Role of eggs in choux pastry
Hi! I've been trying to understand the processes involved in making choux pastry for a while, especially the role of the eggs (I'm hoping to be able to make a similar baked good without eggs some day). I've read my way through a lot of articles and some of them claim that the eggs work as a leavening agent. That doesn't make much sense to me though - I can see how beaten eggs or whipped egg whites can help with leavening because the air bubbles will expand in the oven, but the eggs in choux pastry are not beaten.
I guess my question would be: what causes choux pastry to puff up like it should and what is the role of the eggs (stabilizer? emulsifier?) if it's not leavening (I'm open to being wrong about this :D ). Also, if anyone has insights into the other ingredients and processes, please share! As far as I understand, cooking the flour with butter and water causes the starches in the flour to gelatinise and stops the gluten from developing? Does anyone know, how exactly this contributes to the puffing up/texture of the choux pastry?
Looking forward to your comments! :)