Cream Puffs

December 17, 2013 By Joan Hayes

http://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/cream-puffs/ 

Cream Puffs with Chocolate Ganache-just let everyone else think they are hard to make!

I’m so excited to be grouping up with some of my favorite bloggy friends to celebrate a special Holiday. Festivus. Are you a Seinfeld fan? If so, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If not (like me) then here’s a little explanation for you.
Today we’re taking a break from all the Christmas celebrations to discuss an odd group of friends, a strange pole and a ‘show about nothing.’ And by now, all you Seinfeld fans are smiling. It’s been 15 years since the TV series left the air but it’s still very much around in syndication, popular culture and a little made-up holiday called Festivus. Celebrated with a bare pole and an airing of grievances, it’s a time to come together and say “I got a lot of problems with you people!” It’s all in good fun, of course, and in its 9 seasons, quite a lot of delicious food came up on the show. So some of my blogger friends and I decided to cook the foods best associated with the Seinfeld years and give away some great holiday gifts.

Aren’t my friends just the coolest? Did you catch that last line? There’s a giveaway involved today as well!
So now I guess I need to get into the spirit of the Holiday and air a few grievances.
I’m a happy person, I don’t really let things get to me, I just go with the flow and if someone annoys me, I just figure karma will catch up with them later.
So, let’s see what I can come up with.

 My son’s socks. It’s actually become more of a joke these days. I feel sorry for his future wife, to be honest. My son just can not pick up his socks. I find them all over the house. It’s like they run away from him the minute he takes them off his feet. If you really want to know the full extent of this problem, I wrote a post about it and baked a cake in honor of  his socks here. The Cinnamon Streusel Cake is worth the effort to click over.

Another sock issue. Matching socks, can’t stand to do it, I don’t do it. If you wear socks in my house, you’ll find them in a big bucket in the laundry room. Match them yourself.
Dirty dishes left in the sink. We have a dishwasher. Nuff said about that one.
I feel so lame. I really can’t think of much else to complain about.  My life’s not perfect by any means, but I just go with the flow and let most of the annoying little things pass.

Now as for these cream puffs. I do have a grievance. My sister first made this recipe when she was in high school. She’s an overachiever like that. Always creating complicated recipes just to see if she could. She’s always made everything she accomplishes look so easy and effortless. I know now how hard she works for all that she’s achieved and I’m so proud of her.
She warned me the puff would be the hard part of this recipe. She’s wrong. The puff was the easy part, and effortless. I know this because I had to make the puffs 4 times before I got the cream filling right. And I ate most of those empty puffs. So light, mostly air in the middle, so I could eat more than one (or 3) and not fill up.  No the cream was my issue. The first time I made it, I put the gelatin mixture in the fridge to chill and left it, thinking I could finish it the next day. Eight hours later, chatting with dear sis, I’m informed, no, you can’t just leave it. She was right, I had a hard rubbery, solid blob of gelled goop. The second time, I still let it chill too long, not my fault this time. I had a child calling needing a ride from school at the last minute. The third time. I made them at night. They came out wonderfully but the weather was awful for days and I never got them photographed.  The forth time, perfection!

Print

Cream Puffs

Ingredients

Puff Pastry
• 1 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
Vanilla cream filling
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoon all purpose flour
• 4 egg yolks (keep the egg whites for something else)
• 1 Cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Chocolate Ganache
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 
  

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease a large cookie sheet (or use parchment paper.)
2. In 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, heat water, butter and salt till better melts and mixture boils. Remove from heat.
3. Add flour all at once. With wooden spoon vigorously stir until mixture leaves sides of the pan and forms a ball. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Using a large cookie scoop (use a small cookie scoop for minis) Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto cookie sheet The drops should be 1.5-2" in diameter. You can smooth out the tops with a moistened finger if you like.
4. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden. Remove to racks to cool.
5. For the Vanilla Cream filling, In a 3 qt saucepan mix gelatin, sugar and flour. In a small bowl with wire whisk, beat egg yolks and milk till well mixed. Stir into gelatin mixture. Cook over med-low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until mixture is very thick and coats the spoon well (about 10 minutes). Do not boil.
6. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 45 minutes (do not over chill)
7. In a small bowl, beat heavy whipping cream till soft peaks form. Fold into custard mixture.
8. Use a bread knife to slice tops off puff pastries (about 1/3 from the top to 1/2). Spoon cream into opening and a little more to fill the top. Place top back on top of your cream.
9. Prepare your Chocolate ganache. Place chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium heat. At the first sign of boiling, remove from heat and pour hot cream over chocolate. Whisk till all the chocolate is melted and smooth. Spoon over prepared cream puffs.

Notes

To make eclairs, place pastry dough in a pastry bag with a large, wide tip, then pipe dough into a log on your baking sheet.

These cream puffs are best eaten the day they are made. If you do need to make them ahead of time. Gently cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

recipe source ChocolateChocolateandmore.com