Cream Puffs!

Pate a Choux batter for Cream Puff is made of very simple ingredients - all-purpose flour, unsalted butter, a small amount of salt & sugar, water and then whole eggs. You make a paste out of these ingredients, pipe them, bake them and then filled with your desired filling but usually pastry cream; made with milk, cornstarch, eggs and sugar. It seems that everything you need to made them are staple items in your pantry. 

What you see here is an updated version of the pastry. The batter is topped with a small disk of cookie that expands and bakes as a crisp streusel on top of the Choux bun. 

When I was learning to make them in my student days, the puffs were just piped directly on the baking sheet into small mounts then brushed with egg wash then baked in the oven. What happens though is that the choux buns puff up like cabbage, which is what it basically means in French. The benefit of having that disk of cookie is that the buns bake up more rounded and does not explode.

It takes a little bit of extra prep time to make the cookie disks because you will roll it out flat, then freeze  them and then punch them into disks. And what is interesting perhaps I had learned is that if you have a half-sphere silicon molder you can pipe the batter in them, freeze it, pop it out and arranged in your baking sheet, topped with the cookie disk and into your oven. No need to thaw. Why? because they are just so small and what happens is that the batter puffs up 6 times even more that its original size. And the cookies covers the surface of the bun to create a crunchy sweet surface and preventing the buns from exploding.

So bake them in 2 different temperatures. First 30 mins at 350'F and then reduce it down to 325'F for 15 more minutes or until it is golden brown and you don't see a trace of patchy moisture in the surface of the baking choux.

Once it's done take it out of the oven, cool them slightly, while it is still hot and but manageable to hold, punch a small hole at the bottom of bun, make sure it is punched in the middle. This allows the steam to evaporate and prevent the buns from getting soggy. The hole will also be your guide when you pipe in the filling. 

What you can also do once the puffs are cooled, cut them in half, you can fill them with your favorite ice cream and then drizzled with a hot fudge sauce, then you have a Profiterole!

Incidentally, in France, the choux which can be baked as eclairs have evolved to adapt a savory filling - like mini choux sandwiches or possible tea sandwiches.

How every you want your choux filled, try to make them as I did and you will enjoy them better!