Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Blueberries n' Cream - Cream Puffs!

When I was younger, the thought of cream puffs made me think of sunny mornings in Paris. Sitting at a bistro listening to the locals mutter while munching on a cream puff and drinking a latte. Ahhhhh, bliss. Sadly, I don't have the cash to book a flight to Paris. Instead, I decided to bring Paris to me. I finally found something in "bon appetit Desserts" that I had all the ingredients for. Originally, they were supposed to be Strawberry Cream puffs. But I didn't have any of those on hand, so I used blueberries instead. I also created a different variation using icecream and nutella :D it's VERY good.

The dough making process was....interesting. You bring water, salt, sugar, and butter to boil and then add flour while it's boiling! How absurd! Despite the weirdness, delicious!

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All gone!
End result: Light and fluffy. The cream puff's saltiness is leveled with the sweetness and tartness of the blueberries.
Baker's rating (out of 5): ♥♥♥♥

Strawberry Cream puffs with Strawberry Sauce

Ingredients
Cream puffs
3/4 cups water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 large eggs

Filling (I replaced the crushed strawberries with the blueberries)
1 cup chilled whipping cream
1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon kirsch (clear cherry brandy)
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large strawberries, hulled

Strawberry sauce (my blueberry sauce was a bit different than this, but I'm sure this will work fine)
2 1-pint strawberries, hulled
3 tablespoons sugar

Powdered sugar to dust

For cream puffs:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring to melt butter. Add flour; using wooden spoon, stir vigorously until mixture clumps together, forming ball. Stir 1 minute longer. Remove from heat. Transfer dough to medium bowl. Using electric mixer, add eggs 1 at time, beating until dough is smooth after each addition (dough will be slightly soft and shiny).
Using 1 rounded tablespoon dough for each cream puff, spoon dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart and forming mounds about 3/4 inch to 1 inch high and 1 1/4 inches in diameter. Using moist fingertips, gently press tops of cream puffs flatten any peaks. Bake until golden brown, about 37 minutes. Transfer baking sheet to rack; let cream puffs cool. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

For filling:
Beat cream, 1 teaspoon sugar, kirsch and vanilla in medium bowl until stiff peaks form. Combine 6 strawberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in small bowl. Using fork, crush berries. Fold crush strawberry mixture into cream.
Cut top third off each cream puff. Place cream puff bottoms, cut side up, on plates. Spoon filling into bottoms, mounding slightly. Ladle sauce over, allowing sauce to spill onto plates. Top with cream puff tops. Dust with powdered sugar.
For sauce:
Puree 1 basket strawberries in processor. Transfer to bowl. Stir in sugar. Quarter remaining strawberries; add to sauce.
Makes about 2 1/3 cups.

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