Cream Puffs are a light choux pastry filled with silky smooth vanilla cream and sweet happiness.
As a part of the finale showstopper of my GBBO Season 13 challenge, I decided to make cream puffs. Because I thought it was a great idea to make my life harder than it already was. Choux pastry is notorious for being tricky and I thought “why not?” Luckily for me, the pastry turned out amazing.
I tried to make choux before, but I had never made cream puffs. It has been something that I have always wanted to make because it is one of my absolute favorite treats. I don’t have them often, but when I do, I feel like I am inhaling them.
This recipe turned out better than I could have hoped for. The choux pastry puffed up and had the perfect bake to fill with the cream. And the cream was so good. I honestly could have just eaten a bowl of just the cream. It was effectively pudding. And I am here for it.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.
Ingredients
There was a decent number of ingredients needed to make this recipe. The most used ingredient would be eggs. The choux pastry needed 8 of them and the cream needed 3. And 11 is basically 12 when it comes to eggs. So, I’m just going to say I used a whole dozen. There are no exotic ingredients needed to make cream puffs. The core is Butter, Flour, Salt, Sugar, Egg, and Milk.
Process
Choux Dough Over the Stove
The first step in making cream puffs is making choux pastry. And to make pastry, I need dough. The beginning of making the dough is a little weird because it is made mainly on a stove before being transferred to a stand mixer.
I started by putting some butter into some water. My brain did not like this step. It just felt like I was making some sort of fattening tea… But that is because I was missing the other ingredients! First, I put the butter and water mixture over the stove and let it cook. The butter needed time to melt.
Then, in a medium bowl, I whisked together the flour, salt, and sugar. It was mainly just flour but guess the sugar is needed to help the pastry brown? That’s my only guess. The choux pastry itself feels dessert like but does not feel sweet. That’s just another reason for me to like choux!
With the flour mixed and the butter melted, I turned off the burner and added the two mixtures together. I used a wooden spoon to mix everything because I feel like that is what I always see on T.V. The continued mixing brought the dough together nicely.
Choux Dough in the Mixer
I then transferred the dough into a stand mixer and mixed the dough until it stopped steaming. Cooling down the dough is important because the eggs could technically cook from the residual heat. Once the steaming was done, I added in the eggs, one at a time.
Adding the eggs transformed the dough from a bread like dough into a more cake like batter. It was a cool transformation to see but I was nervous about the sheer number of eggs going in. I added eight eggs before the batter got a smooth ribbon consistency.
Then the batter went into a piping bag (I did not use a tip for this part), and I piped out little mounds of choux batter until all of the mixture had been transformed. When piping the batter, it would come to a point at the top, kind of like a Hershey’s Kiss. But I did not want a spiky choux pastry.
I used my finger to smooth other the choux batter, to the best of my ability, and make it a little more round on top. Then it was time to go into the oven and let the choux bake! Apparently, it is very important not to open the oven during cooking. Temperature consistency is important, and the cold air could cause the choux to deflate before setting.
Vanilla Filling for the Cream Puffs
While the Choux pastry was cooking and cooling, I moved onto making the cream filling. The filling I went with is basically a vanilla pudding adjacent mixture. I started by mixing milk and sugar and letting it come to a light boil on the stove. The sugar should dissolve in the milk.
In a separate bowl, I whisked the eggs, cornstarch, and sugar until it whipped up to be foamy. Then I added a part of the boiling milk mixture into the eggs to temper the eggs. I whisked constantly while adding the milk because I didn’t want to accidentally cook the eggs.
Once I felt the eggs were sufficiently tempered, I added the egg mix back into the pot with the remainder of the milk mixture. I put the pot back over medium to low heat and stirred and stirred and stirred. The filling started to thicken up into a pudding like consistency.
After the pudding has thickened, I removed the pot from the heat and added in the butter and vanilla extract. I continued to stir until the butter had fully melted. This was actually a little difficult because I felt that I was constantly chasing after the butter. It got lost so easily.
Lastly, the mixture was transferred into a heat-proof bowl and let cool until at room temperature. Then it went into the fridge to chill until I was ready to use it.
Assembly
The final step of making cream puffs is putting the filling into the choux pastry. Or putting the cream into the puffs. Sometimes I look at a sentence and think “how can I make this worse?” Anyway, I did get a special set of piping tips to help with this process. Is this necessary? No. Is it helpful? Yea… at least I think so.
I filled a piping bag with the cream and used the piping tip to poke a hole in the bottom of the choux pastry. I squeeze only a little filling into each puff because I was nervous about overfilling them. And somehow that lead to the choux exploding in my brain. Pretty sure it would leak before it would explode…
Reflections
I love cream puffs. My only big comparison between my recipe and those commercially bought is that I felt like these cream puffs had a little eggier flavor than I was anticipating. And that was only really in the choux pastry. It was balanced out by the cream but a part of my does want to play more with the choux (dangerous, I know).
Overall, this is definitely a recipe that I will be coming back to. Maybe I will use the choux recipe to make eclairs next time! And I want to play around a little more with the topping and the flavor of the filling. I think there is a whole world I could explore here.
Lessons
Why Use a Wooden Spoon
I know a lot of baking recipes call for the use of a wooden spoon and I was thinking to myself: Why? Why am I using a wooden spoon over a metal one. The main reason I could find was conductivity. They have a lower conductivity than a metal spoon and so the heat transfers into the utensil at a slower rate.
This makes them easier to handle as they would not get as hot as their metal counterparts. Another benefit is that they are sturdy which means they can handle resistance from a batter or dough.
content
recipe
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Pate a Choux
- ¾ Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 ½ Cup Water
- 2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 2 Teaspoon Sugar
- 7-8 Eggs
Filling
- 2 Cup Milk
- ½ Cup Sugar divided
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1 Egg
- 1/8 Cup Cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Pate a Choux
- Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit.
- In a pot, mix butter and water. Place over medium to low heat and allow to come to a boil.
- While the butter and water mix is coming to a boil, Sift together flour, salt, and sugar.
- Remover the butter and water mix from the heat and add in the flour mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough forms and pulls away from the edge of the pot.
- Transfer the dough to a mixer and mix with a paddle until the dough stop steaming. Add eggs one at time until the batter reaches a ribbon like consistency. (I used 8 eggs)
- Using a piping bag, make 1 ½ inch mounds. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350° Fahrenheit and bake for another 10 minutes. Do not open oven until baking is finished.
Vanilla Cream Filling
- Stir together ¼ cup sugar and milk over low to medium heat. Let sugar fully dissolve. Bring to a low boil.
- In a large, heat proof bowl, whisk together egg yolks and egg until light and frothy. Sift in ¼ cup sugar and cornstarch. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour half of the milk mixture into the egg mixture while continuously whisking. This should be done slowly to temper the eggs.
- Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the remainder of the milk and place over low heat. Stir constantly until thickened.
- Add butter and vanilla extract. Stir until combine. Pour into a bowl and let cool to room temperature. Cover and place in the fridge to chill until ready to use.
Assembly
- Using a piping tip, place the vanilla cream filling into a piping bag.
- Make a small hole in the bottom of the pate a choux and piping filling to the center of the pate a choux.
- Repeat until out of Pate a Choux or Cream.
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