Cream Puffs

cCream Puffs are not normally thought of as Puff Pastry and are quite easy to make. You can vary the size, shape and fillings to suit the menu you have in mind.

The ones I made today are filled with a Orange Cream Cheese and Whipped Cream filling. I drizzled some chocolate over them. If you make them bite size, a hot chicken salad is good in them also.Tuna salad, crab salad, the fillings are endless. Great appetizers.

No matter what you see on the Food Channel, you do not have to pipe them out. Drop the dough from a spoon and they work just fine. We lost power this morning while the puffs were in the oven and they came out just fine. Electric ovens will hold the heat for awhile after they are shut off. Do give these a try and you will be surprised how easy they are to make.

This will make about 10 to 12 larger puffs

Cream Puffs

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour

4 eggs

3 cups of whipped cream, pudding, or what ever filling you choose.

Preheat oven to 400°. Grease or line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium saucepan combine the water butter and salt.

Bring to boiling, add the flour all at once. stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball of dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan and doesn’t fall apart.

Cool 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each.

Drop from a Tablespoon (I just use a large soup spoon) onto prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until they are firm and golden brown.

Remove and cut small slit in side to let steam out. Let cool.

When cool, slice top off and pull out any soft dough from inside.

Fill and put tops back on.

If you wanted to, instead of dropping the dough you could pipe them onto the sheet, but that is a lot of unnecessary work.

Filling

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 teaspoons grated orange zest

1 cup thawed frozen whipped topping

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, orange juice and orange zest in a medium bowl with a fork or whisk until the mixture is smooth. Fold in the whipped topping.

Any boxed pudding mix, lightened with a little whipped cream makes a good filling.


June 2010 cost: $1.95 for entire recipe or 20¢ per serving. The puffs alone cost 96¢ for 10. Compare to frozen puff pastry at $2-2.25 for a similar amount of pastry alone.