Bake N: Cream Puffs

I had a dream the other night about cream puffs. Lots and lots of cream puffs.

My grandmother used to make trays of these for family gatherings, using a recipe from her Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. Grandma would make two types, one filled with cool whip an sprinkled with powdered sugar and one filled with chocolate pudding and drizzled with chocolate sauce. I remember she instructed me once to NEVER double the recipe for cream puffs because they won't turn out. Make several batches instead.

In my dream I made many many flavors..fresh strawberry, tangy lemon curd, chocolate mousse, pistachio cream...I just couldn't stop making cream puffs!

For the life of me, I do not recall what the occaision was...not that one needs an occaision to make cream puffs. They are incredibly easy to make, but I know that they look (and taste) sort of intimidating. I love recipes like that.

My best girlfriend, dropped by on Saturday night to spend the weekend with us...I had to tease her about being psychic because Simon had just tidied the guest room and I had cream puffs on the menu. /p>

My recipe is from my grandma's copy of Better Homes & Garden Cookbook. I used real whipping cream and added almond flavoring instead of vanilla. You can put just about anything in them including savory chicken salad if you don't have a sweet tooth. The recipe makes 12 small cream puffs, or 6 jumbo sized cream puffs (like my grandma used to make).

Enjoy- and if you make these, let me know what you filled them with!

Basic Cream Puffs

Ingredients

Choux Pastry:

1 cup water
½ cup butter (1 stick)
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter and salt. Bring to boiling over medium-high heat. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat.

Cool puff dough for 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.

Drop dough by TBSP onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake in a hot oven 450F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325F for 25 minutes. Remove the Pastry from the oven and cool on a baking rack.

You can, like my grandma, just cut open each puff and fill them with chocolate pudding or cool whip in a pinch. For the cream puffs I made (and devoured) last night, I whipped up about a pint of heavy whipping cream with a tsp or two of sugar (to taste) and a drop of almond extract. Fill the cream puffs and sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar on top. Yum!