My parchment paper burned while baking pate a choux

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

mryummy

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
16
Ok so I went through the trouble of making pate a choux last night. I used a pastry bag to lay out small ball sized shapes onto a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.


About 10 minutes into the baking (at ~410 degrees) the parchment paper started burn, specifically the portion that extended past the edge of the tray and touched up against the inside wall of the oven.


I took out the tray and sniped it off with a scissor, and placed it back in. However a few minutes later I noticed that the underside of the pastries were now dark brown and burning, while the tops were still white. Somehow the parchment paper or the bottom of the pate a choux was burning.


The tray was on the bottom rack in the oven, and I did apply egg wash to all the pastries, perhaps a bit too much that may have dripped down the sides of each pastry and settled around its underside.


The other thing I forgot to do was add 1/2 cup of water to the batter/paste. I only used 1/2 cup of milk. I'm not sure if that means that they dried out too much, but the paste was silky when I applied it, so I would be surprised if that was the answer.


The recipe called to line the tray with either parchment paper or buttered wax paper. What is the story here? Why would parchment paper burn, and would I have better luck with wax paper? Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't the wax melt and get all over the pastries? And wouldn't it eventually burn too?
 
Have you checked your oven temperature?

Parchment paper often darkens a lot but mine has never actually burned except right along the edges.

The fact that your pastry was dark on the bottom yet undercooked says to me that the oven was too hot.
 
I've never had parchment paper ignite, but I don't think I have ever used it at temps much above 375F. Even the newest ovens can be off - several years ago, I bought a beautiful, expensive range with two ovens, one up and one down. After checking with an oven thermometer, I found that both of them were 50F too hot, so I just adjusted for that.
 
And shouldn't the tray be on the middle rack of the oven versus the bottom rack? That could be another reason the undersides burned.
 
I make NYT bread all the time using parchment paper baked at 450F for 45 minutes, and have never had it burn. I buy my parchment paper from a restaurant supply in full sheets, so that may be factor as well. I have never used the rolls that tear off like waxed paper that you buy in the grocery store. That stuff is just too expensive per square foot. Most likely it's the oven temp, but it also could be the quality of the paper. Oh, and I never bake anything on the bottom shelf in my oven.
 
Yeah I used a thermometer but even it is off I believe. I will try again, this time using a double cookie sheet, putting it on the middle rack, and being more careful with the egg wash, as well as lowering the temp ~25-30 degrees. I'll also make sure to add the 1/2 cup water to the paste, it may have dried a bit on the bottom.

Also, just to be clear, the paper didn't ignite, but rather darkened so much that it started to smell in the house of burned paper and burned past a choux.

Thanks for all the tips, it seems this oven does need to have its temperature recalibrated.
 
If you don't cut the paper to the appropriate size, it with burn/brown and put off an odd smell. Run a pairing knife along the inside edge of the baking sheet to trim it.

I don't bake, but the same exact thing happened to the DW once. She couldn't find the right width paper at the store and bought the real wide package instead.
 
I've never had parchment paper ignite, but I don't think I have ever used it at temps much above 375F. Even the newest ovens can be off - several years ago, I bought a beautiful, expensive range with two ovens, one up and one down. After checking with an oven thermometer, I found that both of them were 50F too hot, so I just adjusted for that.

Thx for this suggestion. Just a clarification, the paper did not ignite into flames. It just browned and sort of burned from the heat I think.
 
Spent all night making eclairs... and they collapsed

I concur with others. I think part of the problem was putting the tray on the bottom rack. That's just too close to the heating element.

Thanks for all the feedback, I got much further but am still coming up short.

Just when I thought I nailed this patte a choux, I turn over my eclairs to find that they deflated from the *underside*, so that I didn't even notice until I had already gone through the trouble of making the filling.
What's the trick? I have read multiple recipes with a whole variety of oven temperatures.



I've seen some that say to leave the oven door open after 5 minutes, others say after 20 minutes. I can't tell if the inside of mine are under cooked after 25 minutes of cooking, or if the steam didn't get a chance to escape and therefore the dough became mushy inside.
 
Ok so I went through the trouble of making pate a choux last night. I used a pastry bag to lay out small ball sized shapes onto a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.


About 10 minutes into the baking (at ~410 degrees) the parchment paper started burn, specifically the portion that extended past the edge of the tray and touched up against the inside wall of the oven.


I took out the tray and sniped it off with a scissor, and placed it back in. However a few minutes later I noticed that the underside of the pastries were now dark brown and burning, while the tops were still white. Somehow the parchment paper or the bottom of the pate a choux was burning.


The tray was on the bottom rack in the oven, and I did apply egg wash to all the pastries, perhaps a bit too much that may have dripped down the sides of each pastry and settled around its underside.


The other thing I forgot to do was add 1/2 cup of water to the batter/paste. I only used 1/2 cup of milk. I'm not sure if that means that they dried out too much, but the paste was silky when I applied it, so I would be surprised if that was the answer.


The recipe called to line the tray with either parchment paper or buttered wax paper. What is the story here? Why would parchment paper burn, and would I have better luck with wax paper? Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't the wax melt and get all over the pastries? And wouldn't it eventually burn too?

First off, pate a choux is nothing more than water, butter, flour & eggs, with a pinch of salt.
I don't know your recipe that adds milk and an egg wash.
I've never heard of resting in the oven for any amount of time after they are done.
You just remove them and pierce them to let the steam escape.
As far as oven temps; 10 minutes @ 425, then 10 more minutes @ 325/350, depending on how big you've made them. Oh, and they shouldn't be brown.
They are very easy and so many things can be made with them as a base.
 
Choux pastry should be baked on a tray that has been run under a cold tap and then the pastry placed in spoonfuls/piped onto this. Also, it is worth making with strong flour/bread flour as the gluten potential is higher.

Hope this helps,
Archiduc
 
choux pastry points

hello, i'm fairly new to this discussion board but i have made this many times and just wanted to assist mryummy.

As far as oven temps; 10 minutes @ 425, then 10 more minutes @ 325/350, depending on how big you've made them.
i think that this is a good oven setting, adjusting with your oven's idiosyncrasies.

I don't know your recipe that adds milk...
milk gives choux pastry a more tender shell leading to deflated puffs if you don't make it correctly, which is why many recipes use all water instead of milk. more water means a crisper shell, and a higher success rate of not collapsing over a period of time. i've used various combination of milk and water and have even made full milk recipes. so a whole milk choux pastry recipe is possible, just not always desirable.

it is worth making with strong flour/bread flour as the gluten potential is higher
you actually don't want the gluten ummm...overly stimulated (?) as you want a delicate pastry and not a chewy bread texture. plus i would think that the gluten might inhibit the puffing of your pastry. you don't want the batter kneaded but i've found that beating/incorporating air into the batter assists with getting your puffs to pouf.

there's a discussion on the King Arthur Flour blog about a batter that is very similar to choux pastry, popovers (aka Yorkshire pudding). same basic ingredients with different proportions: eggs, milk/water, flour and butter. both also have cavernous interiors risen by the power of steam. information is very relavent to the food science of choux pastry.

just wanted to contribute my 2 cents and not step on any toes. hope the info helps :)
 
Last edited:
Ok so I went through the trouble of making pate a choux last night. I used a pastry bag to lay out small ball sized shapes onto a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.


About 10 minutes into the baking (at ~410 degrees) the parchment paper started burn, specifically the portion that extended past the edge of the tray and touched up against the inside wall of the oven.


I took out the tray and sniped it off with a scissor, and placed it back in. However a few minutes later I noticed that the underside of the pastries were now dark brown and burning, while the tops were still white. Somehow the parchment paper or the bottom of the pate a choux was burning.


The tray was on the bottom rack in the oven, and I did apply egg wash to all the pastries, perhaps a bit too much that may have dripped down the sides of each pastry and settled around its underside.


The other thing I forgot to do was add 1/2 cup of water to the batter/paste. I only used 1/2 cup of milk. I'm not sure if that means that they dried out too much, but the paste was silky when I applied it, so I would be surprised if that was the answer.


The recipe called to line the tray with either parchment paper or buttered wax paper. What is the story here? Why would parchment paper burn, and would I have better luck with wax paper? Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn't the wax melt and get all over the pastries? And wouldn't it eventually burn too?

I just used parchment paper last week when I made biscotti. It says to cut it to fit within the size of the pan...not to allow it to hang over the edge or touch oven walls or racks.

Reynolds Parchment Paper: The Basics: Frequently Asked Questions
 
Back
Top Bottom