Chouquette Story

What are chouquettes (shoo-kett) you ask? Chouquettes are little "pâte à choux" pastry puffs, sprinkled with coarse sugar. They can be bought by weight in French bakeries, in a thin bulging paper bag. When you're a kid, the best part is eating the sugar cristals that have collected at the bottom of the bag when the last of the chouquettes has been devoured. The proper way to do this is lick your index finger and gently pick up the cristals (be warned, you may have to fight your sister for them), until the sugar is crushed too finely and you give up, then just pour the remains directly into your mouth, shaking the paper bag to get it all.

Chouquettes are also one of my darling boyfriend's favorites, and he can tell you which bakeries around his office or in our neighborhood have attained the best standards in quality chouquettes. [As a side note, if you want to know what the worst possible chouquette tastes like, he can recommend the dry, stale chouquettes at Saint Preux bakeries. These are chain bakeries that have been spreading all over Paris lately like some repulsive skin desease. They belong to the same group as Paul and Ladurée, and if that's the future of bakeries, let me commit suicide by chocolate mousse without further ado.]

Having recently, and to my great delight, found a bag of the special coarse sugar the making of chouquettes require (see related post), Saturday afternoon found me happily setting forth on the project of making my own chouquettes, sort of following the recipe given by this great cookbook Maxence (who knows me oh-so-well) gave me for my birthday last year, called "Les Gâteaux de Mamy" (Grandma's cakes). I say "sort of" because I did compare this recipe with others I found on the web, and changed a few things around based on their recommendations, like I usually do.

The first batch was submitted to the test of the in-house expert, who declared them yummy. He did say they were a little moister and eggier tasting than bakery-bought chouquettes, and I decided that this was because they were a little undercooked, as our oven seems to run a little colder than it says (note to self, buy an oven thermometer, find out if this is true and quit complaining). Some websites recommended to leave them to cool down a little in the turned off oven, but I am Jack's lack of patience, and I couldn't resist taking them out right away, which did cause them to deflate a little (no incidence on taste, of course, just looks).

So the second batch was baked at a higher temp and for a little while longer, leaving them inside for a little while this time. (The instructions below reflect this second method.) This second batch turned out to be just what our tastebuds hoped for : slightly crusty yet tender little pillows that melt in your mouth, contrasting with the delicously crunchy sugar cristals.

Want the recipe? It's here.

More chouquette pictures : a closeup, as they were cooling down on the rack and a group picture.