Hey guys it's Bettie from Baker Bettie.com and welcome back to another video. Today
we are making classic cream puffs. Now if you have never made a cream puff
before it is a French pastry. It is actually made from choux pastry which
makes this really delicate beautiful shell and then we are filling it with
real whipped cream. They are so delicious and incredibly easy to make and they are
going to impress anybody you make them for. To start our cream puffs we are going
to make our choux pastry batter and this is quite a unique pastry component
because it is made by cooking it on the stove which is quite different from most
other things we make in baking. So I have a saucepan here on my stove and I'm
going to start by combining a half cup of water with a half a cup of milk and
these are both of the liquid components of our choux pastry. The water is going
to help our shells crisp up a little bit and the milk is going to add some
richness into our shells. Now I'm also adding to the liquid about 1/8 teaspoon
of salt just a large pinch of salt and then I also have one stick of butter
with just four ounces and this is unsalted butter that I have cut into
cubes and this is just going to help it melt a little faster in our mixture. So
we're going to start with those ingredients and I'm going to turn my
heat on to about medium-high heat and I just want all of this to come to a boil.
Now when the mixture comes to a boil I want the butter to be completely
melted at that point. So that's another reason why you do want to cut it into
small pieces so that it melts quickly in this mixture.
So we'll just wait for this to come to a boil.
Now you can see here the mixture is coming to boil so I'm going to shut off
the heat and then I'm going to take my 1 cup of all-purpose flour and pour it in
all at one time, Start mixing it pretty vigorously we're
just going to keep stirring this until it all comes together into a smooth
paste. And I just want to stir it until all of that flour is absorbed into the
liquid then we're going to turn the heat back on to it and cook it a little
farther. Ok so now that all of that flour has been absorbed into our mixture you
want to flatten down onto the pan so that you have one layer. And now we're
just going to turn the heat back on it and let it dry out a little harder. So
you want to listen at this point the mixture is going to start sizzling. It
will start sort of sounding like it's pan frying and when you get to that
point you will check it to see if a film has formed on the bottom of the pan and
that is how you know that you have dried it out far enough. Ok I'm really hearing
the noise now it's really talking to me so I'm going to pull it back and you can
see now there is a thin film that is forming on the bottom of the pan and
that means our mixture is dried out enough so I'm going to shut off the heat.
And now I'm just going to start stirring the mixture until all of the steam
evaporates off of the mixture. So this is going to be a bit of an arm workout but
you just want to stir it and keep stirring it and stirring it until you no
longer see any steam coming off the top and that's going to help dry out your
mixture and also cool it down a little bit before we move on to add our eggs.
So I'm just continuing to stir and stir this I can still see steam coming off of
it which means it's not quite ready. And choux pastry is really a practice in
patience you really don't want to rush it and I promise it will all be worth it
in the end. So this will probably take about three to four minutes of stirring
for all that steam to come out. So my mixture is no longer releasing any steam
so we can move on to adding our eggs. Now this is a really crucial part of the
process you definitely don't want to rush this step. And this mixture cannot
absorb too much liquid at once which is why you need to add the eggs one at a
time and you need to stir those in before you add the next egg. Now this is
a bit of an arm workout and I want you to pay close attention to how the
mixture looks before the egg is completely absorbed and after it is
completely absorbed because the look of the mixture definitely changes once you
are ready to add more next egg. So I have four eggs here and I'm going to add them
one at a time so let's start with just the first egg and I'm going to mix this
in until it is all completely absorbed into the mixture. So if you look at the
mixture right now you can see that the egg is still kind of sitting on top of
the mixture it's not completely absorbed in which means I need to keep stirring
and really use a little arm strength for this. Now you can see here how the
mixture has changed there is no longer any glossiness to the mixture that egg
is all completely absorbed in it is one cohesive batter so that's why you know
you're ready to add more next egg. So we'll go ahead and add our second egg
and again we'll mix all that and is completely combined before we add the
next one. Okay we are ready for egg number three
and now after egg number three the mixture is going to start looking a
little bit more glossy but you'll still be able to tell once that egg is
completely absorbed in it. Now we mix in our fourth and final egg and then our
choux pastry will be ready for piping. Now if you were making a larger batch of
this choux pastry you could technically move this into your stand mixer or use a
hand mixer to mix in the eggs, I have done that before if I was making a large
batch but it's really not necessary for a batch this size unless you just really
don't want to do all of the stirring that it requires but that's definitely
an option if you prefer. Okay and this is how your choux pastry will look once it
is completely done. It's a little bit glossy but all of those eggs are
completely absorbed and it's a really thick batter it's going to be thick
enough so you can pipe it but it's not so thick that it's a dough that you can roll
out. So now we can go ahead and move this into our pastry bag for piping. I have a
pastry bag here fit with just a small open tip and I like to use a jar or a
wide mouthed glass to put the pastry bag down in and hold the top over so
that this stays clean you know while we are filling the bag. Now I'm just going
to transfer the pastry, the choux pastry, straight into our piping bag. Now if you
don't have a piping bag you can use a ziploc bag with just the tip cut off
the top. And once the bag is filled you just want to press that pastry down into
the bag so that you don't have any air bubbles inside. And now we're just going
to pipe our shells onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Now after you make your
choux pastry you do need to use it within about three hours but you can
wait a little bit of time if you like, I actually think that choux pastry works
really well if you let it rest for about an hour in a cool part of your
kitchen but you can go ahead and use it immediately. The way we are going to pipe
our shells is to make small circles on our parchment paper and you want to
start in the middle of where you are piping your shells and just apply even
pressure and pull up. Now these are going to expand quite a lot in the oven so I
don't like to pipe them a very big because they are going to pop up so much.
What will happen in the oven is all of that liquid is going to start
evaporating out of the shells and it's going to create steam in the oven and
that is going to make them pop into a really nice crispy cream pie shell. So
let's go ahead and keep piping our shells. You do want to leave some
space in between them because they are going to expand quite a lot in the oven.
Now we will deal with these little tails that are formed as we're piping the
shells after we get everything piped I'll show what to do with those. So now that I have
all of my shells piped on my parchment paper I'm going to dip my finger in
just a little bit of water and just smooth out those little tails that were
created as we were piping these. Now what's going to happen as I will put
these in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit and then I'm going to
drop the oven temperature down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and let them continue
cooking. Now that really high heat is going to really rapidly evaporate all
the moisture out of the shells and create steam. Now that steam is going to
expand the shell very quickly. They're all going to puff up really nicely and
then the last part of the baking process when you lower the temperature down. It's
going to finish cooking the shells and crisp them up. So let's go ahead and
make our shells and I can't wait for you to see how much these puff up. Our shells
are out of the oven and they puffed up so nicely. They're really nice and hollow on
the inside and they're just a little bit crispy on
the outside. And now we just want to let these cool completely before you fill
them. Now you can fill these with anything you
like. The most classic filling is whipped cream or you could use pastry cream or
you can even use ganache just really anything you like. Now I am going to use
a classic just vanilla flavored whipped cream today and if you aren't going to
be serving these immediately you want to leave the shells unfilled until right
before you serve them. Now these also freeze really well and I would suggest
freezing just the shells by themselves without filling in them and then you can
let them thaw and fill them the day you are going to serve them. So now I'm just
going to take a small little paring knife and cut a small hole in the bottom
of my cream puff. And now I'm just using my pastry bag to pipe the cream right
into the center of the cream puff. And that is it, that's our cream puffs. So now
I have to have a taste. Oh my gosh they are so good,
they're tender they're just a tiny bit crispy and they have all that beautiful
real whipped cream in the middle. These are going to be a hit at any of your
parties. People will be so impressed with you and they are so easy to make. Now I
really hope you enjoyed this cream puff tutorial and if you did make sure you
give it a thumbs up. If you have any questions please leave those in the
comments section I will be happy to answer them and if you aren't already
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on Instagram and on Facebook and I'll be back next week with another
baking tutorial. I'll see you guys then!