1/2 C. shortening
1 C. boiling water or milk
1 C. flour
4 eggs
1 tsp. salt
Add shortening to water or milk in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add in the flour all in a lump and stir vigorously (with a spoon, or I prefer a wire whisk) until a ball of dough forms in the center of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add in unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating the dough well after each egg. The mixture should be very stiff. Grease one or two large baking sheets. Shape the dough either by dropping by spoonfuls of the preferred size, about 2 inches apart, or by putting the dough in a pastry bag with a large tip and piping the preferred shape and size onto the baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 450F, and put the cream puffs in for 15 minutes. Then, while they are still in the oven, reduce the temperature to 350F and continue baking until they are done, about 30 minutes. If in doubt, remove one from the oven to test it. It should be well-risen, have a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom, and have a crunchy golden outside. Let cool. Fill with desired filling. Makes 2 dozen small cream puffs.
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This recipe also came from the Lily Wallace New American Cookbook. Follow the directions explicitly, even the one about dumping flour into a pan of boiling water and shortening. I have made this very recipe several times now and it always comes out FABULOUS. Trust me, homemade cream puffs are definitely worth the effort.
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This recipe makes yummy puffs of all sizes. IE, you can pipe long shapes of dough on your baking sheet and SHAZAM eclairs. Or make larger, flatter circles and you have a profiterole or a shell for a savory puff (like one filled with chicken salad).
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Speaking of fillings, the filling of a cream puff can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. For a firmer filling, like chicken salad, slice your cream puff sandwich style, put the filling on the bottom half, and lay the top half on top. For a creamy filling...like cream (umm, whipped cream), pudding, or what have you, you have to go the pastry tube route again. So: put your filling in the pastry tube. Milk it down to the bottom of the tube. Fold the top of the tube over. (I mention this because I make cream puffs so infrequently that I inevitably forget this and have a vomiting pastry tube. Pudding+floor=massive diversion from intended leisure activity of filling cream puffs.) Insert the tip of the pastry tube into the side or bottom of your cream puff. This is kind of like mining for gold-- basically your objective is to find one of the hollow cavities inside the puff so that you can pump pudding or cream into it without actually being able to see or otherwise discern where that cavity is. Fear not. The inside of a baked cream puff is like Mammoth Cave-- a series of smaller and larger connected cavities. So just stick your tube in some place that won't show and take a firm grip on your pastry bag and apply firm pressure until you can tell from the movement of the contents of the bag that filling is going into the puff. Why? Because once you see massive amounts of pudding coming out the top of your cream puff, you've put too much in. It's an art, or a process of trial-and-error, or whatever term you'd like to apply to a process that mainly involves guessing.
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On a side note, I had serious difficulty typing my little lesson on filling cream puffs with a straight face.
1 C. boiling water or milk
1 C. flour
4 eggs
1 tsp. salt
Add shortening to water or milk in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add in the flour all in a lump and stir vigorously (with a spoon, or I prefer a wire whisk) until a ball of dough forms in the center of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add in unbeaten eggs, one at a time, beating the dough well after each egg. The mixture should be very stiff. Grease one or two large baking sheets. Shape the dough either by dropping by spoonfuls of the preferred size, about 2 inches apart, or by putting the dough in a pastry bag with a large tip and piping the preferred shape and size onto the baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 450F, and put the cream puffs in for 15 minutes. Then, while they are still in the oven, reduce the temperature to 350F and continue baking until they are done, about 30 minutes. If in doubt, remove one from the oven to test it. It should be well-risen, have a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom, and have a crunchy golden outside. Let cool. Fill with desired filling. Makes 2 dozen small cream puffs.
______
This recipe also came from the Lily Wallace New American Cookbook. Follow the directions explicitly, even the one about dumping flour into a pan of boiling water and shortening. I have made this very recipe several times now and it always comes out FABULOUS. Trust me, homemade cream puffs are definitely worth the effort.
______
This recipe makes yummy puffs of all sizes. IE, you can pipe long shapes of dough on your baking sheet and SHAZAM eclairs. Or make larger, flatter circles and you have a profiterole or a shell for a savory puff (like one filled with chicken salad).
______
Speaking of fillings, the filling of a cream puff can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. For a firmer filling, like chicken salad, slice your cream puff sandwich style, put the filling on the bottom half, and lay the top half on top. For a creamy filling...like cream (umm, whipped cream), pudding, or what have you, you have to go the pastry tube route again. So: put your filling in the pastry tube. Milk it down to the bottom of the tube. Fold the top of the tube over. (I mention this because I make cream puffs so infrequently that I inevitably forget this and have a vomiting pastry tube. Pudding+floor=massive diversion from intended leisure activity of filling cream puffs.) Insert the tip of the pastry tube into the side or bottom of your cream puff. This is kind of like mining for gold-- basically your objective is to find one of the hollow cavities inside the puff so that you can pump pudding or cream into it without actually being able to see or otherwise discern where that cavity is. Fear not. The inside of a baked cream puff is like Mammoth Cave-- a series of smaller and larger connected cavities. So just stick your tube in some place that won't show and take a firm grip on your pastry bag and apply firm pressure until you can tell from the movement of the contents of the bag that filling is going into the puff. Why? Because once you see massive amounts of pudding coming out the top of your cream puff, you've put too much in. It's an art, or a process of trial-and-error, or whatever term you'd like to apply to a process that mainly involves guessing.
______
On a side note, I had serious difficulty typing my little lesson on filling cream puffs with a straight face.
Sfingi di San Guiseppe
ReplyDeleteMake cream puffs as above, with the addition of 1 TB sugar, and a 1/2 tsp EACH grated orange and lemon peels to the dough part. Then, fill with:
Pasticciera Cream (I'm going to include that recipe in a separate post!)
I found this variation on cream puffs in the Talisman Italian Cookbook, which is THE Italian cookbook for Italians.