Cream Puff Recipe
I wasn’t always a fan of cream puffs. However, over the last couple of months, we’ve been frequently some of our favourite local cafe and bakery in our neighborhood and one of the pastries that has always seem to attract my attention were the ones made with a Pâte à Choux base. Whether it be cream puffs or eclairs, these desserts have inspired me to attempt to make them myself so that we can stop spending all our disposable income on these desserts XD
Thanks to my trusty Ladurée cook book that I bought last year, I had a point of reference to make my pastry cream. Being unsatisfied with their Pâte à Choux recipe, I decided to try another which turned out a lot better (the choux just had more flavour overall).
This dessert is actually not very hard to make though it can be time consuming as you have to dry the Pâte à Choux out in the oven, and then wait for your pastry cream to cool before you can actually use it. But once you have this base recipe down, you can actually adjust the pastry cream flavour to your liking. I went ahead and made a matcha variation of it that turned out quite well!
To view the full recipe, see below.
Cream Puff Recipe
Ingredients
Pâte à Choux
- 3/4 cups water
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg + 1 tsp water (this is for the egg wash to be used at the end)
Pastry Cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)
- 1 2/3 cups whole milk (I didn't have whole milk so in a liquid measuring cup, I added 3/4 up 2% milk and topped the rest up with whipping cream)
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1-2 tbsp of matcha powder (if you're making the matcha alternative - adjust measurements according to how strong you want the matcha flavour to be)
Instructions
- 1. First, prepare the pastry cream as that takes time to cool down and set before it can be ready to use. Over a stove top on medium high heat, add milk and vanilla extract and bring to a gentle simmer.
- 2. While your milk mixture is heating up, whisk the egg yolk and sugar mixture together in a separate bowl until it turns a pale yellow color and the mixture forms thick ribbons when you lift the whisk from the bowl. Then, whisk in your corn starch.
- 3. Once you see little bubbles start to form in the milk mixture (do not bring it to a boil), take it off the heat and slowly add a little bit of the milk mixture into the egg mixture to temper it. Whisk vigorously as you add in the milk mixture. Then, slowly incorporate the rest of the milk to the egg mixture. Once thoroughly whisked together, add the entire mixture back into the saucepan.
- 4. Over low-medium heat, whisk the mixture until it starts to thicken. Careful, this mixture can thicken very quickly due to the corn starch so don't heat this over super high heat or it might become too thick. Once it reaches pudding consistency, remove from heat and transfer into a bowl. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and while it is still really warm/hot, add the butter (just don't add it right away off the heat). Place plastic wrap on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and allow to cool in the fridge.
- 5. While your pastry cream is cooling, prepare the Pâte à Choux. Preheat the oven to 425F. Then, over a saucepan on medium high heat, add water, sugar, butter and salt until it comes to a boil.
- 6. Very quickly, dump in the flour mixture and mix quickly with a wooden spoon until it comes together looking like a dough ball. Once the dough ball pulls away from the sides of the pan (about a minute or two, depending on how hot your pan is), remove the pan from the heat and transfer into a bowl to prevent overcooking. Mix the dough mixture around with a wooden spatula to release the steam - this also helps it to cool down faster.
- 7. Slowly, add in the egg yolks one by one, waiting for the dough to absorb the egg before adding the next. It will look like a wet clump at first but keep mixing and it will all come together.
- 8. Once you've added all your egg yolks, keep mixing until the mixture has thickened. You'll know it's done when you lift the wooden spoon from the choux mixture and a little peak forms on your spoon.
- 9. Transfer the choux mixture into a piping bag or simply scoop the mixture onto a silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray.
- 10. Brush the top of the choux with egg wash to help it get that golden brown color.
- 11. Bake for about 13 mins at 425, then reduce to 375F and bake for another 18-20 mins until its golden brown and it can be easily lifted from the baking sheet.
- 12. Finally, bake for another 15 mins or so at 300F to fully dry the choux out (you don't want the interior of the choux to still be soggy). Once done, take out to cool on cooling rack. Poke a hole in each choux with a toothpick to help release some of the steam out and allow the interior to dry a bit.
- 13. Once fully cooled, you can cut the choux in half and pipe your pastry cream into the choux.
Hi! Just a question, about the pâte à choux: you mention 4 eggs in the ingredients, but only the yolks in the recipe. What happens to the whites?
These look yummy… When are you opening your own pastry shop? Let me know!
Hi Joelle, thank you for your support! I usually make other desserts with the egg whites (e.g. Macarons, souffles, meringues, etc). I hope to open one soon, be sure to stop by if I do haha!
Hi, at what point do you add butter to the pastry cream? It’s in the ingredient list but not the instructions. Thanks!
Once you take the pastry cream off the heat, allow to cool for about 10 minutes and while it is still very warm, add the butter and mix until it is incorporated to the pastry cream. Then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge.
Thanks for pointing this out – I’ve updated the recipe 🙂