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Prep Time: 40 minutes
Bake Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 2 dozen
My grandma used to make light and fluffy cream puffs, but surprisingly I’ve never tried to make this dessert on my own before. I was nervous about making the french pastry, choux, but it was actually quite simple and I urge you to give it a try! I used the hand-written recipe that I had from my grandma and adapted it with a few tips I found online. Enjoy!
There are so many great filling ideas, but what I loved filling mine with was my Funfetti Whipped Cream. You could also use my classic whipped cream recipe and add some fresh berries!
Ingredients:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pats
- ½ cup of water
- ½ cup of 2% or whole milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 3 eggs (possibly a 4th if the eggs are small)
- 1 egg with a splash of milk, beaten to create an egg-wash
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- Filling of your choice
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Add butter, water, milk, salt and sugar to a pot on the stove. Slowly allow all to mix and melt together. Bring to a light simmer.
- Add your flour to the pot maintaining a low temperature. Mix constantly and vigorously to allow all the flour to incorporate. You should see no specks of flour in the dough to tell you it’s done.
- Transfer this dough to a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time at a slow speed. 3 eggs works for me. However, if you find the dough is not coming together then a 4th egg may be needed. This should only be needed if your 3 eggs are on the smaller side. You do not want a runny consistency as you will want to pipe the dough onto your baking sheet.
- You will know that your dough is ready when it is smooth, silky and a consistency that is able to be easily piped out of a pastry bag.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper and moisten/brush the parchment with water. This helps prevent burning and also creates steam helping the choux to rise.
- Pipe the dough onto the parchment paper lined sheets using a piping bag with no tip. Your size can vary but approximately 1” in height and width works quite nicely. I actually like my pastries having a bit of “uniqueness” so don’t worry about them all being perfectly aligned. But they should be similar in size so they bake consistently.
- Flatten the peaks of your puffs with a wet finger to avoid the dough sticking to you. The peaks will burn if you don’t flatten them a bit.
- Brush each puff with the egg wash.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 425. Then lower the temperature to 325 and bake for another 20 minutes. Do NOT open the door of the oven or they will not rise properly.
- Remove and allow to cool to room temperature. You can store them in the refrigerator for about 2 days if you are not ready to use them right away.
- Slice in half before serving and fill with your desired filling.
- Lightly dust with powdered sugar.
If you enjoy this recipe, check out our other Desserts like Peach and Blueberry Cobbler.
