Pate Aux Choux

This recipe comes from "Something Different for Passover " by Zell Shulman. Although it is meant for cream puffs, I have used it successfully for eclairs by using a plain wide tip on my pastry bag. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a large cookie sheet or cover it with greased foil or parchment. Sift together cake meal, potato starch and salt. Set aside Place water, butter, vanilla and sugar in the saucepan. Let come to a boil,stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat as soon as the butter melts, and add sifted ingredients all at once. Stir well with wooden spoon until mixture begins to form a ball and pulls away form the sides of the pan. Return to the heat for 1 to 2 minutes and stir constantly to extract all the moisture. Cool for 5 minutes Insert metal blade in processor. Place dough in work bowl. Add eggs all at once and pulse several times until eggs are mixed well into the dough and a smooth shiny ball begins to form. Scrape down ingredients at least once. THe dough is now ready. (Will keep for 24 hours in the fridge) Fill a pastry bag with dough and force through a #6 tube into mounds on the cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Or wet your hands with cold water and form balls. (For eclairs, I pipe them about 1 1/2 inches long) Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 Poke small air hole in each puff with tip of sharp knife and bake 40-50 minutes longer, or until golden brown. Remove to cake rack to cool. To assemble, cut off tops and pull out soft insides. Place 1 large TBS filling on bottom. Cover with top and ice with chocolate glaze (4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate melted with about 1/4 cp water). Refrigerate before serving. Note: can be frozen unfilled. Defrost in a 425 oven for 5 min. Makes 8-10 large or 12-16 small puffs. In my younger, more energetic days, I would turn the cream puffs into a French Croquenbouche (forgive spelling) by piling them into a pyramid and spinning a spun sugar web (a la Julia Child) over them to hold them together. Ill be glad to post this recipe or fillings should anyone want them. Posted to JEWISH-FOOD digest V97 #107 by Judith Sobel <jcs@mindspring.com> on Mar 30, 1997