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Cream Puffs
Our homemade Cream Puffs have a light and crispy pastry filled with an easy vanilla cream custard. Make this easy dessert for any occasion!
Ingredients
Filling
4 cups heavy or whipping cream (1 quart), divided
1 cup whole milk
2 one-ounce boxes instant vanilla pudding mix
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Puff pastry dough
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour measured properly (if weighing, 7.35 Oz or 208 grams)
6 whole eggs plus one more only if needed
Topping
Powdered sugar or ganache
Ganache
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons whole milk or cream
Instructions
- Place two cups of heavy cream, one cup of whole milk, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and both boxes of pudding mix into a large bowl and using a hand mixer, whisk for two minutes. Place the last two cups of heavy cream and the two tablespoons of powdered sugar into another bowl and whisk to stiff peaks. Then fold that into the pudding mix. Refrigerate until later.
- In a medium nonstick pot or large nonstick saucepan, place water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil. The mixture will foam up when it comes to a boil so watch closely.
- Turn off heat and add all the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or firm rubber spatula.
- Return heat to medium high and stir continually for two minutes. The dough will be soft enough to keep running the wooden spoon through as you stir.
- Remove from heat and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for two minutes to start to cool.
- Place the bowl on the stand mixer and with the paddle attachment, beat on medium for one minute to cool further. The mixture should still be warm but no longer steaming hot.
- With mixer running on low, add one egg at a time, letting each egg get fully incorporated before adding the next.
- After the last egg is mixed in, scrape and mix for one minute. Take the paddle and lift the dough up. It should be thick enough to stay together but soft enough that it slowly drips down back into the bowl in a thick ribbon. If too stiff, beat one extra egg and add a little of that egg at a time until the dough reaches that thick ribbon consistency.
- The dough will weigh 32 ounces and will yield 16 cream puffs that are two ounces each before being baked.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F with the rack in the center of the oven.
- Line a sheet tray with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Cut a half-inch hole off the tip of a 16-inch pastry bag or use a straight round tip with a half-inch opening.
- Scoop out exactly half and spoon into the pastry bag, leaving half in the bowl.
- Squeeze out eight piles of dough, twirling the dough around in a circle from outer to inner to about two inches wide and about two inches tall. Space them on the tray so they have two inches between each one.
- With a wet finger, gently press down the tip if it protrudes up. It will burn if not slightly flattened.
- Bake for 12 minutes and without opening the oven door, lower heat to 325 degrees F and bake for 28 minutes more. See chef’s tip above for precise instructions to get this part right. If you pull them too soon, they will collapse as they cool. They need to be rigid on the outside and when tapped, hollow sounding.
- Move each puff to a rack to cool, raise heat back to 425 degrees F and repeat the process with the remaining dough. (You should get eight per batch, reusing the sheet tray and silicone mat.)
- Once the puffs are cooled, place a large star tip in another 16-inch pastry bag and fill with the chilled vanilla cream. (It will not all fit so you will need to keep refilling.)
- Once all the cream puffs are baked and cooled, using a sharp serrated knife, cut each in half, separating the top from the bottom.
- Lay out all 16 cut this way and begin filling the bottom halves with the filling, dividing the filling between all.
- Gently place the tops over each.
- If using powdered sugar, dust the tops and serve.
- If using ganache, place a bowl or a small saucepan that has a few inches of water in it and heat burner to medium. Measure out the chocolate chips into the bowl to melt. Heat the milk or cream. Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl, and start whisking in the hot milk or cream. Continue to whisk quickly until smooth and silky. Either dip the tops in the ganache, or drizzle over the tops with a spoon.
- Serve immediately but keep any leftovers refrigerated.
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Notes
When making the ganache, use hot cream or milk. Cold milk will seize up the chocolate and you will need to be dispose of it and start over.
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