Easy Cream Puff Recipe – Oma's Windbeutel (2024)

FAQs

What makes a cream puff puff up? ›

The high moisture content in the dough creates steam in the oven, and the steam is what helps form the airy pocket on the inside. It's also important to bake your pâte à choux for long enough—and without opening the oven (i.e., no peeking!)

Light and airy cream puffs, filled with thick pastry cream, fluffy whipped cream, or velvety crème légère (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream), are a classic dessert. Composed of just two versatile elements—pâte à choux and the filling of your choice—they're also cinch to whip up.

Freshly baked cream puffs can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. If you need to store them for longer, you can freeze them for up to 1 month. To freeze, place the cream puffs in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until solid.

Choux pastries (i.e. cream puffs, eclairs, etc.) won't rise if the oven temperature is too low. For the pastries to rise properly, the temperature needs to be really high at first so that the steam builds up inside of the dough and causes them to rise and hollow out.

Troubleshooting Cream Puffs and other Pastries

There's still steam inside, and when you let it all escape before the pastry has cooled your dough might deflate. Boiled the water, butter, and sugar for too long. If there is too little water in your choux, there won't be enough steam to help the puffs inflate.

For cream puffs and profiteroles, use Wilton 1A piping tip. Pipe 2-inch mounds about 3 inches apart.

If piping isn't for you, you can spoon out the dough or use a cookie scoop — my favorite tool! If you use a 1/2-cup scoop, you'll get 10 to 12 puffs.

Why did my cream puffs collapse? If the puffs collapse it means there was too much moisture in them. So either you did not dry the dough enough, or they were not cooked enough. To avoid this I recommend drying the dough really well (see below) and cracking the door of the oven open when the choux are baked.

A profiterole (French: [pʁɔfitʁɔl]), cream puff (US), or chou à la crème ( French: [ʃu a la kʁɛm]) is a filled French choux pastry ball with a typically sweet and moist filling of whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream.

Steam forms as the puffs bake, and the strong gluten structure formed by beating the dough stretches to hold the steam, then sets into place as the heat coagulates (sets) the protein. The puffs will be dark golden brown, with a hollow center crisscrossed with soft filaments of dough.

How do you thicken cream puff dough? ›

Another solution is to put the dough back into a pot, and cook, stirring constantly, over very low heat until the dough thickens to the proper consistency.

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.

Store cream puff shells in an airtight container to preserve their shape. Cream puff shells tend to become soggy in the refrigerator due to humidity. For this reason, it's best to store them in an airtight container once they have cooled completely.

To understand why choux is twice-cooked, it's important to know that choux needs lots of moisture: it's the steam generated by its high water content that causes it to swell and puff so much (there's no baking soda, baking powder, yeast, beaten egg whites, or any other leavening agent to help give it extra lift).

A leavening agent is a substance that causes dough to expand by releasing gas once mixed with liquid, acid or heat. Rising agents give baked goods optimal volume, texture and crumb and can include baking soda or baking powder, whipped egg whites or cream, active or instant dry yeast, and even steam.

The Pastries are not hollow inside.

There are a few reasons why this might happen: The oven temperature was too high, and the pastries were set before they could puff. Reduce the oven temperature, and bake on the middle oven shelf. Too much moisture.

The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs. Instead of a raising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in the dough evaporates when baked, puffing the pastry.