Chouquettes are small, easy-to-make delicacies that can be eaten without hunger and therefore disappear very quickly when you prepare them for your grandchildren! The choux pastry which is the base of the chouquettes would find its origin in Italy in the XVIth century:Popelini, a pastry chef of the court of Catherine de Medici, had created a cake made of "hot pastry", the Popelin , whose dough was dried out over the fire. Two centuries later in 1760, the pastry chef of Talleyrand, Jean Avice, formed choux from this preparation which took the name of "pâte à choux". A few years later, one of his apprentices, Antonin Carême, perfected the current version of choux pastry to make incredible mounted pieces.
Choux pastry is the basis of chouquettes:it is made from ingredients that are in all the cupboards and refrigerators of pastry lovers, except perhaps the crystal sugar which makes chouquettes so special. Moreover, no specific utensil is required other than a saucepan, preferably with a thick bottom, and a baking sheet or oven drip pan. If you've heard that choux pastry is hard to make, don't believe it and give it a go!
Heat the milk and water in a saucepan with the butter. When the butter is melted and the liquid comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and pour in the flour all at once, stirring vigorously until it forms a paste that comes away from the pan.
Add the sugar and salt, then the eggs, one after the other, so that the previous one has been well incorporated into the dough before breaking the next one.
On the baking sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper, make small piles of dough using two small spoons. Maintain 2cm between each cabbage to anticipate their increase in volume.
Sprinkle the sugar crystals over the puffs and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes then lower to 180°C for another 20 minutes.
Let cool and enjoy! However, if you have any left over, it is possible to keep them in a hermetically sealed box, once they have really cooled, otherwise they will soften.
