Saturday, September 15, 2007

Vanilla Cream Puffs

I can't believe I haven't posted this before. My sister-in-law, Melanie, made these for a family dinner once and they are one of my favorite desserts to make. However, I substitute ganache made with semi-sweet chocolate for the chocolate sauce, but you can follow the recipe. They are so good!

VANILLA CREAM PUFFS

Puffs:

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes!)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs

Filling:

1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (5.1oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 tsp. almond extract
2 cups cool whip

Chocolate Glaze:

6 Tbsp semi sweet choc.chips
1 1/2 tsp. shortening
3/4 tsp. corn syrup
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

In a large saucepan, bring 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 1/4 cupfuls - 3 inches apart- onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack. Immediately split puffs open, remove tops and set aside. Discard soft dough inside. Cool puffs.

In a mixing bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix and extract on low speed for 2 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Fold in cool whip. Fill cream puffs. Replace tops.

In heavy saucepan (OR MICROWAVE) combine glaze ingredients. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. (I usually have to add more corn syrup to make it runny) Drizzle over cream puffs. Chill for at least one hour before serving. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield-1 dozen.

5 comments:

Carissa Poyfair said...

These sound good- Have I had them before? I think you made them before and they were really yummy... at least I think they were :) What I'm tryin' to say, is that if what I am remembering are these cream puffs, then they were yummy! Anyway, I am making these the next time I have to bring a dessert somewhere, which seems like all the time these days!

Stina said...

Wow! You are amazing to make these. I will have to be feeling brave to give these a go--hopefully it will be sooner than later. Or, can someone be brave for me and bring them to me?

Denise said...

YUM. Theese would be good for the Halloween church party dessert. I wounder if I could dye the filling orange! Theese sound great, I am a little worried about cooking them though! I might have to do a tester in a week :) Too bad you don't live closer Stina!

Carissa Poyfair said...

Stina, I'll make these but you'll have to come to Cleveland to get them! And Denise, you could totally dye the cream orange and put a green gumdrop on the top as the top of the pumpkin or something. How fun. And Kel, you are the devil for putting this on the blog... my hips are already getting bigger just thinking about eating these!

Kelli said...

It seems hard at first, because if you mess up the dough you've pretty much messed up the whole thing, but I found it to be quite easy. Just follow the directions, and make sure you pull all the soft dough out of the middle after it bakes... Denise, I would dye the dough when you are adding the eggs, since you are already beating those in. Good luck!