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.