Jacques Pepin described in his book on french cooking methods how to make cream puffs. I used his recipe without alterations, because it simple rocks:
Step 1: Make cream puffs
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup flour
- 4 eggs
- Boil water with salt and the butter until the butter has melted and the mixture boils
- Remove from the heat and add flour
- Stir until flour is incorporated
- Back on low heat for a couple of minutes until the batter is dried out (Not sticky on your fingers anymore)
- Place dough in a bowl and let it cool for 5 minutes
- Add eggs one by one and incorporate. (I use a standing mixer for this, but you should be able to do this with a spatula)
- After all the eggs are incorporated you should have a smooth and sticky paste
- Pipe the dough in balls as big as golf balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
- Brush an egg wash over the puffs (egg wash is an egg beaten with a little bit of water)
- Let the put rest for 20 minutes. This will dry out the dough even more, and ensures proper cooking
- Bake for 35 minutes in a 375 degree oven
- Cool cream puffs in the oven.
Step 2: the vanilla cream or English Cream:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- Boil milk
- Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar and vanilla with a whisk until the mixture resembles a white ribbon. (again using an electric mixer will speed up the process a lot)
- Add the flour to the egg mixture and incorporate well until you have no more clumps.
- Add a little bit of the hot milk to the eggs, slowly heating up the eggs. This process is called tempering the eggs
- Cook milk and eggs until you have a smooth and creamy paste
- Cool until lukewarm
They are incredible. Resist the temptation to eat them directly by yourself
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