Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are one of my favorite desserts, especially the ones with the custard filling. There's this lady that sells a box of 100 puffs for only $30 bucks! We used to ask friends and relatives coming down from Maryland to pick us up a box it seems to be such a hassle now. I found a recipe on the Joy of Baking (http://www.joyofbaking.com/CreamPuffs.html) and decided to give it a shot.

Her recipe is as follows:

Choux Pastry:

• 1/2 cup (70 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (57 grams) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• Egg Wash Glaze: 1 large egg 1/8 teaspoon salt

Whipped Cream:

• 1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

Garnish:

• Powdered (Confectioners or icing) sugar

Instead of using the whipped cream above, I used her fruit tart pastry cream recipe (http://www.joyofbaking.com/FruitTart.html) and mixed it with some vanilla pudding! You can play around with the mixture to you get the right consistency.

Custard Recipe from Joy of Baking

Pastry Cream:

• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
• 3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, Brandy, Kirsch) (optional)

I used this Wilton Cookie Master Plus to make the Puffs:

On the subject of cream puffs, on a recent trip to NYC, I tried Beard Papas (http://www.muginohousa.com/) cream puffs for the first time. This place is a Japanese franchise that is known for the world's best cream puffs! No doubt they were good, they were pretty big in size too but they're only good if you consume them there. They make it fresh and fill the puff with the custard as you order. The puffs are thin and crisp and the custard filling is fluffy and not too sweet and you have a choice of the regular vanilla cream or green tea. For the puff, you have a choice of the regular puff or puffs with a captain crunch link mixture on it. I bought a box and ate them later and they weren't so good. I'm also not too fond of the green tea custard filling.

Beard Papa's:

2167 Broadway
New York, NY 10024
(212) 799-3770