Cream puffs! ( Choux à la crème)

It's been a while since my first blog post. On the day after this first post I caught the flu and then we went on vacation to Vancouver, but I continued cooking as much as possible and will share the recipes soon. But first, after the strawberry tart, the other recipe that needs to have a special place in my blog is the recipe for cream puffs!

I made some for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I was prepared for them to not taste very good, because the idea of making cream puffs just seemed like a lot of work and skills. However, these cream puffs turned out to be surprinsingly good and quite easy to make. I found the recipe on Allrecipes. To add the cream inside, I discreetly cut the top of the puff, inserted the cream and closed the puff. It looked the puff had never been touched! Of course, this is only good for cream puffs beginners like me :) . The one advice I have for these cream puffs is to make them in the morning and then enjoy them during the day while they are fresh. They taste so delicious then. Eating them a day after makes a big difference. I cooked them late at night and they already didn't taste as good the following morning.

 

 Cream puffs (choux à la crème) recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
4 eggs

For the custard: In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons flour and a pinch of salt. Stir in milk, a little at a time, until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 60 seconds, then pour a small amount of hot liquid into the 2 egg yolks, and stir. Then return now heated egg yolks to saucepan and stir, over heat, until mixture starts to bubble again. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Cover and chill in refrigerator.

This is how the custard looked like for me:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

For the pastry: In a medium saucepan, combine shortening and water and bring to a boil. Sift together 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt and pour all at once into boiling mixture. Stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat, and add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet, or pipe into desired shape. Be careful, the puffs will maybe double in size while baking.

Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and bake 25 minutes more, or until golden. Cool completely, split, fill with custard, and replace tops. Enjoy!