Cream Puffs, also known as profiterole or choux à la crème (I don’t know how to say it either!), are truly delightful desserts! They are considered a French dessert and are popular all over, especially in my homeland, Iran, where the French language and culture were very popular up until the 1950s. My mom loves cream puffs and I always make it for her on her birthday –instead of a cake- and on mother’s day! She has told me about giant cream puffs (called “noon khamei” in Iran) that you would eat the top part of the pastry, then use a spoon to eat the cream filling (that’s how big!) and then eat the bottom part. Am I drooling as I write this? Yes. Am I going to make my next batch of cream puffs giant size? Maybe!
The recipe is actually simple and easy to make but the baking process can be a bit tricky. There are many variations with baking time and temperatures, so you might want to play around with that some. I have come up with a baking time and temperature that works for me. Let’s hope it works for you too!
Ingredients
For the Pastry Shells:
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup canola oil
- 5 eggs
- 2 TBS sugar
For the Filling:
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Pastry Shells:
Preheat oven to 450
Add water, oil and sugar in a small pot and place on heat until it starts to boil. Right when it begins boiling add all the flour to it at once and stir until all ingredients are mixed together and ALL the water has evaporated. (but be careful not to leave on heat for too long).
Take off from the heat and transfer to a bowl at the stand mixer. Add the eggs to it. Stir until well mixed.
Make walnut size balls with the dough and place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place the sheet on the lowest level in the oven. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, lower to 370 for another 15-20. minutes. The baking time is very important! The first high heat phase is to make the shells rise and the second cooler phase it to make them harden and dry. Try not to open the oven at all during baking time.
Filling:
In the meantime you can start making the filling. You can really try any kind of filling your little heart fancies! I usually just go with a simple vanilla whipped cream recipe I came up with (below). you can add a layer sliced strawberries or bananas, make Nutella whipped cream (so guuuud) or dip the shells in melted chocolate. Hard to choose, huh?!
After the puffs cool down, start the filling process.
mix the whipping cream and the mascarpone cheese and start adding the sugar gradually. add in the vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks form.
To assemble:
You can cut the shells horizontally and use a piping bag to fill the lower shell and then place the top shell back on. Or you can use a filling tip to make a little hole at the bottom of the shell and fill them with the cream. I prefer the first method.