Hey everyone. It's Sam here from Sugar Spun Run, and today I'll be showing you how to make a homemade cream puffs.
I'm really excited to be sharing my homemade cream puffs recipe with you today. This is a really pretty simple
recipe, but there are a few steps involved and a little bit of technique. So
I'm going to be walking you through this whole process and show you exactly how
to make cream puffs in your own kitchen. So the first thing we are going to do is,
we're actually going to make a simple vanilla pastry cream. This is pretty
simple. We're not taking any shortcuts and using instant pudding mix, which I
know is pretty popular with cream puffs. So let's get started on the pastry cream.
We want to do this first because it is going to need to chill for a couple
hours before we can fill our cream puffs. So to get started, you're going to need a
medium sized heavy-bottomed saucepan. we'll place this on our stovetop.
We're going to add one cup of milk,
and one cup of heavy cream into our saucepan,
and we'll also add 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and today I'm
going to be using a vanilla bean. Now you can substitute vanilla extract instead,
I'll explain that a little bit later on. You won't add the vanilla extract at
this point if you are using that, but using a vanilla bean is going to help
really give this pastry cream a great flavor. As you can probably see, I've gone
and broken this one in half, and I've just split it lengthwise. That way the
vanilla bean seeds can really escape in the pastry cream while they're cooking.
So I'm just going to toss these in, and we'll turn our stove top heat to medium,
and we're just going to stir this pretty frequently until the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture comes to a simmer.
So as soon as this is simmering, we're going to remove our saucepan from the heat. We're going to set this aside and we're going
to let it cool for at least 10 to 15 minutes.e
Meanwhile, as your cream mixture is cooling, it's also going to be steeping. Really working in that vanilla
bean flavor. You're gonna let that cool for 10 minutes and in the meantime we're
going to move over to our egg mixture. So you are going to need 5 egg yolks, no
whites, just the yolks for this recipe. We'll add 3 tablespoons of granulated
sugar in with our egg yolks, and we're just going to whisk together the egg
yolks and the sugar until the sugar is starting to dissolve a little bit. It's
gonna be about 15 seconds of whisking. So once you've whisked in your sugar, we're
going to add cornstarch. This is three tablespoons of
cornstarch. This is going to help thicken up our pastry cream. So we're just going
to add this over the egg mixture and we'll whisk another 30 seconds or so
until the cornstarch and egg mixture are well combined and the mixture is even
thickened a little bit. So now we have our egg mixture ready, and once your
cream mixture has cooled for at least those ten to fifteen minutes, now we're
going to combine the two. You have to do this carefully though, because you do not
want to cook your eggs. So we're going to slowly add the cream mixture to the egg
mixture while whisking. So you can start to just slowly drizzle this in straight
from the pot. What I'm going to do is just use a measuring cup. I'll scoop up
some of that, and while I'm whisking I'm just going to slowly drizzle this in.
I'll just repeat that with another cup full.
So what we've done here is we've tempered our egg mixture by slowly introducing the cream mixture, the hot
cream mixture, to the eggs. So now we can add the rest of it without running the
risk of cooking our eggs and curdling the mixture. So I'm just going to pour
the rest of this cream mixture into the eggs while whisking, and you can toss
those vanilla beans in there, that's fine. They're going to get strained
out in the end. So we're doing a little bit of back and forth, and now that we've
combined these two, we're going to actually pour this back into our saucepan.
and the reason we're going back and forth like this is because it's important that you slowly introduce the cream to the egg mixture.
You can't slowly put the egg mixture into the cream mixture. You're going to
immediately cook the eggs. So we have to slowly transfer everything over to the
bowl and then back to the saucepan. We're putting it back in the saucepan, and now
we are going to take this back over to our stove top, and we'll set our heat to
medium heat, and we're just going to whisk this constantly until it's
thickened. It's going to start to bubble. You want it to reach that kind of
pudding consistency. It doesn't have to be completely thickened. It's going to
continue to thicken as it cools, but once it starts to really thicken up, you want
to remove that from heat.
So once we've removed the pastry cream from the heat you are going to want to keep whisking this for a couple seconds. The pan is
still hot. You don't want the cream to burn to the bottom of the pan. So just
keep whisking it for a couple seconds longer. So now we're going to actually
strain the pastry cream into the serving dish or whatever you're going to be
holding it in until you're ready to use it. So I'm going to be using
a fine mesh strainer here, and I'm just going to set this over my heatproof bowl
and we're just gonna pour my pastry cream through the strainer.
Now the cream is pretty thick, as you can see, so it's not going to just go through the
strainer on its own. So I'm gonna use my spatula to just kind of help coax it
through my strainer, and as you can see those vanilla beans are going to get
left behind. We don't need them anymore at this point. The reason you want to
strain this mixture is because just in case any pieces of egg got cooked, or you
have any lumps in here, putting it through the strainer is going to filter
those out so you'll have a nice smooth pastry cream.
and just when you thought you were done whisking, we do actually have a little bit more to do. Now if you
were using vanilla extract, instead of the vanilla bean, you would add that now.
You'd add one and a half teaspoons of vanilla extract at this point, and we're
also going to add four tablespoons of softened unsalted butter. Now we're just
going to add one tablespoon at a time, and we're going to whisk really well
after each addition, until all of the butter pieces have been completely
combined into the pastry cream.
Alright so this looks pretty good our pastry cream is actually pretty much done at this point. All it needs to do now is
chill. So what we're going to do is right now, while it's still warm,
you're going to need a piece of plastic wrap and we're just going to push this
gently into the surface of the pastry cream just press that surface of the
plastic wrap into the surface of the pastry cream and this is going to help
keep a skin from forming on your pastry cream.
You'll want to let your pastry cream sit at room temperature for about twenty to thirty minutes, or until
it's really cooled down and is almost at room temperature itself, and then once it has,
you'll transfer it to your refrigerator where you will want to let it chill for
at least two hours before using it.
While that pastry cream is chilling, now we're
going to want to make our choux pastry. So this is actually a pretty simple
pastry. I'm going to be using my grandmother's recipe. It only takes a
couple of ingredients, but we are going to need that saucepan again. So you'll
want to make sure that's cleaned and let's head back over to the stovetop.
You'll also want to go ahead at this point and pre-heat your oven to 400
degrees Fahrenheit. Now we're going to add 1 cup of water to our saucepan.
We'll also add 1/2 cup, or 1 stick of unsalted butter.
We'll also add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and we'll turn our stove top heat to medium, and we're going
to stir this occasionally until the butter is melted and the mixture comes to a boil.
Once our mixture is boiling, we are going to add 1 cup of all-purpose flour. So I'll just pour that over.
Once I've added the flour I like to turn down
the heat just a few notches so we don't burn anything, and I'll keep working everything together.
So I'm just gonna stir this now with my spatula until all
of the moisture that's in the pot is absorbed into that flour mixture, and you
kind of have like a dough ball here. As you can see it's clinging together.
So once everything is looking pretty good here, we're going to remove this from the heat.
Now, once I've removed the choux pastry from the heat I'm going to go
ahead and keep stirring it for another minute or two just to help it cool down a little bit.
Now we can go ahead and add our eggs. So you're going to need four
large eggs for this recipe, and you want them to be at room temperature. We're
just going to add them one at a time and stir really well after each addition,
until they're completely incorporated into the pastry
Now I'm just going to transfer this pastry into a large piping bag. If you
don't have one this size, you can actually use a larger ziplock bag instead.
We'll just want to snip the edge of the pastry bag I'm just gonna take a piece off the end.
And now we'll pipe our pastry, and we're going to pipe this in
mounds that are about two inches wide by about one inch tall, and you'll want to
space each creampuff about one and a half inches apart.
Alright so don't these look beautiful. One thing I'm gonna do before we pop them in the oven is I'm
just going to lightly dampen my fingers with a little bit of water, and I'm just
going to gently smooth down those tops.
Now we'll head over to our 400 degrees Fahrenheit preheated oven and we'll bake our cream puffs for about 30 minutes, or
until they appear dry and a light golden brown color.
Once your pastry is a light golden brown and it looks dry, as I mentioned. You're gonna want to take it
out of the oven, and you're going to need a sharp knife. I'm going to use this
knife to pierce each creampuff. You want to go in around the center of each cream
puff, inserting the knife about halfway into the cream puff. Now they did
just come out of the oven so they are hot. So be careful. These cream puffs are
These cream puffs are now going to go back in the oven where we are going to turn off the heat. So
turn off the oven and leave the oven door cracked, and we're going to let them
sit for another 10 minutes. This is going to help keep them from deflating, and sinking in on themselves.
So once they've had that extra 10 minutes in the oven
you'll want to remove them from the oven and let them cool completely before we move any further.
Once your cream puffs have finished cooling completely, you are
going to want to go grab your pastry cream out of the fridge. Now I'm going to
transfer this into a piping bag that I fitted with a small tip. I am actually
just using a Wilton 6 tip here of five or six any small pointy tip will work well.
Now, all you have to do is fill your cream puffs. Now if you remember that
hole we pierced in each cream puff when we took them out of the oven the first
time, We're just going to insert the tip into that hole,
and just squeeze the pastry bag to fill until the cream starts to come out.
We'll repeat this with all of our cream puffs.
Now we're going to add the finishing touch and
that is just a light dusting of powdered sugar. Now personally my preference is to
dip my cream puffs in chocolate, but that technically makes them an eclair, so
we're just going to be doing powdered sugar today.
And that is all there is to making your own homemade cream puffs. I really hope you guys enjoyed today's
recipe. If you try it out please let me know what you think. Thank you so much
for watching and I will see you next time.
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