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
sarah
Gorgeous! And totally worth that happy dance!
Christine
Congrats on Foodbuzz top 9!
Ameena
I am so impressed Kankana! You make all your amazing recipes seem so effortless but I know how much love and time you put into them. Delicious!
Tina (PinayInTexas)
Those are beautiful cream puffs, Kankana...and the filling sounds extra delicious!
Ananda Rajashekar
Thank you so much darling for doing this post for me and for your words. I adore them, my heart which has stopped for while will resume beating only after I bake and eat ur cream puffs ::D
athena
Wow, Kankana, your photos, styling, and processing for this post are amazing... makes me want to reach into my screen and grab a cream puff! Heading over to Ananda's blog for the recipe...
Sissi
Your puffs look so light and luscious and make me almost forget it's no longer Summertime...
Juliana
Wow, these cream puffs look so elegant, love the filling and the strawberries...lovely touch to the classic.
Hope you are having a great week Kankana and thanks for introducing your guest 🙂
Rosa
Gorgeous cream puffs and lovely pictures! Now, I'm craving those pastries...
Cheers,
Rosa
Angie@Angiesrecipes
The puff looks sensational. I like that black and white click.
Tina´s PicStory
wow that looks so yummy! thanks for stopping by that i could see your lovely blog 🙂
Mercedes@Satisfy My Sweet Tooth
I love cream puffs and these look so light, fluffy and delicious!
Sadhana
Kankana, these puffs look amazing and your photographs are really awesome.
Suzi
Congrats on the Top 9. Looks delicious!!
Jay
wow...irresistable n hearty cliks..
love ur presentation dear..:)
Tasty Appetite
Sanjeeta kk
Oooh..yum..yum..the cream puffs look so delicate and gorgeous!
Manu
Ohhh these look so beautiful! Congrats!!! And congrats on making Top 9! 🙂 I am sure they also tasted great! Awesome pics as always!
a spoonful of yumm
hey these look so sinful & tempting 😀 love the pics 😀
Baker Street
That filling sounds super delish! Love the picture which has the filling with the strawberry.
Elies_Lie
Lovely puffs with even amazing filling!
Tq for sharing the recipe Kankana!
congratz for the top 9 on foodbuzz!
Great pic 😉