Cream Puffs
Cream puffs are a classic dessert that is light and airy, with a delicate custard filling. Perfect for any occasion, these can be made ahead of time.
Cream puffs are a classic dessert that is light and airy, with a delicate custard filling. Perfect for any occasion, these can be made ahead of time.
- Carbohydrate 23.4652047705783 g
- Cholesterol 10.5866858089336 mg
- Fat 8.98396013519651 g
- Fiber 0.442968758298379 g
- Protein 4.79033012804747 g
- Saturated Fat 3.9428747317928 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (151g)
- Sodium 342.007975240585 mg
- Sugar 23.0222360122799 g
- Trans Fat 0.556809370592817 g
- Calories 195 calories
Step-by-step
- For the custard: In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons flour and a pinch of salt. Stir in milk, a little at a time, until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 60 seconds, then pour a small amount of hot liquid into the 2 egg yolks, and stir. Then return now heated egg yolks to saucepan and stir, over heat, until mixture starts to bubble again. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Cover and chill in refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
- For the pastry: In a medium saucepan, combine shortening and water and bring to a boil. Sift together 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt and pour all at once into boiling mixture. Stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat, and add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet, or pipe into desired shape.
- Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and bake 25 minutes more, or until golden. Cool completely, split, fill with custard, and replace tops.
Choux pastry relies entirely on gelatinized starch and trapped steam for its structural rise, meaning that skipping the vigorous beating step after adding each egg results in a dense, flat shell rather than a hollow cavity. Working with boiling water and shortening creates the initial moisture base, but adding eggs requires precise temperature control so the proteins do not coagulate prematurely. Tempering the hot milk mixture into the beaten egg yolks similarly prevents scrambling, ensuring the pastry cream achieves a smooth, pourable consistency before refrigeration sets it firm.
Sequencing Your Kitchen Workflow
Success depends heavily on preparing the pastry cream first, because chilling takes time and the choux dough demands immediate baking once mixed. Start by boiling the milk, sugar, flour, and salt mixture for precisely sixty seconds to cook out the raw flour taste, then temper the egg yolks before returning the pan to the heat until bubbling resumes. Shift focus immediately to the pastry by bringing water and shortening to a boil, dumping the flour in all at once, and beating until the dough pulls away from the sides of the saucepan to form a cohesive ball.
- Bake the piped dough at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes to generate steam expansion, then drop the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty-five minutes to dry out the interior.
- Add eggs strictly one at a time to the hot flour mixture, incorporating each completely before introducing the next to maintain emulsion stability.
- Cool the baked shells completely on a wire rack before filling them with the chilled custard to prevent the pastry walls from softening prematurely.
