Friday, March 16, 2012

Cream Puffs with Pudding/Cream Filling

I'm making these to take to my older sister and her husband who's inviting us over tomorrow for a dinner (noon meal) of corned beef and "that head of green stuff" that goes with it. (The farmer in me always calls the noon meal 'dinner', and the evening meal 'supper', and... that's just how it is.)   Even though I'm Irish through my mother's side, this will be the first time I'm having a sort of traditional "St. Patrick's Day meal" like that.


If you google 'recipe cream puffs', you will come up with over 900 THOUSAND websites to check out.  Does ANYone need a 'different' cream puff recipe?  Pro-bab-ly not.   And,... I didn't either.  I just used a very common recipe for these.


As I said, the recipe I follow for making these 'puffs' is pretty much standard:  1 cup water, 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, 1 cup all-purpose flour, and 4 whole eggs.  The directions I follow really stress the importance of letting the cooked mixture (the stirred together 'ball') of water/butter/flour sit (cool) for exactly 10 minutes before starting to add the eggs, one at a time. Cool.

Below:  For the filling*, and instead of using all custard or all cream, I use a 'mixture' of instant pudding and whipping cream:  First, I whip 1 cup of whipping cream and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar until it's 'stiff'.  I set that aside while I prepare the pudding-- 1 small box vanilla instant pudding with just 1 and 1/4 cup milk added and beaten together until it thickens.  Now, add the whipped cream to the pudding.  Blend well.  Fill a pastry bag with this mixture, push the pastry tip through the puff (somewhere in the upper 1/3 of it) and squeeze until you can see the sides of your puff 'poof' out.   Done! 
Done!, ...but not 'gone'... yet!

*There are times when I like to use this kind of puff in a non-dessert way.  I do that by filling these with cold/crunchy chicken, ham, or tuna salad.  


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