These easy to make Cream Puffs are easy to whip up and everyone will think you put in a ton of effort. Simply a pate a choux made with water, butter and flour, baked until crisp, filled and topped they are perfect bit sized or for a full sized dessert.
- 1 cup of water
- ½ cup of butter
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of flour
- 4 eggs
- 1½ cups of whipping cream
- 1 cup of dark chocolate - chopped
- Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil over high heat.
- Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until a ball forms.
- Add one egg at a time and beat well to incorporate.
- Let the dough sit for 5 minutes.
- Add each of the remaining eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Using a large spoon drop desired size dollop on to a parchment lined cookie sheet or use a piping bag.
- Bake at 400 degrees until golden.
- Cool completely before filling.
- Whip cream using an electric mixer until thick peaks form.
- Using a piping bag fill cream puff.
- If you have large cream puff split in half then fill.
- Melt chocolate on the top of a double boiler.
- Dip the tops of the creampuff in the chocolate or using a spoon drizzle the tops of the cream puff with chocolate.
- Refrigerate to set chocolate.
- Store in the fridge.
Your options are quite vast when it comes to the toppings and fillings for cream puffs. I traditionally use a whipped cream filling, sometimes I will add cocoa to the cream for a touch of chocolate.
Alternately you could top the cream with fresh berries or even a pie filling of your choice when creating a plated dessert with your cream puffs. Custard, mousses as well as any type of pudding could be used as a filling, really your options are endless.
I use a cake decorating piping bag with a Wilton #10 tip to fill bite sized shells though anything will work. Often if my piping bag is not handy I will grab a Ziplock bag filled with whatever filling I am using and cut the corner off to pipe the filling into the cream puff. To make an opening for the filling in the cream puff use a knife, poking it into the bottom of the shell and giving it a slight twist will make a perfect sized hole.
I also will use a piping bag to pipe out the pate a choux but using a large spoon works equally well. I always bake them on parchment lined baking sheets.
For bigger cream puff shells, use a serrate knife and split the puffs in half. Some people will remove some of the insides of the puffs for extra filling but I love the texture and leave the insides intact.
