Cooking Lesson #709: Holiday Cream Puffs Made With Choux Pastry

From the Perspectives’ Holiday Kitchen

How you doin’? Aren’t Cream Puffs a scream? You’ll yell with pleasure with each delightful, indulgent bite. You will enjoy flavors of a light, eggy pastry with a delicate crunch, plus, a luscious, subtly sweet creamy custard filling.
 
For this recipe I have used a vanilla-infused custard pastry cream. It’s part whipped cream and part pastry cream—the perfect balance of airy and rich. Finish them with a drizzle of bittersweet chocolate, as we did, and you find yourself with a truly luxurious treat.
 
Of course, the Holiday Cream Puff could not exist if it weren’t for wonderful choux  pastry, or pâte à choux as the French call it. It may sound highfalutin, but it’s actually quite simple to make. There’s a little boiling, stirring and mixing with a short list of ingredients: butter, flour, eggs, salt and some liquid. What kind of liquid? Either milk or water, depending on what you’re making. For gougères, those amazing French cheese puffs, we like to use milk to get a more custardy center. For cream puffs (and éclairs and croquembouches), we like to use water for the choux — as well as bread flour. The combination makes the puffs firmer and sturdier, so they hold up longer against the slow migration of moisture from the cream custard and whipped cream filling.
 
Prep time:  35 minutes
Bake time:  30 to 35 minutes
Custard cook time:  15 minutes
Yield: 2 dozen
 
Ingredients 
For the choux pastry
1 cup water
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, rough chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup bread flour
4 large room temperature eggs
 
For the custard cream filling
1/2 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
2 cups whole milk
3 large egg yolks
2 whole large eggs
2-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup heavy whipping cream
 
For the cream puffs
2 dozen baked cream puffs
5 oz tempered dark chocolate (68%) or compound
 
Directions
To make the choux pastry

1. Preheat an oven to 425⁰ F.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the water, butter and salt over medium heat; bring to a rolling boil.
3. Add the flour and stir continuously until it’s fully incorporated and forms a paste.
4. Continue to cook and stir until the paste dries slightly and forms a ball; about 1 to 2 minutes longer.
5. Transfer the paste to the bowl of a stand mixer and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.
6. With the paddle attachment on medium speed, beat in 1 egg at a time until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will be smooth, shiny, moist and thick enough that it holds its shape when the paddle is pulled out of the pastry.

To make the cream puffs

1. Transfer the pastry to a pastry bag fitted with a plain piping tip.
2. Pipe a tiny amount of the pastry into the corners of a rimmed sheet pan and place a piece of parchment on top. This is to hold the parchment down while in the oven
3. Holding the piping bag at a 90-degree angle, squeeze to make 1-1/2-inch mounds of batter, leaving 3-inches between each puff.
4. Round out any imperfections in the puffs making a dome by moistening the tip of your finger with water and very gently patting the tips into the pastry.
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 425⁰ F.
6. Then, lower the oven to 375⁰ F and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes or until fully browned on all sides. (NOTE: Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes of baking; otherwise, your puffs will collapse.)
7. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before filling.

To make the custard cream filling

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, dissolve 1/4 cup of the sugar in the milk and heat until the milk is steaming. Reduce the heat to low.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs together.
3. Sift the cornstarch and 1/4 cup sugar into the eggs. Whisk vigorously until perfectly smooth and shiny, about 1 minute.
4. Slowly add one ladle of hot milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs, while whisking continuously. Continue adding the hot milk one ladle at a time until about half of the milk has been added.
5. Pour the tempered eggs into the hot milk; whisking constantly.
6. Increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
7. Boil for 2 minutes until the pastry cream thickens.
8. Immediately transfer the pastry cream to a small bowl and stir in the butter and vanilla bean paste until completely melted.
9. Spread in an even layer and cover with food film placed directly in contact with the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.
10. Cool in the refrigerator until completely cold, about 2 hours. This can be made up to 3 days in advance.
11. Using a rubber spatula, stir out any lumps that may have formed in the pastry cream; set aside.
12. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the heavy whipping cream and remaining 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.
13. Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the pastry cream just until combined.
14. Fold the remaining whipped cream into the pastry cream mixture in two batches, being very gentle, so that your custard cream remains light and airy.
15.  Cover and refrigerate until needed for filling.

To assemble the cream puffs

1. Gently slice the cooled cream puffs in half with a serrated knife and place on a rimmed sheet pan.
2. Remove any wet, stringy egg membranes to clean out the cavity,
3. Transfer the custard cream filling to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe the custard cream into the bottom of each puff and then close with the top puffs.
4. Drizzle the tempered chocolate over the top of each cream puff.
5. Place cream puffs in the fridge for 30 minutes to set chocolate.
6. Serve cold.

ChefSecret: To help you get positively perfect choux pastry puffs, dip your fingers in water so you can move and adjust the piped mounds as needed or dab out any imperfections. Baking the choux puffs at two different temperatures is the secret. Baking at 425° for the first half makes the puff glorious; baking at a cooler 375° for the second half creates that beautiful golden brown exterior. And you’ll wind up with light, pillowy puffs that won’t have any major cracks.

Serving Suggestions:  Puffs of choux are good for more than just cream puffs! We sometimes fill them with a mini scoop of our favorite ice cream, or a mound of chicken salad or smoked salmon mousse for party appetizer.

Quip of the Day:  I have a lactose intolerant friend who sells cream puffs for a living. He can’t take it, but he can dish it out.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.

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                                                                         ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023

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