Cream Puff Shells Recipes

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny. , Drop by 2 rounded tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. In a small bowl, whisk the milk and egg yolk; brush over puffs. Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Immediately split puffs open; remove tops and set aside. Discard soft dough from inside. Cool puffs. Freeze for up to 3 months., To use frozen cream puff shells: Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before filling.

Steps:

• To make the cream puffs: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, salt, and granulated sugar to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. When it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add all the flour at once and stir hard until all the flour is incorporated, 30 to 60 seconds. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring, 30 seconds to evaporate some of the moisture.
• Scrape the mixture into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix at medium speed. With the mixer running, and working 1 egg at a time, add 3 of the eggs, stopping after each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix until the dough is smooth and glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl. If the dough is still clinging to the beaters, add the remaining egg and mix until incorporated.
• Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip, pipe the dough onto the baking sheet, in 2-inch diameter rounds or balls. Whisk the remaining egg with 1 1/2 teaspoons water. Brush the surface of the rounds with the egg wash to knock down the points (you may not use all the egg wash). Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake until puffed up, and light golden brown, about 20 minutes more. Try not to open the oven door too often during the baking. Let cool on the baking sheet.
• To fill the cream puffs, place a pastry tip on your finger and poke a whole in the bottom of each puff. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff. Pipe whipped cream into each cream puff and chill until ready to serve, no more than 4 hours.
• Notes about the recipe: The moisture in the eggs turns to steam and puffs the batter to try to release itself. You can fill them with anything.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In medium saucepan, combine shortening, salt and boiling water and heat until entire mixture boils. Reduce heat, add flour all at once and stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is thick and shiny and breaks from spoon.
• Pipe or spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake 20 minutes more, or until golden and sound hollow when tapped. Cool and fill.

Steps:

• Top Crust Dough: Melt Butter in a small saucepan, Stir in Sugar, then flour.
• Cream Puff Shells: Place butter, salt and water in a large saucepan over high heat.
• When butter is melted and it starts to boil, remove from heat and Immediately tip in flour all at once, and beat into a firm dough with wooden spoon.
• In a separate bowl, lightly whisk 5 eggs. Add approximately one egg to the dough at a time, beating well in between with a wooden spoon.
• Spoon into a Piping bag and Pipe directly downward onto paper-lined tray. If you like, use chopsticks or fingers to pull pastry upwards on the sides.
• Place thin discs of Top Crust Dough (from step 1) on top of each.
• Immediately bake in a very hot oven 410-430 degrees F, 25-30min until well puffed and browned then down to 210 degrees F for 40 min or more to dry.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400°F. In 2 1/2-quart saucepan, heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour; reduce heat to low. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball; remove from heat. Beat in eggs, all at once; continue beating until smooth.
• On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from draft, about 30 minutes.
• Make one of the fillings (directions below). Cut off top third of each puff and pull out any strands of soft dough. Fill puffs with filling; replace tops. Cover; refrigerate until serving. Store covered in refrigerator. Eggnog Fluff Filling: In large bowl, beat pudding mix, milk, rum extract, nutmeg and ginger with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Add whipping cream; beat on high speed 1 to 2 minutes or until soft peaks form. Fill puffs. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 3 hours. Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar or brush tops with light corn syrup and sprinkle with colored sugar or nonpareils. Peppermint Whipped Cream Filling: In large bowl, beat ingredients with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill puffs. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate up to 4 hours.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter, sugar, salt and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and quickly stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir until a film forms on the bottom of the pan.
• Remove from heat and transfer contents to a bowl to cool slightly, about 3 minutes. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously to entirely incorporate egg after each addition.
• For the egg wash, whisk together the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water. Set aside.
• Transfer the pate a choux to a large pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip. Pipe 1-1/2-inch rounds onto each prepared pan. Gently smooth the pointed peaks with a moistened finger, rounding tops to ensure even rising. Brush tops with reserved egg wash. Bake until puffs rise and are golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Puffs can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.
• Transfer pastry cream to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/8-inch plain round tip. Insert the tip into the opening of each pastry, and pipe to fill with pastry cream. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Prepare baking sheets by greasing and flouring or by lining with Parchment.
• Place water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the flour, cardamom and salt all at once and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Blend in the milk well. Remove pan from stove burner and stir in the eggs, one at a time, stirring well until completely blended.
• Mix in the Bakers' Ammonia well.
• Drop on cookie sheets about 3 to 4 inches apart. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
• Cut one of the shells in half at the end of baking to make sure they have dried out enough. If not dried completely, turn the oven off, punch a small hole in the bottoms of the shells, and place them back upside down in the oven to dry out for about 10 minutes. If the insides of the pastry shells are still very moist you may want to bake the shells longer so the shells won't deflate when you take them out of the oven.
• Allow to cool completely before filling.
• Fill with chocolate, vanilla or any flavor custard you enjoy!