Cookies & Cream Puffs
Over the last few months, I’ve been working on expanding my kitchen skills. Because of my busy work and blog schedule, I’ve turned to the internet for options I can do on my own time.
First up? Salted TV. Salted is a subscription service that offers a wide range of cooking classes that range from how to make the perfect bone marrow, to mastering the croissant and everything in between. I loved this option but there were so many videos I quickly got overwhelmed by the choice, did a little of a bunch of them and then forgot I had subscribed.
Next up was YouTube. I know, it sounds silly but I’ve actually gotten some great food tips from YouTube. Did you know that you can make fresh pasta dough in a food processor without getting your hands dirty? Neither did I until last week but it worked so well! The videos are free to watch (a nice change) but the downside of course is that anyone can add videos so there’s no telling how qualified your instructor really is.
Unlike Salted TV, on Craftsy you buy one class at a time but each class is so in depth that it’s worth it. Earlier this month, I took a pâte à choux class. Eclairs have always been my favorite so I thought that if I could master pâte à choux I could make them for myself all the time. Dangerous right?
As with all things, I started small with cream puffs to get a handle on pâte à choux. Even though they are made from the same dough, in my mind the their smaller shape made them easier to master.
While not overly challenging, pâte à choux was time consuming and took an attention to detail. If your dough gets too wet there’s no fix – you have to toss it and start over.
If you get the cream puffs done and have the energy to make a pastry cream filling, more power to you. I got so antsy to eat these that I went straight for the ice cream in my freezer to use as filling.
Ingredients
- ¼ Cup (150g) all-purpose flour
- ½ Cup (125ml) water
- ½ Cup (125ml) milk
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 Large eggs, room temperature
- 1 container of cookies and cream ice cream
- Chocolate sauce
Recipe
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Line two sheet pans with a non stick baking sheet and fit a large pastry bag with a large open plain tip and set both aside
- In a 2-quart, heavy saucepan, combine the milk, water, sugar, salt and butter
- Stir over low heat until the sugar, salt and butter have completely melted
- Turn the burner to high and let the mixture briefly come to a rolling boil.
- Take the pan from the heat and add the flour
- Using a large wooden spoon, stir the mixture vigorously until smooth and there are no lumps of