Cream Puffs

After making éclairs, I wanted to try something else that used pâte à choux, a light pastry dough, so I decided to go with cream puffs. I made sure to not overbake the pastries this time, which was the mistake I made when baking éclairs. Cream puffs seemed to be easier to make because their dough doesn't have to be piped so precisely to look nice. Unlike with éclairs, you can even use molds to help guide you. 

The components of this recipe are similar to the éclairs, however there is no chocolate glaze. Instead, each cream puff is baked with a thin cookie on top. According to Bouchon Bakery, "To ensure that they stay crisp, Sebastien makes a thin cookie that rests on top of the dough. It bakes up very crisp, also giving the cream puff a visually appealing appearance" (Keller and Rouxel 160). I thought that this was a pretty unique feature to this recipe because I've only ever had cream puffs with cookies on top at a cream puff at a store called Beard Papa's. I made the cookies for the cream puffs the night before I made the dough and pastry cream. The recipe was surprisingly simple and only consisted of light brown sugar, all-purpose flour, almond flour, and cold unsalted butter. First, I combined the dry ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and then I pulsed in the butter until it was fully incorporated. Based on the recipe, "the mixture will begin to come together in large crumbles but will not gather into one uniform mass" (Keller and Rouxel 162). I figured that despite this, it would be easy to push the dough together in the next step.

I was wrong. Unfortunately, rolling out the dough was by far the most difficult part of this recipe. The recipe instructed to split the dough onto two pieces of parchment paper and, "using your hands, bring the crumbles together to begin to form a dough; it will still be crumbly" (Keller and Rouxel 162). I felt like I was working with wet sand that wouldn't cooperate with me. The dough kept crumbling beneath my hands, and once I got it into a decent shape, it kept cracking under the rolling pin. After a lot of time and patience, I managed to roll each ball of dough into 1/16" thick sheets by continually rolling and pressing the broken pieces back together. I stacked them together in layers of parchment paper, then left them in the freezer overnight. 

The instructions for the cream puff dough were exactly the same as the instructions for éclairs, except with different ratios. Also, instead of refrigerating the dough, it could be piped right away. According to Bouchon Bakery, piping pâte à choux dough into silicone molds  helps keep the cream puffs uniform, and freezing them makes it easier to unmold the puffs (Keller and Rouxel 160). I didn't have silicone molds, so I improvised by using a muffin pan that I coated with nonstick spray instead. However, there was still a lot of dough left after I filled all twelve spots. I decided to try piping the dough free-handed into 1 1/2" circles, with the help of a template I made. 

While I left the dough to freeze for 4 hours, I made the pastry cream using the same recipe as I did with the éclairs, except without chocolate. The actual recipe called for, "1/2 a vanilla bean, split lengthwise" (Keller and Rouxel 373). I didn't have any in my pantry, and there was no time for me to drive to the grocery store to buy one ingredient. Once again, I had to improvise with what I had on hand, so I substituted it with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Though it still turned out good, I would definitely try making this recipe again with vanilla beans to compare the taste. After finishing up the pastry cream, I refrigerated it for about an hour and started cutting out the cookies. This was another struggle, mainly because I realized that I didn't own any cookie cutters. Instead, I carefully used a paring knife to cut out circles and placed them on top of each cream puff after spraying them to prevent cracking. I baked the cream puffs in two batches, which took roughly 1-2 hours. The puffs are done when they are light and hollow, which can be checked by breaking one open if necessary (Keller and Rouxel 161). Filling the cream puffs was somewhat challenging because I had a hard time gauging the amount of pastry cream I piped. After overfilling a few of them, I got into the rhythm of it and was able to pipe the rest evenly. I may or may not have eaten one in the process.

Overall, I'm really happy with the way they turned out! The cream puffs are best right after they are filled, or they can be refrigerated for up to 1 hour (Keller and Rouxel 161). However, I found that they still tasted good after a couple days in the fridge. While making the cream puffs, I realized that I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was. Luckily, I was able to find ways to complete the steps using what I had available in my own kitchen. 

How have you had to improvise in something, and how did it turn out?

Citation:

Keller, Thomas, and Sebastien Rouxel. Bouchon Bakery. New York: Artisan, 2012. Print.