I don’t think it’s any secret how much I love working with choux pastry… I’ve written about it extensively here on this site… and it’s one of my favourite classes to teach too!
I’ve made choux pastry with my cooking club before as well – profiteroles for Christmas, chouquettes and gougères, just to name a few examples. Kids LOVE making choux – it’s the magical pastry that goes through various stages of looking like mashed potatoes, curdled eggs, an elastic, sticky dough and then, in the oven, transforms to become lovely airy puffs of deliciousness ready to be filled and decorated. It has both sweet and savoury applications too, which I love!
Since I know how much kids love making this, I was thrilled when, this term in Grade 4, a group of boys chose to research the history of profiteroles and, as a way of showing what they had learned, bake up a batch (actually three batches, so nearly 100!) and share with their classmates. As the “presentation” piece, the boys wanted to make a recipe video which, of course, I was very excited to help them with! Before you go thinking this was a simple, let’s answer a few questions, write up the answers and bake a batch of profiteroles whilst shooting a video-type project, I’ll have you know we started this project back in November 2016… We’ve worked a little bit each lesson on this project alongside other activities (preparing puppet and play presentations!) and the “research” piece has been challenging (with Grade 4 French, it’s hard to find “real-world” websites that they can understand – but we did!) but the boys’ excitement at sharing their work with their parents this week has made it all worthwhile!
So, without further ado, here’s how you make profiteroles according to Grade 4 (this is my version of the footage, the boys in the group each have their own (very) unique versions!):
Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as I share how to make crêpes and crème caramel (didn’t they choose delicious “research” topics?)
What a fantastic project to carry out by the boys! The video is fun and super helpful for those who’ve never made pâte à choux. Great job!
Thanks Marie – the boys do a great job of showing how easy it is!
This is SO cute! Great job, as always.
Aw thanks Jan! XO
Kids have no idea how hard it is to mix the eggs in by hand. I smiled the whole way through the video. So much fun. Really great job. Photography too.
It’s actually much easier to mix by hand at first – that way you know what the dough is supposed to feel like when it’s ready. Using a mixer it’s easy to overmix…. Thanks so much – it’s not very polished but I hope it shows that kids can do anything!
Such a cute video and those kids are really talented! I love working with choux pastry as well, and a profiterole cake has always been my birthday cake of choice in Italy (including last September). Thank you for showing that choux pastry is not as intimidating as it might seem, even kids can make it when following a good teacher.
Thanks so much! Choux definitely is SO much easier than it looks!
That video was fantastic!! The kids did a great job. I had forgotten how easy it was to make pastries like that. I know my family would love to eat some of those profiteroles. Looking forward to your other class projects.
I have always wanted to make these! I tried eclairs once and they didn’t turn out as nice as I had hoped! I will follow your instructions. I also love baking with groups of kids that age 🙂
Even if they don’t turn out as nice as you expect, you can always fill and top them and they’ll taste great!
Thanks for the video, you mmade it seem so simple to make profiterols! Will have to try once!
Okay FRENCH FRIDAYS?! How awesome is that! Love that so much! Great job on the video – so cute 🙂
What a wonderful video! Congratulations to teacher and students. I want to rush into the kitchen and make choux paste. Mardi, I am looking forward to your cookbook
Thanks so much – your enthusiasm and support is so appreciated!
Loved it….
Thanks 🙂 I loved making it!