Bite size Choux Pastry filled with whipped mascarpone cheese and slices of fresh strawberries! These cream puffs are light, airy, and it is very easy to make. If you haven’t made cream puffs before, time to change that! 5 ingredients are all you need.
What are Cream Puffs (Choux Pastry)
Choux pastry, or pâte à choux is a famous pastry from France that is prepared from a butter and flour dough. It doesn’t need any baking powder or baking soda or yeast.
On baking the dough puffs beautifully creating a pocket inside for filling.
This Cream Puff recipe is full proof, and you will find airy pockets in every single one of these puffs.
5 ingredients
5 ingredients are all it needs to prepare these easy choux pastry:
- Butter
- Milk
- Water
- Flour
- Sugar
All you need to do is mix to make a dough and then pipe to a baking sheet.
But there is this one step you must be careful about when making the Choux Pastry!
How to prepare the Choux Pastry?
In a pan melt the butter with water, milk and sugar. Then add the flour and keep mixing until it comes together into a dough.
Let it cool down a little (this is the KEY PART) then add one egg at a time and whisk to make the shiny dough, that is not too runny or too thick.
Once that is done, you pipe and bake.
Consistency of the dough is critical
For the perfectly risen and puffed cream puffs, the consistency of the dough is critical. If the dough is too runny, then the choux buns will not puff, and you will get a pretty much flat buns.
If the dough is too thick, then it will be dense inside, and you will not get any pockets to fill the choux buns.
This recipe for cream puffs is perfect, and I have been baking these cream puffs for several years now.
How to store ?
You can store the unfilled cream puffs in an airtight container for 3 days at room temperature. You can also freeze these for 3 months.
Freshly baked choux buns come out crispy on the outside but as it sits at room temperature, it will turn a little soft BUT not mushy. Keep that in mind.
For re-heating, just cake at 300F preheated oven for 10 minutes.
More Desserts To Try
Filling the cream puffs:
You can think of multiple ways to fill this little delight!
My favorite is mascarpone cheese with strawberries. But you can use variety different kind of creamy filling.
Fill it with ice cream and pour some chocolate drizzle on top!
You can also try savory filling with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
For the puffs
- 8 tbs unsalted butter
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 4 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
For the filling
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- In a deep heavy bottom pan at medium heat, melt the butter with milk and water.
- After the butter is melted, add sugar, salt.
- Next add all the flour at once and using a wooden spoon, keep beating until the mixture forms a dough. This should take about 3 minutes.
- Stop the heat and remove the pan from the stove. Allow the mixture to cool down a little before whisking eggs to it.
- You could either use a hand whisk or an electric whisk to mix the eggs to the dough. Add one egg at a time and keep whisking. Once all the eggs are added, keep whisking until the mixture turns into a smooth shinny thick batter consistency.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Pipe the batter into a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat.
- Wet the tip of your finger and tap the top of the dough slightly just to make sure it's smooth on top.
- Bake it at 400 F for 15mins.
- Reduce the heat to 350 F and bake for another 25 minutes or until they are all puffed up and get golden brown. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR IN BETWEEN.
- Once done, let the choux buns cool off completely on a wire rack.
- For the filling, whip together mascarpone cheese with heavy cream and sugar till it's firm. Slice the strawberries or chop and mix with the filling.
- For final plating: Cut the puffs in half, spread the strawberries and cheese mix on the bottom half, place the top half of the puff shells and dust some icing sugar on top.
Notes
Consistency of the dough is critical
For the perfectly risen and puffed cream puffs, the consistency of the dough is critical. If the dough is too runny, then the choux buns will not puff, and you will get a pretty much flat buns. If the dough is too thick, then it will be dense inside, and you will not get any pockets to fill the choux buns. This recipe for cream puffs is perfect, and I have been baking these cream puffs for several years now.Nutrition
Notyet100
Wish I could have one ,..:)
vandana rajesh
Delicious cream puffs and beautiful clicks.
Kala
Your photos are always SO good Kankana - from preparation to final product.
Charles
Isn't it great when stuff you make turns out really successfully? I never made anything like this before. Living in France you'd have thought I'd have tried to make choux pastry or similar at least once... perhaps I'll make a point of doing it after seeing how delicious and easy you make it look!
Raji
These puffs look amazing kankana..brilliant clicks.
Keerthana@lifenspice
awesome pictures Kankana! And LOL reading 'doing the happy dance for a very long time'! You sound so much like me here. I do this when any of my baking experiments succeed which happens rarely for me:-)
Kim Bee
Divine dessert and stunning photographs. I adore cream puffs. Your addition of strawberry and mascarpone is a winning combo in my book.
Anamika
This looks so so yum..I can imagine ur little jig in the kitchen 🙂 Strawberry is one berry which pairs so well with almost anything..and with puffs..so good!!
Ann
Kankana - these are absolutely stunning! I bet they tasted delicious! If I made something that beautiful, I'd be grinning from ear to ear, too!
Sandra
These are so pretty and what an awesome job for your first time. Excellent presentation.
Jessica
I would smile cheek to cheek for this one! Such a delightful treat! I love puffs! These are such beautiful and stunning photos, like always!
Tina@flourtrader
I have yet to make any cream puffs, but it looks like you have mastered these. The flavors you chose were spot on. I like the simple blend of marscapone and strawberries, no chocolate, no nuts..
Your pictures are stunning--great post.
wizzythestick
I am used to savoury fillings in puffs but this looks amazing!
torviewtoronto and createwithmom
yummy looking colourful dessert Kankana
Divya
Lovely guest post, Kankana! Your photos just get better and better. I'm already drooling :).
Sawsan@chef in disguise
I know the feeling! I went through almost the same thing last month with croissant 🙂
as always your photography is breath taking Kankana and the recipes are just as amazing
Sawsan@chef in disguise
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Priya
Yummy! I love cream puffs, great pictures
Tyler Ngo
I especially love the photos for this post. They look delicious!
Grishma
OMG..these looks divine Kankana 🙂 Amazing work 🙂