January 25, 2016

Cream Puffs: Two Ways

stacynoren

Over the last few weeks I have been craving a good cream puff.  I just wanted to make some choux pastry, fill it, and enjoy.  This feeling comes around every so often, but this time I think it came from watching the Kids Baking Championship on Food Network.  I love watching the kids cook and compete.  They are so fun and really impressive with their skills in the kitchen.  DSC_0006

After watching I decided to make two variations of cream puffs to hit all my favorite things: chocolate, vanilla, and lemon.

Lemon Glazed, Vanilla Cream Puffs

So lemon and dairy products can be tricky… Because the acid in the lemon will make the dairy curdle it takes good timing and focus to work with fresh lemons and fresh dairy.  Now good timing and two toddlers just don’t really mix.  That’s why I took a shortcut to have a cream puff with a fresh citrus bite and made a lemon glaze for my pastry instead of making a lemon cream.DSC_0001

These puffs are made with a basic Pate a Choux recipe, filled with a vanilla pastry cream (so you get the sweet vanilla), but the warm pastries are painted with a lemon glaze to make sure you get that bright taste in every bite.

Boston Cream Puffs

This last week was my Mother-in-Law’s birthday.  The year we got married, my husband told me that one of her favorite treats is a Boston Cream Pie, so that we what we normally have to celebrate her birthday.  This year, however, I decided to make individual Boston Cream Puffs instead.  That way each one of us could have our own little treat.  Liana loved having her own sprinkled puff to taste and was over the moon about getting to blow out the candle over Skype for her grandma.  We kept relighting the candle so the experience could keep on going…DSC_0069

For these I still used the basic Choux pastry filled with a vanilla pastry cream, but they were finished off by being dipped in a dark chocolate ganache and topped with colored sprinkles to help us get in the birthday experience.  

If you are looking for a great tutorial on making Cream Puffs, check out this one!  It’s simple to follow, has great pictures, and will give delicious results.

 

Lemon Glazed Cream Puffs
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Ingredients
  1. Prepared Puffed Choux Pastry
  2. Vanilla Pastry Cream
  3. Juice of 1 Medium Lemon
  4. 1/3 C Powdered Sugar
Instructions
  1. In a cup whisk together Lemon Juice and Powdered Sugar until smooth.
  2. Cut pastries and paint onto the interior top and bottom of your puff.
  3. Fill pastry with vanilla cream and top with glazed top. You can pipe the cream in or scoop, whichever you prefer.
  4. Finish by dusting top with Powdered sugar and serve immediately.
Notes
  1. Cream Puffs taste best within two hours of making them. They will however keep in an airtight container for a couple of days. I like to refrigerate them and eat them cold, but the dough will begin to dry out.
Cake by the Cup Blog https://blog.cakebythecup.com/
Boston Cream Puffs
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Print
Ingredients
  1. Prepared Puffed Choux Pastry
  2. Prepared Vanilla Pastry Cream
  3. 1 Cup Dark Chocolate Chips
  4. 1 C Heavy Cream
Instructions
  1. Bring 1 C Heavy cream just to boil over medium heat. Pour into bowl over chocolate and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
  2. Whisk chocolate mixture until smooth, set aside.
  3. Cut prepared pastries in half and fill with the vanilla pastry cream.
  4. Spoon ganache over the top of the assemble puff allowing the chocolate to run down the sides. Top with sprinkles, fruit, candied, whatever desired. Serve Immediately.
Notes
  1. Cream Puffs taste best within two hours of making them. They will however keep in an airtight container for a couple of days. I like to refrigerate them and eat them cold, but the dough will begin to dry out.
Cake by the Cup Blog https://blog.cakebythecup.com/