← Nouns Cooking · French

Ingredients

• 125 ml Milk
• 125 ml Water
• 100 g Butter, cubed
• 1 tsp Sugar
• ½ tsp Salt
• 150 g plain flour, sifted
• 4 eggs, beaten, plus 1 for glazing
• 60 g Pearl (nib) sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a rolling boil in a saucepan. Take off the heat, tip in all the flour and beat hard with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Return to medium heat and beat for 1–2 min, until the dough forms a ball and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan. Tip into a bowl and cool for 5 min.
4. Beat in the 4 eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition, until the dough is glossy and falls from the spoon in a thick V-shaped ribbon. You may not need quite all the egg.
5. Pipe or spoon walnut-sized mounds onto the trays, leaving space between them. Brush with the glazing egg and press on plenty of pearl sugar.
6. Bake for 22–25 min, until puffed, deep golden and light in the hand. Do not open the oven for the first 15 min or they may collapse. Cool on a rack.

Tips

• Pearl (nib) sugar does not melt in the oven; roughly crushed sugar cubes are a good stand-in.
• They are best eaten the day they are baked; re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven for 3 min.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Serious Eats King Arthur Baking David Lebovitz