Sunday, June 22, 2008

Cream Puffs



Cream puffs (profiteroles) are one of the many wonderful inventions given to the world by the French. They are at once elegant and simple. The best part of a cream puff is the fact that they are so easy to make. So easy that I really should make them more often.

Pâte à choux is the basis of any cream puff and is like no other dough. It is a soft and light pastry dough also used to make eclairs, beignets and gougères to name just a few.

A mere 4 (5 if you count salt) ingredients make one of the most delicious and widely recognized desserts ever. How easy is this process? Let me show you...

The four ingredients: 4 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup butter.


Melt butter (in that same heavy, pitted aluminum pan).


Add water and bring to a boil.


Pour in all the flour all at once with a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.


Stir until a ball of dough forms. Remove from heat for 5 minutes.


Add eggs, one at a time, and mix with a wooden spoon (or a blue rubber spatula) until completely mixed in. Do this quickly so the eggs don't cook.



Drop dough onto a lined and greased cookie sheet (I like parchment, but ran out - foil works fine) by heaping tablespoonsful. I got 14 little ones this time, but the recipe really calls for 10.



Baked for 30 minutes in a 400 degree F oven, these are the finished puffs. Let them cool completely before handling.



Cut in half and fill with your choice of cream. Here, I used vanilla cream. Top with sliced strawberries and a little more cream to hold the top on.



Chocolate cream and strawberries.

I cheated on the cream end, using pudding mix made with 1 cup of milk. Once the pudding set I whipped a cup of heavy cream stiff and then folded it into the pudding. Cheating or not, it was actually very good.

5 comments:

Adopted Son said...

mmmmmmmmmmm, cream puffs.
You are evil for posting these. ;)

Ruth Strong said...

Profiteroles are something I've always been scared of making because I always thought they were more complicated than this!!! I'll have to try this now! They look great!

Anne Coleman said...

Hey, Son - that's Chef Evil to you!

Ruth, cool! That's exactly what I was hoping for. I do these things all the time and keep thinking that the rest of the world NEEDS to know how to do it!

Anonymous said...

Dear Anne
I have prepare dinner with the exact food u post. Come and dine with me. I am putting on some music

Suzy-Q said...

I wonder how much sugar I would have to give Uncle Joe to make these for me?? They look wonderful!