Cream puffs are a fun dessert; they're filled with pastry cream and a crunchy sugary topping. And they couldn't be easier to make at home.
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00:00 How's it going, everybody?
00:01 It's Justin here in the Delish Kitchen studios.
00:03 If you want to get into the world of pastry making
00:06 or patisserie, there is no better place to start
00:08 than Cream Puffs.
00:10 They combine two of like the most one-on-one basic things
00:13 that you need to know if you want to enter this world,
00:15 and that is pâte à choux or choux pastry and pastry cream,
00:20 specifically in this case, vanilla pastry cream.
00:22 Once you know how to make those two things,
00:23 you can make a lot.
00:25 That is the basis of a lot of recipes.
00:27 And they're simpler than you might think,
00:28 especially pâte à choux.
00:30 It's a cooked dough, which is interesting.
00:31 Some of you guys have not done that before,
00:33 but it comes together rather quickly,
00:34 and I really think you're going to like it.
00:36 Let's get into it.
00:37 To know what pastry cream is,
00:40 you got to know what custard is.
00:41 Custard is an egg, dairy, and sugar mixture
00:44 that can be cooked down into a sauce.
00:46 And when you whip it up with air and freeze it,
00:48 that's ice cream.
00:49 That's what custard is.
00:50 Pastry cream is just taking that custard
00:51 and cooking it down with a little bit more starch
00:53 or thickener and making it into that like pipeable,
00:57 like luscious, airy, delicious texture
00:59 that you know and love.
01:00 This is going to be a vanilla custard cream,
01:01 but you can change it up and add chocolate
01:04 or berries or anything to this that can be folded in
01:07 to make it some more flavor.
01:09 First, you're going to add some sugar
01:10 and some cornstarch to a medium saucepan.
01:12 You're going to whisk that all together
01:13 until it's nice and combined.
01:14 We're using cornstarch here
01:16 instead of something like flour
01:17 because it helps to thicken the pastry cream
01:19 without adding like a floury taste.
01:22 Then you're going to slowly stream in some milk,
01:24 whisking all the time so it doesn't get lumpy.
01:26 And then you're going to put that over medium heat
01:28 and whisk constantly until it comes to a boil.
01:31 We're cooking the starch,
01:31 which takes away any gumminess or any flavor to it.
01:34 It just helps to prepare it as a thickener.
01:36 Then to the side, we're going to whisk together our egg yolks
01:38 and slowly add like about half a cup
01:41 of that warm milk mixture.
01:44 This is called tempering eggs.
01:45 It's because if we were going to just add our egg yolks
01:47 right into the mixture, they'd scramble immediately.
01:49 And we do not want lumpy, gross pastry cream.
01:51 And then we're going to add that into our saucepan
01:53 and whisk until that's fully combined.
01:55 Then we're going to add the seeds of a vanilla pod
01:57 and cook over medium heat,
01:58 stirring kind of frequently for like two to three minutes
02:01 until we've reached like a pudding consistency.
02:04 This has been going for like two minutes at low heat.
02:07 And we're starting to get that sort of pudding-y
02:09 consistency in there.
02:10 It's like a loose pudding.
02:11 I'll take it a little bit longer,
02:13 but this is really going to set up
02:15 as soon as you take it off the heat.
02:17 So you can always go a little bit lower than what you think.
02:19 Then we're going to fold in our little knob of butter.
02:21 And the butter here is going to provide like a beautiful
02:23 gloss and shine to the pastry cream.
02:25 But it's also going to provide flavor.
02:27 Then we're going to push this mixture
02:28 through a fine mesh sieve.
02:30 We just want to make sure that there are certainly no lumps
02:32 or pieces of cooked egg in there.
02:33 Then we're going to take some plastic wrap
02:35 and press it right over our pastry cream mixture.
02:36 Because if we don't,
02:37 a skin is going to form sort of like on pudding.
02:40 This is going to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge
02:42 until it's totally set.
02:44 Now I'm going to transfer it to a piping bag.
02:45 Okay, I know that I said that there was like only
02:48 two big parts of this recipe,
02:49 but there's a secret and kind of optional part
02:51 called crèc-à-la.
02:53 And it's a French thing.
02:54 And if you want to scrape it as big off,
02:55 you've probably seen it.
02:56 It's this little like basic, almost like,
02:58 it's like a cookie without being a full cookie.
03:01 And you make it and you freeze it
03:02 and you put it on things and then it bakes
03:04 and it kind of like flattens out and it crackles out.
03:06 And it adds some texture and some sweetness.
03:08 It's really good and it's really easy to make.
03:10 And we're going to start like any really great cookie would.
03:12 We're going to take some sugar and add it to our bowl.
03:15 And we are going to take some butter
03:17 that has been very softened and add that as well.
03:20 And then we're going to cream this
03:21 just until it is together.
03:23 And it's going to come together in like two, three minutes.
03:27 And I'm going to add some flour.
03:28 This is a very unstable and like maneuverable mixture.
03:31 It feels like Play-Doh.
03:33 So we need to roll it out,
03:34 but we don't want to get it stuck to everything.
03:36 So we're going to sandwich it
03:37 in between two pieces of parchment.
03:39 So I'm going to slide this under here.
03:42 I'm going to press it out generally
03:44 into sort of like a rectangle shape.
03:47 And now I'm just going to roll this out.
03:49 Have a regular rolling, kind of like using a flat one.
03:51 I'm going to just start slowly,
03:52 not with too much pressure,
03:54 rolling it out until I get it
03:56 to like about a quarter inch thick.
03:58 It's going to take up like maybe like half
04:01 of the parchment by the end of it.
04:02 It should be just like one flat circle.
04:04 We want our little crackle and circles
04:05 to be just bigger than our cream puffs.
04:08 So I'm going to take a biscuit cutter
04:10 that's like an inch and a quarter.
04:12 So just a little bit smaller than an inch and a half
04:14 that we're going to pipe out our puffs to.
04:16 I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to cut my circles.
04:19 This is small enough that you should get
04:21 somewhere between 20 and 30 out of here,
04:24 especially if you use all of the real estate given to you.
04:27 I'm going to get these into the freezer
04:29 'cause they need to set for about 15 minutes.
04:33 These will actually keep,
04:35 once they're in their little circles,
04:37 they're going to keep for up to a month.
04:39 So you can make a bunch of this ahead of time
04:41 and then use your little coins
04:42 whenever you want to make cream puffs.
04:44 Now it's time for the final component of this dessert
04:46 and that is pâte à choux or choux pastry,
04:49 however you want to call it.
04:50 And believe it or not, weirdly enough,
04:51 choux literally means cabbage in French.
04:54 So it's literally cabbage pastry.
04:57 And it's called that because when you pipe it out
04:59 and put it in a circle,
05:00 it blooms up and it kind of resembles a cabbage,
05:04 which is very fun to me.
05:05 And I like that name for that reason.
05:06 The thing that might be unique to you about choux pastry
05:09 is that it's kind of like this halfway point
05:11 between dough and batter,
05:14 just thin enough that you can pipe it,
05:15 but thick enough that it will hold its shape.
05:17 And part of the reason we're able to accomplish that
05:19 is 'cause we're gonna cook the dough.
05:20 So to a saucepan, I'm going to add milk,
05:23 butter, and a bit of sugar.
05:24 I'm gonna whisk that all together
05:25 and let it come up to a boil over medium, medium low heat.
05:28 Once it's bubbling, I'm gonna sprinkle in some flour
05:31 and a bit of salt.
05:32 Then I'm gonna use a wooden spoon
05:33 to continue to stir it as this dough cooks.
05:37 We're gonna cook until the dough is forming
05:38 like a light film on the bottom of the pan.
05:40 If you want to be really nerdy about it,
05:42 you could stick a probe thermometer in
05:43 and see if it is about like 175.
05:46 That's gonna take about like two to three minutes
05:47 of constant stirring.
05:49 By cooking off this water, milk, and flour mixture,
05:52 we are rapidly gelatinizing the little starch granules
05:56 and they're swelling and bursting.
05:57 And this helps us to create that gelatin
06:00 and help things stick up a little bit more
06:02 than if we were to like pipe, say, like a batter.
06:04 It also preps the dough to really expand beautifully
06:09 in the oven without using any leaveners.
06:12 You can see here this film is starting to form.
06:14 That's how you know we are ready to move on.
06:16 Then I'm gonna transfer it to a bowl.
06:19 I'm gonna beat this initially before I add any eggs
06:22 for about like two to three minutes.
06:24 I want this to cook down.
06:25 If you can see, you might not be able to.
06:27 There's steam literally coming off of this dough right now.
06:30 And if we were to add eggs, they might scramble immediately.
06:32 So by aerating them for a little while,
06:34 that should cool down our dough
06:37 and allow us to add in our eggs.
06:39 I'm gonna add an egg at a time.
06:41 This is gonna add richness
06:42 and it's also gonna add body and color to this pastry.
06:44 So add it one egg at a time,
06:46 incorporating each one before you add the next
06:48 until you have a sticky pastry
06:49 that's like almost pourable, but definitely pipeable.
06:53 And soon as the last egg is incorporated,
06:54 it should only be beat for like another 30 seconds.
06:56 We don't wanna overwork it.
06:57 This is the texture that you're looking for.
06:59 It should sort of like fall away from the spat.
07:00 You should be able to sort of fling it around
07:02 almost like a batter.
07:04 Now I'm gonna transfer this to a piping bag
07:05 and we're gonna get to baking.
07:07 All right, these are our little crackle land circles,
07:10 our little like wafers of sugary, buttery goodness.
07:13 They're all set up and good to go on our cream puffs.
07:16 So now I'm gonna pipe.
07:17 You're basically gonna take your piping bag
07:18 and pipe straight down until you have a circle
07:22 that's about an inch and a half and pull up.
07:24 You're gonna have maybe just like a little bit
07:25 of a pointed end from finishing piping.
07:27 Don't touch that for now.
07:28 Go ahead and pipe all of your circles.
07:29 And then you're gonna cover each little circle
07:31 of choux pastry with your crackle land
07:34 until they're all covered.
07:35 All right, these are gonna go into a 425 degree oven
07:38 for about 10 minutes.
07:39 Then we're gonna reduce the heat to 375
07:42 and let them go for like 15 to 18 minutes.
07:44 They should feel hollow in the bottom of them
07:47 when they're done.
07:47 That's how you know that they're bright, crispy, golden
07:49 and the crackle land will have gotten cracky
07:52 and fallen all over itself.
07:53 These look unbelievable.
07:56 These are what you just call choux buns
07:58 with some crackle land on top.
08:00 You can hear, I mean, that's the name.
08:02 It's 'cause it is cracky and delicious.
08:05 But to make these cream puffs, we have to fill them.
08:07 And the best way to do that is to cut a little hole
08:09 in the bottom.
08:10 We're gonna take a little paring knife,
08:11 just cut open a little hole
08:15 and they should be basically like hollow inside.
08:17 And then we're gonna fill it with pastry cream.
08:20 You're gonna wanna fill these until they feel kind of heavy,
08:23 then they're ready to serve.
08:24 These look so unbelievable.
08:26 I love putting them on a little cake stand
08:28 and putting them up like this.
08:29 It makes them look very presentable, beautiful.
08:32 And they are so light and airy looking.
08:35 I can't wait to give them away.
08:36 I don't know if you heard it,
08:38 but you can taste the crunchiness of that crackle land.
08:41 It's adding the sweetness
08:42 'cause the choux is not that sweet itself,
08:44 but it's super airy, super delicious and well textured.
08:46 And that bottom has some nice caramelization.
08:49 And that pastry cream is so vanilla-y.
08:51 You can see it flecked through
08:53 and it's adding just the right amount of flavor.
08:55 And it's a great texture.
08:56 It's that just set, almost pudding-like that I kind of love.
09:01 But you could fill this with anything.
09:02 You could fill it with ice cream,
09:03 then they'd be profiteroles.
09:05 Or you could do just whipped cream.
09:06 That's delicious.
09:08 You could, honestly, this is just a baseline.
09:10 Once you can do this, you can do eclairs.
09:12 You can do like flavored cream puffs.
09:13 I had a matcha one before.
09:15 There's truly like,
09:16 you're opening up your pastry gates
09:18 once you start working with a cream puff.
09:20 I feel so accomplished having made these
09:23 and I want you to.
09:24 So for more Baking 101 and baking challenges,
09:27 stick around here on delish.com.
09:29 (upbeat music)
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