fried choux pastry, sugared and dipped in a thick hot chocolate for breakfast. In Italian cuisine, choux pastry is the base for {{lang|it|zeppole di San Giuseppe|italic=yes}}, which are cream-filled pastries eaten on March 19 for the feast of Saint Joseph. In Austrian cuisine, one variation of {{lang|de-AT|Marillenknödel}}, a sweet apricot dumpling{{Cite web |url= http://www.gutekueche.at/marillenknoedel-aus-brandteig-rezept-21814 |title=Recipe for this variation of Marillenknödel |language=de | website= GuteKueche.at| date= | publisher= | access-date= }} cooked in simmering water, uses choux pastry; in that case it does not puff, but remains relatively dense. Choux pastries are sometimes filled with cream after baking to make cream puffs or éclairs.{{cite web |url=http://www.justhungry.com/2004/04/basics_choux_pa.html |title=Basics: Choux pastry |work=Just Hungry |date=2004-04-06 |access-date=2010-09-08}}

A {{lang|de|craquelin|italic=yes}} is covered in a "crackly" sugar topping — and often filled with pastry cream, much like an éclair.

{{Main|Chouquette (pastry)}}

File:Chouquette.jpg

A {{lang|fr|chouquette|italic=yes}} ({{IPA|fr|ʃukɛt|lang}}), a diminutive of {{lang|fr|choux}}, is a small, round, hollow choux pastry covered with pearl sugar.{{cite web|url=http://www.cuisine-french.com/cgi/mdc/l/en/recettes/chouquettes_ill.html |title=Illustrated recipes, kitchenware shop, kitchen accessories, professional cookware on Meilleur du Chef |publisher=Cuisine-french.com |access-date=2012-05-01}}{{cite book|last1=Harlé|first1=Eva|title=Pains et Viennoiseries|date=18 March 2015|publisher=Hachette Pratique|isbn=9782014600407|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gg0DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|access-date=1 October 2016|language=fr}} Unlike éclairs, which are also made with choux pastry, {{lang|fr|chouquettes|italic=yes}} are bite-sized and the hollow inside is not filled.

{{lang|fr|Chouquettes|italic=yes}} originate from Paris, France, and can be enjoyed at anytime of the day, typically for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.{{Cite web|last=Rose|first=Lucie|date=2015-01-12|title=Meet the Chouquette: Parisian Breakfast at its Finest|url=https://frenchly.us/meet-chouquette-parisian-breakfast-finest/|access-date=2021-03-29|website=Frenchly|language=en-US}}

File:Bignè2.JPG|Mixing choux pastry dough for {{lang|fr|beignets|italic=no}}

File:Bignè4.JPG|Piping out the dough for {{lang|fr|beignets|italic=no}} with a pastry bag

File:Profiteroles.jpg|Classic Profiteroles serving, with chocolate sauce

File:Choux pastry swans.jpg|Choux pastry swans

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{{Wiktionary-inline|choux pastry|pâte à choux}}

• Kitchener bun
• Profiterole
• {{ill|Choux à la crème|fr}}
• Éclair
• List of choux pastry dishes

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Category:Doughs

Category:French pastries