This is a classic base recipe that should be a part of any repertoire.  The recipe can be modified for uses both sweet and savory, and can be baked, fried, or filled.  Potato can be added and the dough fried from pommes dauphine. When cheese is added and the dough is cut into small pieces and boiled it becomes Gnocchi Parisienne.  Or, probably the most familiar to us Americans, the pate a choux is baked, cooled, filled with ice cream, and topped with chocolate sauce for profiterloes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup     whole milk
• 4 tbs      unsalted butter
• 1/8 tsp   kosher salt
• 1 cup     AP flour
• 4 each   eggs
• 1 each   egg beaten

Directions:

Combine the milk, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from the stove. Add the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly and vigorously, to prevent it from lumping. continue to stir until the mixture gathers together and forms a dough.

Reduce the heat to medium and place the pan back on the heat. continue to stir until the dough cleanly comes away from the sides fo the pan. It should be fairly firm. continue to cook, always stirring, until the bottom of the pot is white and cakey, about 1 minute or so.

Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl. Add one egg and using a wooden spoon, blend it with the dough. The dough may appear to break or fall into lumps but as the egg gets mixed with it, the dough will come back together. Once the dough has come back together, add another egg and stir until the dough comes back again. Adding the remaining eggs, one at a time, repeat the process until all four eggs have been mixed into the dough. If the dough is a little stiff, stir in some of the beaten egg (reserved for the egg wash), to soften it.

Preheat oven to 375°F

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat baking mat. Transfer the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain or star tip. Pipe about one tablespoon of the dough into a ½ inch round, once the desired size, releasing the bag by moving it in a circle. Leave about 1 to 2 inches between each round.

Using a pastry brush, gently dab some of the egg wash on the tops of each round while lightly pressing to smooth any "tail" left by piping the dough from the bag. Bake until the rounds puff up, are golden brown, and appear dry, about 30 minutes.

Turn the oven off and keep the door ajar or propped open with a wooden spoon for 30 minutes. this way any moisture inside the puffs will have a chance to escape, which in turn will keep them from deflating, and render them tender and moist to the bite.

When cooled, they can be filled with pastry or whipped cream using a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Another way to present them is to cut them in half, fill the bottom with a small mound of whipped cream, mousse or ice cream, and put the top back on. Then, just before serving drizzle with chocolate sauce or dust with tops with powdered sugar.

This is really a must know recipe or technique.  You can do so many things from this basic recipe.  So learn this one,  And be the coolest person in the trailer park.