In case you have never had one, cream puffs are a light and hollow pastry. Typically you’ll want to fill them with a custard or cream and dust with a bit of brown sugar. Sounds delicious and maybe a tad bit difficult, right? That was my thought whenever the idea came swirling around. I always pushed it back to the bottom of my must-make list until today. Today I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, washed my hands, and prepared to dive in to this possibly complex recipe. The good news? Difficult and hard are two words that should never be used to describe these pastries. They are more simple and elegant than anything I have ever made!
It all starts with a dough. Instead of throwing everything straight into a mixer you actually start stove top. The base ingredients are most likely already in your fridge so all you need to do is whisk together a water, butter, and sugar in your pan. Bring to a boil and stir in the flour. You’ll get a wonderful dough ball like the one above. Let it cool down, transfer to a mixer, add a few more basic ingredients and you’re ready to bake.
These puff up wonderfully in the oven. We made ours a bit bigger and topped them with some mixed berries that I picked up at our local farmers market as well as some fresh whipped cream and quick berry sauce. Next time I plan to try a pastry cream or maybe even a simple vanilla buttercream! You can’t go wrong with whatever you choose for the filling.
