Cream Puffs (Choux pastry with Crème Patisserie)

Glorious and light cream puffs filled with a mixture of whipped cream and crème patisserie. These pictures show my first attempt at choux pastry. It was easy to make, but difficult to pipe, which is why they're not quite round. The filling includes a whipped cream and crème patisserie. For some of the puffs I cut them in half and added a layer of whipped cream and a layer of the crème patisseries. For the others I blended the fillings and piped them into the cream puffs, which is more traditional and my preferred method.

I also topped some with chocolate ganache because chocolate makes pretty much any vanilla flavored thing better.

Recipe is here, and more pictures of the process are below:

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (or salted butter and omit the salt below)

• ½ cup flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tbsp. sugar

• 1/2 cup water

• 2 eggs at room temperature

Pastry cream:

• 250 ml of fresh milk

• 2 tablespoons flour

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 20 g butter

• 3 egg yolks

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whipped cream:

• 150 ml heavy whipping cream

• 1 tbsp. powdered sugar

Ganache (optional):

• 3 tablespoons chocolate chips

• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Directions:

For the choux pastry:

1. Mix the butter, sugar, salt, and water together in a aluminum pan on low-medium heat. Heat until it’s at a rolling boil (there’s a circle of bubbles forming but the whole surface isn’t boiling. Stir in flour and continue stirring until a film of the mixture forms on the bottom of the pan. Take off heat and add to a bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 375°F.

3. Spread it out and form a well in the middle of the bowl so it can cool slightly. Add in one egg and mix well. It will form lumps but keep mixing and when it comes together add in the other egg and repeat.

4. Pour pastry mix into piping bag with ¼ or ½ inch round tip. Pipe ½ inch wide and tall blobs onto parchment paper. Pipe out 15. It is difficult to pipe but try to be careful.

5. Whisk up an egg and brush it on the little pastries. Put in oven and bake for 25 minutes. DO NOT open the oven or the choux pastries will collapse. After 25 minutes turn off the oven, open the oven slightly (about 1 to 1 ½ inches) (I used 2 metal utensils from the kitchen). Let them sit in the cooling oven for another 15 minutes. Then take out.

For pastry cream:

1. To make the custard (pastry cream), whisk sugar and egg yolks in a small bowl until most of sugar is dissolved.

2. Then add in flour and mix completely.

3. Meanwhile, heat up milk on low-medium heat in an aluminum saucepan. When it starts to form small bubbles on the edge of the pan and is steaming, take it off the heat.

4. Gradually pour ½ of the milk into the egg-sugar-flour mixture, whisking fast and continuously.

5. Then, when well mixed, add the mixture into the milk pan and put back on low heat. Keep whisking until mixture starts to thicken. Take off the heat.

6. Then add vanilla and butter and continue whisking until mixture has a thick, gelatinous texture.

7. Pour into glass container and cover with plastic wrap so the plastic touches and covers all the top of the custard. Stick in fridge and leave to cool.

To make whipped cream and fill the cream puffs:

1. Whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar on medium-high speed until stiff peaks or until it starts to get very fluffy and foamy.

2. Then, gently fold half the pastry cream into the whipped cream with a spatula. When mixed, fold the rest in gently. Put into piping bag with small tip (1/8 inch or so). Stab hole with piping tip into each cream puff bottom. Squeeze in cream filling into each puff.

3. If desired, melt some chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small bowl (about 3 tablespoons chocolate and 2 tablespoons whipping cream) for 15 seconds in microwave and mix until no lumps are present. Dip cream puffs, or spoon, the chocolate onto the cream puffs.

4. Makes 15 cream puffs.

Piping my little cream puffs. Quite a workout.

Cream puffs after baking but before filling.

One way I tried to make them was by cutting in half and putting whipped cream on one side and creme patisserie on the other, forming a sandwich. The other method (below) worked better and was less messy.

Mixing the fillings together and piping them into the cream puff worked much better.

A satisfying bite of a cream puff!

Completed cream puffs! Even though I didn't pipe them very smoothly, they turned out beautiful!

Later I topped some with chocolate ganache, no regrets.

Original recipe is from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvg8Ly4_SMA&t=499s