October 1, 2003
Chouquettes (Sugar Puffs)
2008 update. Below is a revised recipe, as it appears in Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris, my book on Paris restaurants and food shops.
2009 update. I have slightly improved upon the recipe with a couple of tricks: I now sprinkle the baking sheet with pearl sugar so the chouquettes are more evenly studded, and I brush the raw chouquettes with a sugar syrup to form a slight caramelized crust on top, and help the pearl sugar adhere.
Here is the recipe for chouquettes. For the whole adventure, see Chouquette Story.
Chouquettes (Sugar Puffs)
- 6 tablespoons (75 g) unsalted butter, diced
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar
- 1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour, sifted
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- Pearl sugar for sprinkling (see note)
For the sugar syrup:
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
Makes about 40.
Resting time: 30 minutes.
Make sure you have all the ingredients measured out before you start. Combine the butter, salt, sugar, and 1 cup (240 ml) fresh water in a small saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, add the flour all at once, and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until well blended. Return the pan over medium-low heat and keep stirring until the mixture forms a smooth ball that pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Let cool for 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a day; you have just made choux pastry.
Make the sugar syrup: combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over high heat, lower the heat to medium, and simmer for 1 minute. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Sprinkle pearl sugar evenly on the prepared sheet. Remove the batter from the fridge and use two teaspoons - or a piping bag fitted with a plain tip - to form small balls of batter, about the size of a walnut, that you will plop on the prepared sheet, leaving an inch of space between them. Brush with the sugar syrup using a pastry brush, and sprinkle with pearl sugar. (There will be some unused pearl sugar on the sheet, but don't worry about it now; you can collect the grains after baking and reuse them for another batch.)
Bake for 20 minutes, until puffed up and golden brown (never ever open the oven door during the first 10 minutes of baking). Turn off the oven, open the door just a crack, and leave the chouquettes in for another 5 minutes to prevent a temperature shock, which would cause them to deflate.
Transfer to a rack and let cool completely before serving. Keep any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature, and reheat for 5 minutes in a 300°F (150°C) oven to restore the original texture.
Note: Pearl sugar -- sucre perlé in French, and available at G. Detou in Paris -- comes in coarse, lentil-sized nuggets that remain crunchy when baked. It sometimes goes by the name of nib sugar, and can be purchased wherever cake-decorating supplies are sold, in Scandinavian shops (the Swedish call it pärlsocker), or online. If you can't find it, crush sugar cubes in a sturdy storage bag using a rolling pin or a meat mallet; you may find this quite relaxing. Alternatively, use a coarse sugar, such as Demerera or Turbinado, chopped caramelized nuts, or chocolate chips.
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Cooking/baking time: 20 min
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Oh, I have all the ingredients for this (save the coarse sugar), so I think I will make them tonight! I'm tempted to do a batch of cheese puffs and one with sugar (with a streudel topping in lieu of the coarse sugar).
Jackie - So glad you tried it and blogged about it!
hi clotilde! and happy (belated) birthday! i have just popped my chouquettes in the oven, and am dying to see if they will puff up at all. my pâte is very runny (not walnut-sized, but coin-shaped) - we'll see. btw, after reading about trish deseine on your site, i have since found "le bonheur est dans le plat" and am saving my "loonies" for a copy of "J'en veux encore". that melted butter/chocolate confection that masquerades as a cake is just fantastic!!
take care
-kelli ann
Kelli ann - So, so, so? How'd it go?
oh i tried your recipe so many times, a big hit each time!!!! thanks, they are all puffy, little crispy on the top. QUE DU BONHEUR!!!
Bravo pour ton blog!!!!
Clotilde,
I've been drooling over so many of your recipes for about a year now, and never concidered myself very talented in the kitchen. So I never attempted any of your recipes until recently, in fear that I would put them to shame.
One day I became overwhelmed with the urge to try my hand at one though. I tried your oeuf cocotte. It was a flop. I don't know what I did wrong. the egg remained raw and it remained runny throughout. I was a little disappointed but today I had my go at your chouquettes.
Well I'm wondering if you could help me out a little, here. Maybe I'm not meant to cook or bake, but I'd like to have another go at it. I'd like to check with you on if the dough. Is it supposed to be runny or, well, doughy? I found mine was really runny (leaving me with more than enough "pâte à choux soup" to make 25 blobs on my pan) and then once I put them in the oven after about 5 minutes they had puffed up a tiny bit but were turning black.
So, can you help me?
Thanks,
Maegan
When you test the temperature of your oven, if it appears to be accurate, you might consider going one step further. Many years ago living in military housing, I did my usual baking but had some pretty unusual results. I tested the temperature: set oven to 350 degrees F, wait 15 minutes, check thermometer. Seemed fine. Waited another 15 minutes and checked again. Seemed fine. But when I checked again after a total of 45 minutes, the temperature read 500 degrees. So the next day, I got a good book, looked up a bunch of daytime tv programs I'd enjoy, and began what became my serious testing of the oven's thermostat. I set the oven at the lowest temperature, waited 15 minutes. Recorded the temperature in the oven. Then every 15 minutes thereafter, I set the oven for 25 degrees higher, and recorded the results. While waiting I enjoyed that book and the tv shows. Took quite awhile to test ALL temperatures on the oven's knob. And I discovered something interesting. The oven heated to 200 degrees but at some point around the oven being set for 350 degrees the oven actually heated to 500 degrees. So I did another test the next day. I set the oven for 325 degrees and waited one hour. The oven's temperature was 200 degrees. So I set the oven for 350 degrees and waited another hour. The oven's temperature was 500 degrees. I reported the faulty oven to the powers that be, who sent out a technician who told me that no thermometer I bought was adequate to actually test my oven's temperature. So I showed him the page of recorded oven settings and times and temperatures recorded by my inadequate thermometer. He had to acknowledge that the marked difference was great enough to show that the oven's thermostat was faulty. I got a new oven. Then at a wives' function when I told the story, someone told me that the woman who'd lived in the house before me had complained about the oven, and been told by a technician that it was fine. My having data to disprove that made all the difference. But I suspect some other woman got that faulty oven taken from my place--hey if a quick test shows it's fine, it's fine. Right? NOT. Sorry this is so long, but thought you should have some idea of how to be sure that your oven achieves the temperature you set. Good luck with the baking!
Maegan - The dough for the chouquettes is supposed to be doughy, not runny. Did you measure the ingredients with a scale? As for the oeuf cocotte, did you put *hot* water in the dish to surround your ramequins? And it sounds like maybe your oven wasn't hot enough -- it may be a good idea to test its accuracy with an oven thermometer. Hope that helps a little and good luck with your future endeavors!
Thank you for you quick reply!
I did not measure using a scale, but I attempted to used you conversion page. Maybe I incorrectly converted my flour amount to a little over 1/2 a cup. Maybe I should have used more. Who knows maybe I just made a silly slipup, and didn't notice.
I shall also have to check my oven's accuracy once I get a chance. Thank you so much, and I'll let you know how it all turns out.
dear clotilde,
yesterday night i did your chouquettes and at the second try they came out perfect! let me explain my error to meagan, i'm pretty sure that most of the people who, at the end, had they dough more liquid than solid made my same mistake:
be sure to add the flour while the saucepan is still on heat and keep it there until the dough loose its liquid aspect and start to solidify.
now you can let it cool in a bowl before adding the eggs one by one.
Meagan you can be a very good cooker, the secret at the beginning is to be very sever and follow every single step of the recipe and measure everything, never adding or taking away any extra gram or ml of any ingredient.
at my first try i didn't notice this passage, i had added the flour when the melted butter-water-sugar were already in the bowl and the recipe was definitively ruined. (i actually tried to add some bicarbonate and to put the liquid dough in small cups in the oven, they just turned brown and burned in 5 minutes, there was no hope for them)
once you have your fluffy chouquettes, just cut them horizontally and fill them with fresh wiped cream, they seam to be born for that!
ciao
Clotilede, i really enjoy both the recipe and the picture of your blog.
actually i miss some pics of the key passage of the recipes, to know how a dough looks like at the end is essential, especialy for beginners like us.
vale
ps
meagan i'm going to send you some pics of how it turned out my first and my second time, clotilde i couldn't find your mail to put you in copy.
I was just wondering if anyone knew the American measurements? The recipe sounds wonderful, but I sadly only have access to cups and measuring spoons...help?
Sarah - I've updated the recipe above with the American-style measurements. Happy chouquetting!
Hi Clotilde,
I tried to make your recipe of chouquettes today, but unfortunately my dough was more like a batter. After 'googling' a bit I changed the ingredients to 100cc water, 50 g butter, 75 g flour, little salt, 10 g sugar and 1 teaspoon baking powder. This worked out far better for me. I did make some nice blini-looking 'things' with the batter and with some chocolate creme inside they were really scrumptious.
After a burning failing 1st attempt, I have successfully brought out a lovely second batch!
There's a couple of things I thought that may help others -
1) - coarse sugar - i ididn't have any - but the ones sold in Paul's (sorry Clotilde!!) seem to be just small lumps of caster sugar .. so I mixed a tsp of water into 1/3 cup of sugar until small lumps form and leave it to dry out a little whilst I prepare my other ingredients. At the end I drop a small lump of this messy sugar and press the 'lump' lightly - which spreads out perfectly as small lumps!
2) I also had the problem of runny batter - but I found (by accident) - that by the time I baked the second batch with the same batter as the 1st - the batter had cooled down quite a bit and became much harder and more walnut like! So I would say give the dough a chance to cool down a fraction before making balls!
Thanks Clotilde for the wonderful recipe - before this chouquettes was one of those things that I thought only the bakers could make!
So excited to see this recipe. I gained a couple of kilos eating these the last time I was in Paris from the little pattesarie on the Ille St Louis. These little gems and Berthillan ice cream on the same island. Bliss. Thank you for sharing!
Sugar puffs - delightful little drops of happiness! How I loved making them from your book, and how I'll love making them again this weekend. They cause a bit of a conundrum though: though delicious enough to share with friends, it is very tempting to discretely hide them just for yourself. Soooo goood!
Here is a link to Cooks' Illustrated oven temp measuring trick.
clotilde,
could these be made in a madeleine pan? i got one for xmas and wanted to use it! haven't found a madeleine recipe yet...
hilary
Hilary - You could dollop the batter into your madeleine molds -- they should impart slight ridges to the bottom of the chouquettes -- but it would not be very traditional.
These are added to my list! I adore things like this. I also just love the name of your site. How catchy!!! I'll be back to read some more soon.
I made these this evening with demerara sugar as I don't know where to get sucre perlé in london, and they puffed up beautifully but I left them in a bit too long so they are a darker brown than your golden lovelies - but no matter, they still taste good. I have never seen them in France but will look next time I go...to try the real thing.
Thanks for the recipe and all your other entertaining wonderings!
I happily discovered that Ikea sells sugar pearls in their grocery section. My husband's first stop when he returns to France for vacation is to buy chouquettes at the bakery. This is one of the main pleasures he misses living in the US. I made them several times without the pearls but it just isn't the same without them!
message for hilary:: i use the madeleine recipe from the trish deseine book i mentioned waaaay back in 2004, in a comment to this same post! (huge coincidence) -- it is infallible, buttery and eggy and delicious (and trish is right, a silicon madeleine pan is a blessing!) will be baking both chouquettes and gougères again very soon; david leibovitz had a piece over the holidays about cheese puffs. mmm-- cheese!
thanks for the American measurements - these look fantastic! Hope I can do it without deflating them. :)
I made this last night and it came out great! Couldn't find pearl sugar so i either ate them plain or filled them with nutella. delicious! Thank you!
Hi Clotilde, I love these and have been wanting to make them, and now I'm inspired. Two questions, though. Which French flour do you use, and do you use the convection setting on your oven to bake these? Thanks!
Ellise - I use either T55 or T65 flour, depending on what I have on hand. And you can use the convection setting of your oven, but then it's best to lower the temp a little after the first 5 minutes of baking, to compensate for the more efficient heat circulation. Happy chouquetting!
Hi Clotilde,
I was wondering if these little beauties would last for a school fete....or do they have to be eaten fairly quickly after baking??
Evelyn - These will last for a few hours, but I'd bake them as close as possible to the time of the fete (e.g. in late morning if the party is in the afternoon). Make sure you don't underbake them, too, or they'll turn softer sooner.
Thankyou for your response! I'll give them a go and let you know the results soon.
Love your website and it's a great source of inspiration!
Isn't this recipe a cream puff recipe?
Sonja - Cream puffs (in French: choux à la crème) are cousins of chouquettes, and you can use the same basic pâte à choux recipe: just hold the pearl sugar and fill them with pastry cream once cool.
Hi Clotilde,
Big fan of your website. Quick question. Do you happen to have any thoughts on savory versions of choquettes - with certain herbs, like rosemary?
Thanks,
Kartik
The most classic savory version of this is the gougère, which is like a cheese chouquette. I love them (great for an apéritif), and like to flavor them with cumin -- I have a recipe in my cookbook, if you want to take a look.
When my daughter and I were visiting friends near Giverny, the hostess put out a plate of these little gems (with chocolate chips). We "accidentally" ate the whole plate! Had to ask what they were, so I could make them when I came back to the States. Thanks to your easy to follow recipe, everyone at home now LOVES them too! I ended up crushing sugar cubes (which worked perfectly) and stirred in some chocolate chips. I think the key is to make sure they aren't too big. I also learned not to store them in tupperware or they get soggy FAST!
That's wonderful to hear, Laura, thank you.