Easy 20 Minute Cream Puff Recipe - Sizzling Eats (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to puff pastry? ›

Always preheat your oven for a minimum of 15-20 minutes before baking, because Puff Pastry depends on even heat to rise and puff. Place pastries 1 inch apart. If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.

There are multiple reasons why cream puffs may deflate. The first cause is undercooking. When preparing dough on the stovetop, be sure to keep cooking and stirring until a film forms on the bottom of the saucepan. Another cause of flat cream puffs is lowering the temperature during baking.

--The dough needs to dry as much as possible so it will absorb as much egg as possible. Eggs are the only leavening ingredient in cream puffs, so the more egg, the more puff. One recipe calls for eight eggs. --Some recipes call for adding one egg at a time.

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

Milk is too runny and will burn but you can add a little to your egg wash to make it a little thinner for coating. Melted butter also burns quite quickly. Egg wash is the most reliable because it coats the pastry evenly and doesn't run off.

We are Team Egg Wash (or Cream Wash). While melted butter adds more flavor than the washes, it is less effective in look; it gives a speckled appearance to pastry.

The Flour: Choux can be made with a range of wheat flour types. Some cooks prefer low-protein cake or pastry flour for the delicate choux puffs they can create, while others swear by high-protein bread flour for the sturdier choux it produces.

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.

Eggs: are the leavening (rising) agent. Yolks add fat for a tender and light texture and also act as an emulsifier for a smooth, even textured finished product. The proteins in the eggs add to the structure of the cream puff.

Some important things to take note of:

Cook the flour mixture until a thin film of residue forms on the bottom of the pot. [Step 4 of recipe] Allow pastry to cool before adding eggs in. If pastry is too hot, it may cook the eggs, thus giving your cream puffs an eggy taste.

What is slang for cream puff? ›

Slang. a weak or timid person. a gay man.

Potential reasons for each fault include insufficient cooling, eggs added too quickly, not beating the mixture enough, incorrect baking temperature or time, insufficient baking, and allowing the liquid to cool too much before adding flour.

Their sizes can vary significantly depending on the baker. Cream puffs bigger than one's palm are not unusual these days. Profiteroles, though also round, tend to be slightly smaller (and daintier) as well as more uniform in size.

The secret is steam and hundreds of paper-thin layers of dough. Puff pastry starts out as a lean dough of just water and flour. This dough gets rolled, stretched, and folded with a healthy amount of butter again and again until all of those layers are formed.

Add a Layer

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven. The layer will absorb moisture and prevent the filling from turning the crust soggy.

Adding vinegar tenderizes the pastry. It inhibits gluten from forming there by making the pastry tender and flaky. I have always added a tbsp of vinegar to a beaten egg and added water to make one cup. my pastry is great the family always says how flaky it is.