Cream Puffs


Our dad usually requested cream puffs for his birthday instead of cake, he liked his with filling and chocolate on top.  
Cream Puffs are quite easy to make. You can vary the size, shape and fillings to suit the menu you have in mind.
 These are filled with an Orange Cream Cheese Whipped Cream filling. I drizzled some chocolate over them. If you make them bite size, a hot chicken salad, 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.  Do give these a try and you will be surprised how easy they are to make. 
Everyone will be impressed and won't know 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. 

9 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hi JR, Good to hear from you. Yes Dad really liked them and they are so easy to make.

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  2. I have always wanted to make cream puffs. You have finally convinced me! Hope they're as simple as you describe them. And I'd love to bring something to a party sometime that's truly impressive. Will be trying these soon - thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Good for you, they really are that simple to make. Let us know how they come out.

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  3. I used to make them years ago and as I remember stirring in the flour had to be done by hand, and I don't remember letting the ball sit for 10 minutes before adding the eggs but added them as soon as the ball formed, but since it was so long ago my memory isn't so trustworthy! What I do remember is my wrists getting very tired from stirring. Can you use a mixer for any of this?

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  4. I have made them both ways, letting them set the 10 minutes and stirring the eggs in right away. It really seems to work better letting the dough ball cool a little while. And sorry you can't use a mixer with cream puffs. I guess I never thought it was hard to stir the eggs in, adding them one at a time helps though it takes a little more time that way.

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    1. Lorita, Sue just pointed out to me that King Arthur's recipe for cream puffs does use a mixer to mix in the eggs. Go to www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-puffs-and-clairs-recipe for their directions they do cool the dough ball for 5 to 10 minutes.

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  5. Thank you ladies! I will check out the King Arthur's website.

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