Cream puffs

Growing up one of my favorite things to both eat and make with my mom was Cream Puffs. I remember helping her mix the "slimy" eggs into the batter that was roughly the texture and smell of Play dough. I knew that once done we would have a creamy fluffy treat. It was always fun and worth the work!

Today I got to share that tradition with my daughter. It is a tradition that I waited over 12 years to share with her. It was worth it.

I did not realize how easy they are to make, as a kid I felt like they took a whole day to make. In all fairness if I had 3-4 little kids "helping" me instead of one very proficient helper, it might have taken the whole day and not just over an hour.

Ok so how to make them. Take 1 cup of water, bring it to a boil. Add in 1/2 cup of Butter and melt it in the boiling water. Once the butter is melted, add in 1 cup of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt. Now mix this all up, it will make a play dough looking ball. Funny it even kind of smells like it too. It is a scent I remember as a child and did not let me down. I had to grin when my daughter said are you sure we are not making play dough?

Once you have the dough part done, the slimy part is here. At this point I transferred my dough from the pot to my KitchenAide mixer. You will be adding 4 eggs at this point. I had my daughter crack one egg at a time into a bowl. One egg at a time she would crack the egg then slowly add it to the dough. Mix it really well between each egg. You want the egg really incorporated before adding the next one. Do this for each of the eggs. 

THAT is it as far as making them goes. All that is left is put them on a cookie sheet. I make them about a heaping Tablespoon size. They will grow! Make sure they are spaced about 3 inches apart and away from the side.

Cook them in the oven at 450 F for 15 minutes. They will be golden on the tips only. KEEP them in the oven but turn the heat down to 325 F and cook them for another 25 minutes.

Take them out and cut them in half. They cool VERY quickly. Turn the oven off, but keep it closed you will need the heat for just a few more minutes. Cut each Cream Puff in half and put them back on the cookie sheet cut side up. Put them back in the oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the insides dry out.

All that is left to do is fill them. You can really fill them with what ever you want. Tonight we made filled them with Vanilla pudding (homemade) and topped that with Whipped cream. 

Jasmine had her own style of filling them. I think I like the way that she did it better then I remember doing it. She filled the bottom half with pudding. It was overfilled, but not too far. Then she took the top half and WAY over filled it. She then put the top and bottom together. It was perfect, brilliant and beautiful!

After they were all assembled, we drizzled chocolate syrup we had made on top. This was the finished product. Just over an hour of work, and what seemed like my whole kitchen worth of dishes. These tasty puff were ready to eat. So worth the work. I would make them tomorrow again if my family requested them