Classic Cream Puffs

Oh how I love a cream puff. Crispy pastry filled with a beautiful pastry cream. For me, it just doesn’t get much better than that. I made these for a friend’s Oscar viewing party and I wanted to bring something elegant for the occasion. With a drizzle of chocolate on top they were quite the hit and I’m sure they will be for you too.

People do all sorts of creative things with pâte à choux. It’s become trendy in the last couple of years to make perfect little puffed balls topped with a sweet crispy topping (choux au craquelin) and cut them open to liberally fill them with various mousses and buttercreams. There’s also the Paris Brest meant to resemble a bicycle wheel also cut open and stuffed with a praline diplomat cream. But these are not your traditional cream puff. Classic cream puffs are simple little balls of pâte à choux, filled with a silky pastry cream and lightly dusted with powdered sugar. I like mine topped with some dark chocolate but it’s not “required”. A successful cream puff is hollow so you can fill it up from a small hole cut into the bottom, no need to decapitate it!

Look at that crispy, thin, exterior with the silky smooth pastry cream. Yum!

If you’re new to or inexperienced making pâte à choux, classic Cream Puffs are the way to begin. They're easy to pipe out and the shape is forgiving. The name pâte à choux literally means cabbage paste, because the final puffs of pastry resemble little cabbages. A dessert that’s meant to be lumpy? Perfect for a first timer. There are hundreds of recipes out there for pâte à choux and the ingredients are all essentially the same. The real difference I’ve seen is the liquid content – some call for a combination of milk and water and others just call for water – and the level of detail described for the technique in making the dough. None have seemed adequate to me for a beginner so I’ve taken a stab below.

Cream Puff Recipe:

Special equipment:

2 Piping bags
½ inch round piping tip
¼ inch round piping tip
Instant read thermometer

Yield:

10-16 cream puffs depending on size

Ingredients

Pastry Cream

Pastry cream - You’ll need to make this at least 4-5 hours in advance so it has time to chill before you fill your cream puffs.
½ cup heavy / whipping cream (optional)
1 TBSP granulated sugar (optional)

Pâte à choux:

60 grams water
60 grams whole milk
½ cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 tsp granulated sugar
¼ tsp salt
120 grams bread flour, sifted
2-3 eggs, room temperature - This is important. Cold eggs will cook in the warm dough.

Finishing Touch:

Powdered sugar for dusting
50 grams melted chocolate for drizzling (optional)

Instructions

Make your pastry cream ahead of time. It needs to chill completely before you fill your cream puffs.

Preheat your oven to 375° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
- Tip: Draw rows of 2-inch circles on the back side of your parchment 2 inches apart, or use a silicon baking mat with circles already on them to use as a guide when piping out your cream puffs.
In a medium size saucepan with a heavy bottom, add the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt and combine over a medium-high heat and bring it to a simmer.
Immediately remove from heat and pour flour into the hot mixture, all at once, stirring briskly and constantly. It will be lumpy at first then combine into a smooth, single mass that pulls away from the edges of the pan. (See photos below.)
Put the pot back over the heat and cook the dough for another minute or two stirring constantly. You’re releasing moisture from the dough. Lots of recipes say to look for a film to form on the bottom of the pan to know it’s done.
Remove from heat and transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Let it run on low speed for about few minutes to help it cool down and release steam. This is done to prevent the hot dough from cooking the eggs when they are added in the next step.
Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and add eggs one at a time. Make sure the first egg is fully mixed then add the second egg.
- Tip: I crack my eggs and put them together in a glass measuring cup with a pourable spout so I can easily add them in and see what I’m doing.
- Tip: Your dough may break apart when you add your eggs but it will come back together as you continue to mix.
- Tip: If dough looks shiny after adding the second egg don’t add the third. Your dough should look smooth and shiny and thick when complete. (See photos below.)
Once your dough is ready, fill a separate, small prep bowl with a little cool water.
Add the dough to a piping bag fitted with a ½ inch round piping tip. If using parchment paper, pipe small dots of dough in each corner of the paper then flip it over in the pan. This will act as a glue to keep your parchment in place as you pipe.
Holding the piping bag vertical to the pan about a half inch above and pipe out even circles of dough two inches apart. Here’s a good video to show how it’s done. The piping starts about 2 minutes in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4JC-EmOGZ4
Dip your finger in the bowl of water, and gently smooth the top of the cream puffs by patting lightly with your wet finger. A dry finger will stick to the dough.
Put the cream puffs in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Don’t open the oven to check on them until 20 minutes or they may collapse.
The cream puffs are done when they are golden brown and crispy on the outside. They should feel light and sound hollow on the inside if you tap the bottom of one. (Use a pot holder or dishcloth to pick them up!)
With a toothpick, poke 2 small holes on the sides of each puff to let them release some steam and dry out. This will help prevent collapsing.
Let cool completely before you fill them.

You can store your cooled, unfilled cream puffs at room temperature in an airtight container for 24 hours if you need to make them ahead of time.

Choux dough when you first start mixing the flour in looks very lumpy, but….

Keep stirring (aggressively) and your flour and milk mixture will come together in a smooth dough and pull away from the sides of the pan. This picture shows it almost come together but not quite. It should be a little smoother.

The dough will fall apart in little pieces when you start to add the eggs. But don’t worry it will come back together as you keep mixing.

Your dough will be smooth, thick, and shiny when all of the eggs have been properly mixed in.

To fill the cream puffs:

Optional: If you want a stiffer cream, whip the heavy cream with the sugar to stiff peaks. Gently fold into the pastry cream with a whisk.

Turn a puff over and gently punch a hole in the bottom with the ¼ inch piping tip. I do this by first lightly pressing the piping tip against the pastry and rotating it back and forth, almost like you’re sawing open the bottom. Repeat for each puff.
Fit a clean piping bag with the ¼ inch tip and fill it with pastry cream.
Fill each cream puff with pastry cream until it feels heavy, but be careful not to overfill or it will burst. Go gently.

Fill your cream puff from the bottom, no need to slice in half! They’re much easier to eat this way :)

To finish:

Dust the filled puffs with powdered sugar, or melt some chocolate and drizzle over top (I used a plastic bottle). Or both!

Serve your cream puffs within a few hours of filling. Once they're filled they should be refrigerated and after a day they will start to lose their crispness.

Enjoy!!