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).

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

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

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?

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

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!