Choux pastry

There are exceptions to this rule as ammonium bicarbonate is successfully used in eclairs and other choux pastry products. It seems that the thin walls, large internal cavity and high baking temperature combined allow the ammonia to be driven off. 

Eclairs are an example of what is called, in English, choux pastry. The pastry is specially made so that it can be piped into shape. The process gelatinises the starch so that the paste has the necessary flow properties to be piped into shape. 

These are doughnuts made from choux pastry. They appear to be an American product. The choux pastry is shaped into a ring on parchment paper. The rings are allowed to set and the parchment is dipped into the fat and the dough is loosened. Alternatively, the dough can be deposited by a specially shaped cutter. The finished product is less dense than other doughnuts and is sometimes glazed. 

The word chou(x) means cabbage(s) in French and is supposed to refer to the shaped produced by baking a lump of this pastry. The product is said to have originated in Renaissance Italy. 

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