- Do you wanna impress your friends
with a fancy French dessert
that looks complicated but is actually super easy?
Say hello to cream puffs.
Hey, you're watching Preppy Kitchen, where I John Kanell
teach you how to make delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
These cream puffs will be ready before you know it.
So let's get started.
First off, let's make that amazing pastry cream.
It's one of my favorite things to eat.
I'm gonna be splurging
and using my special occasion vanilla beans
that have been in the pantry for a while.
Split it open with a sharp knife.
So just lay it down flat and gently
and respectfully slice.
Open it up like this.
You'll see a lot of seeds on the inside.
You can use a knife or a spoon and just scrape them out.
That is black gold.
Okay, this is gonna get infused into our milk.
No, no, no, no, no.
(beep)
These precious seeds which I will not drop
are gonna get infused into our milk
but if you didn't wanna use a vanilla bean,
go ahead and use like a tablespoon or so a vanilla extract
or vanilla bean paste.
Is basically like vanilla extract with vanilla beans
and some sugar water.
And it gives you the exact same look
and a delicious taste too.
So you could always have some vanilla bean paste on hand,
it's really handy.
Into a medium pot that has a nice thick wall,
it's important to use a nice pot
because if you have those ones
that are really paper-thin on the sides,
they scorch everything
and they make you feel like you're not a good cook,
but you are, it's just the tools.
You can also get nice pots secondhand by the way,
you don't have to buy them new.
Alright, two cups or 480 ml of whole milk, in you go.
And now, pop those seeds in, give it a little bit of a whisk
and set it over a medium heat.
Bring it to a boil, whisking occasionally
and then take it off heat immediately.
So onto the heat you go.
While that milk is heating up, keep an eye on it,
don't walk away 'cause it will boil over.
We're gonna mix up the rest of our pastry cream.
So two thirds of a cup,
that's 200 times .66666 repetend
grams and then a quarter cup of cornstarch.
This will really thicken things up
and I think I will be using some whipped cream in here.
So that's gonna soften it up.
The cornstarch is gonna help it stay together
so that your cream puffs stay nice and high, not oozing out.
Give this a quick whisk.
Whisk, whisk, whisk.
So the cornstarch can totally clump up,
which you don't want.
I like to have it really well incorporated with my sugar,
so mix, mix, mix, whisk, whisk, whisk,
and then set it aside.
For this recipe, we'll be using six egg yolks.
That means that you have just enough egg whites
to make the most amazing angel food cake.
You can click up here for that if you want to,
but you could also use it to make meringue cookies,
whatever you want, don't throw the egg whites away.
So separate those six egg yolks, here you go.
I don't know if you can tell,
based on my hairstyle and beard or slight tan maybe,
but I totally did not transfer the footage correctly
for this segment.
So I'm re-filming it weeks later. (laughs)
It was a disaster.
Sometimes, things just don't go right on the backend.
So I'm re-shooting this if you want.
If you see any continuity errors, let me know.
But right now, what's that sizzling sound?
It is my milk, it's come to a boil.
So we're setting that aside off heat,
just to infuse for like 10 minutes or so.
Here's the fun part.
We're gonna add our six partially intact yolks
to our bed of sugar and cornstarch.
And now, whisk it up.
Not, I mean whisk, whisk, whisk.
It's not that kinda whisk.
We're gonna mix it up
until it's a beautiful lemony light color
and kind of a thick but flowing paste.
Here's where it gets real.
You could use an electric mixer but I enjoy this.
Do you see this amazing pastel color?
This is the color I wish I could wear
but I do not have the coloring for it.
No pastels for me, at least not yellow.
Alright, perfectly ready.
I'm gonna let my milk just cool down for a bit
before I temper this mixture.
Once your mixture is cooled down a bit so it's warm
and not scalding hot anymore,
all you need to do is pour about a third of a cup or so
into there while you're whisking.
This is called tempering the mixture.
So whisk, whisk, whisk, while you pour.
Once that mixture is tempered,
we can add the rest of the milk in there while whisking
and then we're going to strain it back into the pot.
Straining will catch any bits of vanilla bean pod
and any kind of like skin from the milk
or anything else that happens.
This is a good practice
and it gives you a really smooth creamy pastry cream.
Strain back in
and then place it over a medium heat while whisking,
whisk, whisk, whisk,
and it's always better to use a French whisk if you can.
It'll be narrower and really hit the corners of that pot.
Okay, I have my mixture over a medium high heat right now,
so I'm just gonna whisk this while it's over heat,
and you will notice a definite change in the consistency.
It'll get really thick, bubbly
and it'll coat the back of it with a spin.
While that's heating and you're whisking,
make sure you have a pat
or one tablespoon of cold butter ready to stir in.
Don't forget that.
It's happened to me before.
So you can see just like that it thickened up.
Okay, this is just off the heat
and you're gonna add in one tablespoon of cold butter
and just stir, stir, stir, stir, stir.
This will help smooth things out.
It's also cooling it down just a bit.
And as soon as that butter is incorporated,
we'll be transferring this to a glass bowl
or any bowl really, to cool down.
Because we need to chill this and then it's on to the choux.
Look at that.
Nice and silky but very steamy.
This custard could cool in the pot but it would take so long
'cause this pot is very warm.
So we're gonna transfer it to a cool bowl
and let it hang out in the refrigerator.
Get it all out there.
Give it a little bit of a smooth
after you've transferred it over.
This is gonna be covered with plastic now.
We don't want a skin to form on this,
so just place the plastic directly on the surface,
put this into the fridge
and let it chill out until it is cool.
It should be like an hour or two.
In the meantime, we're gonna start our amazing
and super easy choux pastry.
Into the fridge.
These cream puffs whip up so quickly
and the choux, which is my favorite pastry to make,
is beyond easy.
Take one cup or 240 ml of plain old water
and put it in a pot.
One and a half tablespoons of sugar, in you go.
Half a teaspoon of salt
and one 113 gram stick of butter,
that's half a cup to you and me.
So we're gonna put this on medium high heat
and just get us to a rolling boil.
You wanna have your flour handy as well as a wooden spoon
because this step is like time sensitive.
Afterwards we could take a breather,
but have the flour ready.
And how much flour that is?
120 grams or one cup of plain old flour.
Okay, my butter's melting over medium high heat
and I also have my mixer ready
along with a paddle attachment.
This whole operation goes way faster
if your butter is room temperature, warm
or you could even melt in the microwave first
if you feel like it.
You can give it a little bit of a stir
to help things along a bit but just give it a few moments.
You wanna bring it to a rolling boil.
That means real frothy, looking crazy
and then take it off heat right away.
My mixture might have boiled over.
Taking it off heat, adding that flour and stirring hard.
Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir, stir, stir.
This is gonna become a nice big ball of delicious flour,
but you have to stir hard right now.
So, you're looking for it to come together,
and once it does, like it is right now,
we're gonna put it back over heat
for about 30 to 60 seconds.
So back on the heat,
and so stir over heat.
Okay, off heat oof!
Now we're gonna add our very warm, almost choux-to-be
into the stand mixer.
Good.
You don't have to use a stand mixer for this.
You can use a large bowl, an electric hand mixer,
it'll be totally fine.
But if you have one, break it out,
stand mixer paddle attachment.
And just run the mixer for 30 seconds or so,
just to help cool things down a bit.
You don't need to though, but it's best practice.
Nice and steamy.
So, now that it's cooled down,
just a little bit so it's warm not hot,
we're gonna add our three eggs in, one at a time.
But, have a fourth egg ready, you might need to use it.
Kinda depends on your egg size.
Then increase speed to like a medium.
Egg two.
You take a moment and just scrape the bowl down.
Always nice to scrape the bowl down,
just so the mixture is homogenous.
I say this every time but it's so important.
And by the by, lemme show you what's going on right now.
So this mixture right now, it's kinda silky,
like if you snuck a taste, it tastes silky
and has a nice mouthfeel.
But don't do that, just look at it.
And you can see mm-hmm, it still looks kinda chunky.
It's not really clinging to the beater
and gracefully falling down, which is what I wanna see.
So I'm gonna add that third egg in, see how it looks.
(upbeat music)
That's almost there.
I think I'm gonna add in at least part of another egg.
So I'm gonna mix one egg up
and see if I can improve the consistency just a little bit.
That looks right.
So I have a nice oozy silky mixture, falling off in ribbons
but still clinging to the paddle attachments.
So you can give this one final mix with your spatula
and it's ready to go into a piping bag
to pipe out into our delicious cream puffs.
This recipe is so quick and easy
but beyond delicious.
Alright, we're gonna transfer our choux
into a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip.
I'm using an 809 but any large round tip will do.
Get that in there.
Love the consistency of this pastry
and it's so versatile too.
You might have seen my eclair video.
Click up here for that.
You could also use choux
for savory cheese puffs which are delicious
and profiteroles as well.
Okay, this is ready.
So how big do you want your cream puff to be?
I usually go for a smaller one
that you can fit into your mouth
but the classic mega cream puff
would be piped like two inches wide.
Alright, so pipe, pipe, pipe, pipe, pipe, done.
That tip is a problem but we're gonna fix it.
So don't worry.
If we didn't fix it would just burn in the oven
and be totally cinched.
So you wanna have a nice like half dome basically.
Similar sizes are great,
they don't all have to be exactly the same.
But you do wanna give them room to breathe
because they're gonna puff up aka cream puffs.
That's good for the first batch.
I'm gonna dip my finger in some water,
just to dampen it, not make it super wet.
And just tap these peaks down.
I have a little bit of egg leftovers,
so I'm just gonna mix it with a dash of cream
for a simple egg wash.
The egg wash is actually optional
but I love a nice shiny golden color that it'll give us.
Just gently brush them with an egg wash.
We're gonna pop these into the oven,
425 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
I need a big flash of heat
but then reduce the temperature to 375
and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes
depending on the size of your puff.
You want to be nice and golden brown,
it'll sound hollow as well.
Into the oven.
I am so excited.
My puffs are out of the oven.
The filling is chilled,
and we're gonna make some whipped cream right now
and here's the deal.
There are a couple ways that you could fill a cream puff.
You could just fill it with whipped cream,
that's totally fine.
You could just fill it with pastry cream,
but let me tell you,
you would need a double batch of pastry cream
and that would be a wretch.
Yes, it could be rich and that's perfect for you
but today, I'll be making an easy batch
of diplomat cream, which I always call ambassador cream.
It's so crazy, it's diplomat cream.
All that is is the pastry cream folded in
and lightened up with some whipped cream
or Chantilly cream if you will.
So into a cold bowl with a cold whisk,
I'm adding cold cream.
How much?
One cup,
240 ml, half a pint.
We're gonna sweeten it up just a little bit
with like two tablespoons of powdered sugar
and then whip it up
to maximum stiffness before it curdles.
Keep an eye on it because it will happen very quickly.
Start on like a medium speed, increase to maximum.
Let's take a look.
Huh, that looks nice.
Nice and stiff.
I might. (laughs)
(beep)
Looks good.
I have a nice stiff peak.
You do not want it to curdle.
I can't stress that enough.
It turns into butter, delicious butter.
Right, so that aside,
so this aside, and I'm gonna get another bowl out.
One more bowl, that's all I need.
So here's the deal.
When you take your pastry cream out of the fridge,
you're gonna say what's going on here?
This seems like kind of gelatinous.
It's not like the silky amazing stuff that John described.
Well, it's okay, plop it out.
Now, you're gonna break it up with your whisk.
But then you're gonna whisk it up
and it'll come back to life.
So, whisk, whisk, whisk.
You can also use an electric mixer but,
okay, that's good.
This is actually perfect for piping.
Oh my gosh, it looks amazing!
Oh, like the thousands of little vanilla seeds in there.
So, that's all nice and whisked up.
What we're gonna do is add in,
mm-hmm couple spoonfuls of whipped cream,
and just lighten it up but we're gonna whisk it in.
So whisk, whisk, whisk.
And for the rest of it, I'm gonna fold the whipped cream in.
If you wanna add a stabilizer to whipped cream, go ahead,
but I think it's fine if the cornstarch
is in the pastry filling
as well as a little bit of cornstarch
that's gonna be in your powdered sugar.
Oh my gosh, this concoction is so amazing!
It is, I would just be a monster
and eat the whole bowl in one sitting.
I would totally feel sick afterwards but it'd be worth it.
Once you get a headstart with that folding,
I'm actually gonna switch it back to the whisk.
This is like the
business.
So be filling our tarts up and we're almost there.
We're gonna send this into a piping bag,
fitted with a large star tip.
This is an 846 tip and we're almost there.
Do not overfill that piping bag.
It's much easier to refill
than it is to have a mess coming out the other end.
You don't have to cut it in the exact middle.
You could be a little bit higher.
Fill that tart up.
It looks gorgeous.
Place the cap on.
Then we're gonna finish it off
with the lightest dusting of powdered sugar.
That's all you need.
Just two little taps.
This is breathtakingly delicious, so amazing.
And everyone is going to love it, I guarantee.
I'm about to dive into all these cream puffs.
I'm not sure I'm going to be sharing but before I do,
if you like this video, check out my French playlist.
All my favorite French pastries
that you are bound to love too.
But now, it's time for a bite.
That is just about perfect in every way, shape or form.
I really hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video,
hit that like button and subscribe
and I'll see you in the next video.