Cream Puffs Recipe (VIDEO) (2024)

FAQs

Is milk or water better for cream puffs? ›

I have done it both ways and milk gives a flavor boost and helps with that nice golden brown color. Water is the classic though and there is nothing wrong with water or milk&water combination.

Cream puffs, or profiteroles, are French choux pastry balls filled with cream.

There are multiple reasons why cream puffs may deflate. The first cause is undercooking. When preparing dough on the stovetop, be sure to keep cooking and stirring until a film forms on the bottom of the saucepan. Another cause of flat cream puffs is lowering the temperature during baking.

The first is that you may not have cooked out the moisture enough. Make sure you give it a full 2 minutes on the stove. The second is that there is no way for the steam to escape when the puffs are baked. To avoid this I poke a hole in the side of each puff with a knife as soon as they come out to let the steam out.

For the liquid, you can use water or milk or a combination of both. We choose the combination of both because this way you get a nice color and tender bite, but the extra water also allows for baking at a slightly higher temperature.

A quick fix is to put it on the fridge until it sets, then you can use it. However, DO NOT add more flour or put it back on the stove after you added the eggs. Why did my cream puffs collapse? If the puffs collapse it means there was too much moisture in them.

Do the cream puffs needs to be refrigerated? Yes they do. They can stay out for about 4 hours but then need to be refrigerated.

Pâte à Choux is too Eggy

This is a problem if the recipes calls for too many eggs. The solution is make another batch with one less eggs to see if that fixed the problem. Also, if the puffs do not bake long enough, then they may taste slightly eggy because the insides haven't cooked long enough.

Potential reasons for each fault include insufficient cooling, eggs added too quickly, not beating the mixture enough, incorrect baking temperature or time, insufficient baking, and allowing the liquid to cool too much before adding flour.

What is the paste or thick batter used to make cream puffs? ›

Choux Pastry can be used in anything from cream puffs, profiteroles, and eclairs to churros, croquembouche, French cruller donuts, choux beignets, and gougères! It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and the options for filling and shaping are endless.

If your batter ended up being too runny, possibly you have added a little too much eggs. To fix this, cook a paste using roughly half the choux recipe (water, milk, flour, butter similar to how you started). Hold the piping bag in an angle. One hand to squeeze and the other hand to guide and control the movement.

If you did not put it in the fridge right away, then it could have spoiled (like milk) and become sour.

In many instances you can use one or the other in the same choux recipe without issue, though it can be useful to take advantage of a milk-based choux's enhanced browning when baking smaller pastries like chouquettes and éclairs, allowing you to achieve a good level of color development without risk of over-baking the ...

Milk brings a softness to the crust, but if you prefer a dough that is harder and crispier then replace the milk with water. If the dough is slightly wet at the end when gathering it into a ball, just sprinkle a little bit of flour on your bench and roll the dough in the flour before kneading the dough.

Once cooled, store them in a sealed, airtight container, and do not dust them with sugar until ready to serve. If your cream puffs have softened in storage, you may crisp them up in the oven before filling and serving. To re-crisp; bake uncovered at 300 degrees for about 5 to 8 minutes. Cool completely before filling.

How to keep crisp and not soggy. I find that filled cream puffs will stay crisp when stored in the refrigerator uncovered for about 3 days. The refrigerator is cool but dry, so the shells don't get soggy.