Gluten Free Choux Pastry is a classic bakery style French pastry made by cooking butter, water, flour and eggs. The dough is simple to bake, then turn it into cream puffs, eclairs or profiteroles. This recipe delivers the same light, airy, bakery-style results you expect from classic pâte à choux just without the wheat!
What is Choux Pastry?
Choux pastry is the base for so many iconic desserts like cream puffs, éclairs, profiteroles, and even savory options like gougères. And while it looks fancy, it's surprisingly simple once you understand how it works. With the right gluten-free flour blend and a few key tips, you can absolutely master this at home!
Choux pastry (also called pâte à choux) is a cooked dough made from butter, water, flour, and eggs. Instead of using yeast or baking powder, choux pastry relies on steam to puff up in the oven, creating a hollow center that's perfect for fillings.
This Choux Pastry recipe is made of 4 basic ingredients:
- Eggs
- Gluten Free Flour
- Water
- Butter
That's it! You don't need anything fancy to make gluten-free choux pastry, which is the best part!
I used my grandmother's famous cream puff recipe subbing only the wheat flour for gluten-free flour, and the pastry turned out perfectly! I have been wanting to turn her original recipe into gluten free cream puffs for years and finally did it thanks to the amazing gluten-free flour blends out on the market!
This puff pastry can be cut in half and filled with anything sweet or savory! From classic custard cream for a fancy dessert, to chicken salad sandwiches served at your next luncheon. You can also poke a hole in the pastries and pipe filling inside. The options are endless!
Loving this recipe? Be sure to try out my Gluten Free Cream Puffs with Vanilla Custard Filling or Gluten Free Nutella Cream Puffs!
How Do You Make This Easy Gluten-Free Choux Pastry?
- Step 1: Heat the Water and Butter Place the butter & water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted. Bring mixture to a simmer.
- Step 2: Add the Flour. Once simmering, reduce heat to low and add the flour all at once. Stir until the flour is completely incorporated and the dough forms into a ball. Remove from heat.
- Step 3: Then Add Eggs, using a wooden spoon, you want to work quickly and mix in the eggs until the dough is the texture of play dough. The dough should be thick and easily pulling off the sides of the pan.
- Step 4: Pipe and Bake the dough by small spoonfuls, or use a piping bag, and drop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. After the choux pastry puffs, it will come out golden brown, crisp on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside.
Sweet & Savory Ways to Use It
One of the best things about gluten-free choux pastry is how versatile it is.
Sweet Ideas
- Cream puffs filled with whipped cream or pastry cream
- Gluten-free éclairs with chocolate glaze
- Profiteroles with ice cream
Savory Ideas
- Cheese-filled gougères
- Mini sandwich buns
- Appetizer puffs with herbed fillings
Once you master this recipe, you'll have a delicious pastry to work with for all kinds of fillings and decorations.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Dairy-Free. You can easily make this recipe by using a dairy-free butter alternative such as Earth Balance.
Eggs. There are 4 eggs in this recipe that cannot be replaced.
Gluten-Free Flour Blends. Not all gluten-free flour blends are created equal and work differently when baking. I used King Arthur Measure for Measure to make this recipe. If you try it using a different brand, please comment below and let me know how it turned out!
Storage & Make-Ahead Tips
Baked choux shells can be stored at room temperature for a few hours or refrigerated for a day. To refresh them, pop them in the oven for a few minutes to crisp back up.
Unfilled shells also freeze well, making this a great recipe to prep ahead.
Let's bake!
Have you tried this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment below and tag me on instagram @thrivingglutenfree so I can see how it turned out!
Gluten Free Choux Pastry Recipe
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 425° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts.
- Add the flour quickly all at once. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the pan.
- Remove pan from the burner and add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each egg.
- Drop dough by the teaspoon(or use a piping bag) onto your cookie sheet. Make dough drops whatever size you wish, but keep in mind they do rise in size a lot while baking so start small.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
- Let puffs cool completely, then slit the top of each shell with a sharp knife to make a hinge for filling.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Fern Verrengia says
Thank you love your recipes. Our so. Has celiac’s disease and highly allergic to dairy. Needless to say it has been a learning curve being in an Italian family. He began getting sick at age 19 which was really rough already loving pastas cheeses breads omg 😱 after a fee hospital stays they finally got the correct diagnosis. We have found not all dairy free or gluten-free tastes good. Have you ever tried cooking/baking with country crock plant butter it tastes like butter they have sticks and tub soft spreadable. Ripple milk is really good when making mashed potatoes cereals or anything it takes more like milk than some other options. Follow your heart cheeses melt good and taste good they have Parmesan shake on also great for lasagna pizzas grilled cheese. Hope this is helpful to anyone using your recipes.
Thriving Gluten Free says
Thank you for sharing your story and helpful tips! I can completely understand coming from an Italian family as well. So glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂