It was Friday afternoon when I received a call from my sister. She was having a house party on Sunday and wanted to make cream puffs. I immediately was drawn back into my childhood: My mom making light, fluffy cream puffs bursting with cream and drizzled with chocolate. They would come out for special occasions and be devoured as soon as possible. I was drooling. But then my sister explained the problem: she was trying to use my mom’s recipe.
My mother is a wonderful cook and baker but her recipes are
instinctual and sometimes difficult to explain. What is a palmful? How does
that measure in cups? Why did you add that like that? How do you know that
pinch you put in was a tablespoon? I had been down that road before. I knew
that sometimes walking in mom’s culinary footsteps is a daunting task. I went
home and scoured my books for recipes and called my sister back. She said she
was on the right track; she had the right ingredients she just needed to mix
them another way. Problem solved. (They turned out beautiful and were a hit a
few days later at the party.) As soon as the phone call ended though, I knew I
was in trouble. I could taste them. I could imagine sneaking chocolate off the
top and eating myself sick on cream puffs and I knew I had to make them. NOW.
This recipe is adapted from a couple different sources but
takes most of its inspiration from the recipe of Thomas Keller, famed chef and
owner of the French laundry, Bouchon and many others. Cream Puffs as they are
known in this part of the world are actually the French delicacy, Profiteroles
made from Pate du Choux or Choux pastry. They feature prominently in different
cakes and desserts but made simply like this and filled with whipped cream or
vanilla ice cream, they are a classic everyone needs to experience.
Ingredients:
1 cup water
5 ½ Tbsp butter
1 ½ Tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup white flour, sieved
4 eggs (have an extra around just in case you need it as it
describes in the method), beaten lightly in four separate bowls
Method:
- Preheat oven to 450⁰ and prepare two baking sheets. Optimally you should use a non stick mat or baking parchment but you can use tinfoil like I did in a pinch. Also set yourself out a large bowl and wooden spoon.
- In a sauce pan over medium high, combine butter, sugar and salt until the butter melts and then add in the water. Bring to a simmer.
- Turn the pan down a little bit and add in the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until you smell a nutty aroma and it pulls away from the sides of the pan. It might take a few minutes.
- Take off the heat and remove the dough into the bowl you set aside earlier. Stir for a few seconds with your spoon to release some of the heat. This is important as you are about to add eggs. You don’t want scrambled egg dough.
- One at a time and mixing thoroughly between each, add in the eggs. Check the consistency: is it slowly sliding off the spoon or is it hanging out all clumpy? If it seems dry, add in that spare egg I told you to have around.
- When you are done mixing, put the dough into a piping bag with a plain 1” tip on it. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets, with lots of room around each one, in a shape just smaller than a golf ball. Dip your finger into some water and smooth out their tops so the little nubs left by the piping bag don’t burn.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, turn the pan, lower the oven to 350⁰ and bake for 15 more.
- Remove from the pan after a few minutes and place on a cooling rack. When they are completely cool and you want to serve them/eat them all yourself, you can do one of two things: poke a hole and inject them with whipping cream or slice them in half horizontally and stuff them with cream either whipped or iced. Drizzle with chocolate. That’s important.
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