Cream Puffs with Pastry Cream
Bake your own delicious cream puffs filled with a decedent pastry cream!
Servings 12 pastries
Ingredients
Pastry Cream
- 1 c whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 large egg yolks
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 tbsps. cornstarch
- 4 tbsps. unsalted butter divided into 4
- 2 tsps. vanilla extract
Pastry Puff
- ¼ c milk
- ¾ c water
- ½ c unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of granulated sugar
- 1 cup ap flour
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 6 large strawberries, sliced optional
Instructions
- In a saucepan, whisk together the milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Whisk to evenly incorporate ingredients and avoid any lumps.
- Turn heat to medium and whisk constantly until it begins to thicken. You can tell it’s done when the pastry cream coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and immediately strain through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl.
- Ad butter gradually whisking after each addition. Mix in the vanilla until smooth. Let cool and store refrigerated for 24 hours.
- In a saucepan, at medium heat, add the milk, water, salt, sugar and butter. Once the butter melts, stir well to combine. When it begins to simmer pour in the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set it aside.
- When ready, transfer the dough to a glass bowl. Let it cool for five minutes. Mix eggs in, one at a time. Mix thoroughly after each egg until you have a smooth, thick dough.
- Using two spoons, spoon twelve equal portions onto lined baking sheet. Smooth out the dough by dipping your fingers in water. Or you can use a pastry bag to pie the dough into mounds. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce temperature to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 25- 27 minutes. Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! This will cause the pastry to deflate.
- Remove the puffs from the oven and let them cool completely. When ready, carefully slice open and fill it with pastry cream. Add sliced strawberries. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve right away.
Notes
In this second recipe, I did not brush the pastry dough with egg wash as in the first recipe. If you choose to include this step you will need to whisk one more egg with a splash of milk. Brush pastry dough before you bake.