Homemade cream puffs come close to real thing
By taste alone, the cream puff isn’t an attention grabber. It’s subtle. A delicate balance of lightly sweet whip cream and a mild-mannered puff pastry. It’s not exactly the vanilla answer to death by chocolate cake.
But you can’t ignore the cream puff’s visual appeal of a pillowy white cloud within a golden brown shell. It promises fun.
The fun either of making a sloppy mess with each bite that makes us feel like kids again, or the fun of scooping whip cream with the top half of the pastry shell. An edible spoon. Name another dessert that comes with a built-in utensil.
Perhaps the cream puff ’s true power is found in its bond with the Wisconsin State Fair. Having a cream puff with family and friends during a funfueled day of rides, music and exhibits binds it to the minds of Wisconsinites with good memories.
While the State Fair is shuttered this year, there’s no duplicating carnival rides, exhibits and most of the fair’s foods on sticks at home. But it is possible to make cream puffs.
I tried a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel archived recipe for the Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff.
As best as I can remember, these taste similar to State Fair’s treats but aren’t exact. The pastry shell was a bit more eggy and not nearly as airy as the official puffs. The whip cream isn’t as sweet. Pumping up the sugar and using higher-quality flour, butter and heavy whipping cream would help.
Practice makes presentable
The only difficult part of making the dough is beating in the eggs, if done by
hand. I was switching mixing hands frequently while taking a few seconds to take a deep breath and let arm and shoulder muscles recover. Next time I will use my stand mixer.
My plan was to scoop the dough for a half dozen puffs and use a pastry bag to pipe the rest. However after six measured scoops, there was enough dough for maybe two more puffs. Using the pastry bag, I failed to produce even two plops of dough equaling the size of the other puffs. I just divided those flops among the six drops of dough. I don’t know if I could have gotten 10 to 12 quarter-cup puffs from the batter. Plan on smaller puffs if the goal is to make a dozen.
Those not handy with a pastry bag will struggle to match the presentation of a professional bakery cream puff.
Overall, making cream puffs for the first time proved easier than expected and produced pastries that are recognizable as cream puffs. If only in flavor. A few more attempts and practice with a pastry bag would improve the final result.
I’m not sure if I’m enamored enough with the cream puff flavor to put in the time to master this pastry. There are always bakeries and the State Fair (during non-pandemic years) to satisfy the once-a-year craving.
Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puffs
Makes: 10 to 12
1 cup water
4 tablespoons (1⁄2 stick) butter
1⁄4 teaspoon iodized salt
1 cup flour, sifted
4 eggs
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups whipped cream filling (see recipe)
Sifted powdered sugar
For whipped cream filling
1 cup whipping cream (see note)
1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1⁄2 teaspoon sugar (or sweetened to taste)
Put water into heavy saucepan. Add butter cut into small pieces. Add salt. Heat over medium-low heat so butter melts before water boils. Bring water just to a boil. Remove pan from heat and add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until dough forms into a ball and bottom of pan is filmed with flour. Let dough rest 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add whole eggs, beating in one egg at a time. Dough should be stiff but smooth. Immediately drop 1⁄4-cupfuls of dough 3 inches apart on greased and floured baking sheet (or line the baking sheet with parchment paper). For a neater appearance, use a pastry bag with a 3⁄4-inch plain tip and pipe dough onto baking sheet. In small bowl, combine egg yolk and milk. Brush each puff with glaze mixture, taking care not to let liquid drop onto pan. Bake in preheated oven 35 minutes until puffed, golden brown and firm. Cool puffs on wire racks, pricking each with a cake tester or toothpick to allow steam to escape; or, leave them in turned-off oven with door dropped open for about an hour until firm. (If baked pastry is filled before it is cool and firm, it will be soggy and may collapse.) Baked puffs should have hollow, moist interiors and crisp outer shells that are lightly browned. Cut off tops and fill with whipped cream (use a pastry bag with star tip or scoop with a large spoon). Replace tops of puffs and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Whipped cream filling:
Chill bowl and beaters. Add heavy whipping cream and begin beating. Add vanilla and sugar after cream begins to take shape, when soft peaks are beginning to form. Stop beating just before cream gets stiff.
Note: For best results, avoid ultra-pasteurized cream.