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Petits Choux Aux Fruits

A small choux pastry filled with pineapple and chocolate frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Petits Choux Aux Fruits

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux dough

  1. In a saucepan, combine butter and boiling water over medium heat until boiling.

  2. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously until well combined.

  3. Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a buttered baking sheet, spacing them 1½ inches apart.

  2. Shape each mound slightly with the handle of the spoon, making them circular and slightly piled in the center.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

Make the filling and frosting

  1. Once cooled, split the pastries and fill them.

  2. For the filling, heat the shredded pineapple until boiling, then add cornstarch mixed with cold water and stir until smooth.

  3. Bring to a boil again and let it boil for 3 minutes, adding a pinch of salt.

  4. For the frosting, melt chocolate in a small saucepan over hot water, then add butter and boiling water.

  5. Cool slightly and mix in confectioners' sugar until the desired consistency is reached, then flavor with vanilla.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough and frosting, tenderizing the pastry.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the choux shape as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and help the dough puff and set as it bakes.
Cornstarch
Thickens the pineapple juice into a smooth, stable filling.
Chocolate
Gives the frosting its flavor and richness.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs to the dough. Eggs must be beaten in one at a time so each is fully absorbed, giving a smooth, glossy dough that can puff properly. Added too fast, the dough can split or stay loose.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, chocolate, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, chocolate, sugar, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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