Choux, pronounced shoo, is the only common pastry dough that is cooked twice: once in a pan on the stove, and again in the oven. Everything strange about it follows from that. It contains no raising agent, it is a batter rather than a dough by the time it reaches the piping bag, and it inflates because of steam alone. A profiterole is mostly air held in a thin shell, and getting that shell to hold is a technical problem rather than a recipe.
What happens in the pan
Water, or water and milk, is brought to the boil with butter. Flour goes in all at once and the mixture is stirred hard until it comes together into a smooth paste that pulls away from the sides. That paste is then dried out over the heat for a minute or two, which drives off moisture and gelatinises the starch. This is the step people skip. A wet paste gives a weak shell.
The paste is cooled, then eggs are beaten in one at a time. The finish is judged by feel, not by count: the paste should fall from the spatula in a thick ribbon and hold a soft peak. Too much egg and the shells spread flat. Too little and they stay dense and closed. Eggs vary in size, so a recipe that specifies four is only ever a starting point.
What happens in the oven
The water in the paste turns to steam, which pushes the shell outwards and hollows the centre. At the same time the egg proteins and the gelatinised starch set into a structure firm enough to keep that cavity once the steam has gone. Open the oven too early and the shell collapses before it has set. Pull it out before the walls have dried and it will soften on the bench within minutes.
Once a shell is properly baked and dried, it stays crisp and empty, which is why choux is filled as late as possible. That is a kitchen discipline rather than a preference.
Where you can taste it here
The Paris-Brest is a ring of choux split and filled with roasted coconut cream and passionfruit whipped cream, so you get the nutty roasted note against something bright and tart; there is a story behind that one. The Carolina sits a dulce de leche mousse on a choux base under a dark chocolate ganache montée, which simply means whipped ganache, light in the way a mousse is light, then finishes with roasted white chocolate and salted caramel. Both are single servings and both live in the mini desserts cabinet alongside the small-format work in mini cakes and petit fours.
For choux served hot, the banoffee profiterole is a shell filled with vanilla ice cream, bananas caramelised with orange and rum, and a dulce de leche sauce. It is made to order at the counter, along with the rest of the hot desserts.
Learning to pipe it, and why to book two seats
The Choux class is $130 and works through the paste, the piping and the bake with Dhi, who trained at French and Italian culinary schools and has spent more than eighteen years in patisserie. Public classes are capped at four people.
Book two of the four places. Choux is a technique with two hands' worth of jobs happening at once: one person beats in the egg while the other reads the consistency, one pipes while the other keeps the bag loaded and the tray straight. You also leave with twice as much, and with someone who watched the same paste come together, which matters the first time you try it at home and it does not behave. Dates are listed in upcoming classes, the formats are explained on the class information page, and group and team sessions sit under bookable experiences.
Ordering, collection and hours
Choux from the cabinet needs no notice, and neither do drinks such as a coffee or a Zealong teapot for one. Hot desserts are made to order in about ten minutes. Anything ordered ahead needs two days, and you choose the pickup date and time at checkout. Class places are booked online against set dates. Everything is collected from our patisserie inside The Welder, 20 to 26 Welles Street in the central city; we do not deliver. Hours are 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday.
