Cream Puffs with Pastry Cream Filling
These creme puffs are easy to make for your family and impressive to serve to company. Give them a try.
ETA: Here's a slide show of the process of making cream puffs.
Cream Puff with Pastry Cream Filling
Cream Puffs (makes 12 2" cream puffs)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk (or water or half each)
1/2 cup pre-sifted all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put butter and milk in a saucepan and cook on high heat until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a boil. (Be careful that your milk doesn't foam up and boil over.)
Add flour and salt all at once to the pan, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball. (Take the saucepan off the heat if you're concerned about not wanting to add the flour to the boiling pan and then return to the heat.)
Continue stirring and cook another minute or so until a thin film just starts to form on the bottom of the pan. (This step "dries out" the mixture and helps with the incorporation of the egg. At least that's what I understand.)
Remove the pan from the heat and allow the contents to cool for 5 minutes. You may transfer it into a medium sized bowl and spread it out a bit as well to help in the cooling process.
Beat one whole egg in a small bowl and then add it to the mixture. Beat vigorously with the wooden spoon from above. (You can use a sturdy whisk if you want to but why dirty another utensil and it's harder to get the batter off the whisk than it is off the wooden spoon.) It will look all lumpy and disgusting at first but the egg WILL incorporate into the batter. Add a second beaten egg and beat some more. Again, it will look pretty lumpy but it will smooth out.
The mixture should be fairly stiff but will fall off the spoon leaving an inverted triangle-like bit hanging from the spoon.
Lightly grease a cookie sheet with butter or line the sheet with parchment paper. Spoon out the cream puff batter by filling one teaspoon (from your cutlery set) that you've dipped in cold water and scraping it out with a second wetted teaspoon. Leave at least 1 inch between the puffs. Try to make sure all the piles are a similar size and more or less circular in shape.
You can brush the tops with a whole egg beaten with a tbsp of cold water if you want a shiny top. However, if you're going to sift icing sugar over the top, or glaze with a chocolate mixture, there's no point. :)
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is browned. Transfer puffs to a cooling rack and let come to room temperature before filling.
Cut the puffs open and fill with sweetened whipping cream, or a scoop of ice cream. Or, use the pastry cream filling below. You'll need about 2 cups of filling for a dozen cream puffs.
Injecting Pastry Cream Filling - For a neater filling method, use a icing tube to inject the pastry cream into the cream puffs. This filling method also makes the filled cream puffs more portable or stackable if you want to make a "croquembouche".
Pastry Cream Filling (enough for 1 dozen cream puffs)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2 quart saucepan; stir in milk gradually. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils; boil and stir for 1 minute. Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into the egg yolks. Blend into the remaining hot mixture in saucepan; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate with saran wrap on top to prevent the formation of a skin and fill cream puffs just before serving.
Note: If you add the dark vanilla extract it will make your cream filling grayish so use the clear kind if possible.
ETA: Here's a slide show of the process of making cream puffs.
Cream Puff with Pastry Cream Filling
Cream Puffs (makes 12 2" cream puffs)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk (or water or half each)
1/2 cup pre-sifted all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put butter and milk in a saucepan and cook on high heat until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a boil. (Be careful that your milk doesn't foam up and boil over.)
Add flour and salt all at once to the pan, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball. (Take the saucepan off the heat if you're concerned about not wanting to add the flour to the boiling pan and then return to the heat.)
Continue stirring and cook another minute or so until a thin film just starts to form on the bottom of the pan. (This step "dries out" the mixture and helps with the incorporation of the egg. At least that's what I understand.)
Remove the pan from the heat and allow the contents to cool for 5 minutes. You may transfer it into a medium sized bowl and spread it out a bit as well to help in the cooling process.
Beat one whole egg in a small bowl and then add it to the mixture. Beat vigorously with the wooden spoon from above. (You can use a sturdy whisk if you want to but why dirty another utensil and it's harder to get the batter off the whisk than it is off the wooden spoon.) It will look all lumpy and disgusting at first but the egg WILL incorporate into the batter. Add a second beaten egg and beat some more. Again, it will look pretty lumpy but it will smooth out.
The mixture should be fairly stiff but will fall off the spoon leaving an inverted triangle-like bit hanging from the spoon.
Lightly grease a cookie sheet with butter or line the sheet with parchment paper. Spoon out the cream puff batter by filling one teaspoon (from your cutlery set) that you've dipped in cold water and scraping it out with a second wetted teaspoon. Leave at least 1 inch between the puffs. Try to make sure all the piles are a similar size and more or less circular in shape.
You can brush the tops with a whole egg beaten with a tbsp of cold water if you want a shiny top. However, if you're going to sift icing sugar over the top, or glaze with a chocolate mixture, there's no point. :)
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is browned. Transfer puffs to a cooling rack and let come to room temperature before filling.
Cut the puffs open and fill with sweetened whipping cream, or a scoop of ice cream. Or, use the pastry cream filling below. You'll need about 2 cups of filling for a dozen cream puffs.
Injecting Pastry Cream Filling - For a neater filling method, use a icing tube to inject the pastry cream into the cream puffs. This filling method also makes the filled cream puffs more portable or stackable if you want to make a "croquembouche".
Pastry Cream Filling (enough for 1 dozen cream puffs)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2 quart saucepan; stir in milk gradually. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils; boil and stir for 1 minute. Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into the egg yolks. Blend into the remaining hot mixture in saucepan; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate with saran wrap on top to prevent the formation of a skin and fill cream puffs just before serving.
Note: If you add the dark vanilla extract it will make your cream filling grayish so use the clear kind if possible.