Cream Puffs

So for a relief society activity today, I made cream puffs with the wonderful girls in my ward. I was unprepared and didn't have printed out recipes and so I pointed them to allrecipes.com, where I originally got the recipe but as I read the recipe I realized I didn't really follow it so I decided I should blog the recipe so I can point people to how I make them. If I were super legit, I would have cool pictures for each of the steps but I have a really bad habit of not taking pictures, maybe someday. Also I almost always make a double batch because really you can't have too many cream puffs, I never have difficulty giving them away.

2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream (found cheapest at Walmart, I use the Great Value brand quart size for a double batch)
1 cup of Milk (I've used Skim - Whole, I'm sure there is a slight difference, but I've never done a side to side taste test and all of them have turned out just fine)
2 packages of Instant Pudding (I use a combination of French Vanilla and White Chocolate, I've tried all types and this combination has been in my opinion best by far. Sometimes it's difficult to find White Chocolate flavor and then I use just French Vanilla. Experiment with different flavors to see your favorite)

1 cup Water
1 stick of Butter(1/2 cup, I always use unsalted)
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 cup Flour
4 large eggs


For filling mix the Cream, Milk and Pudding together and put in fridge to chill.

Preheat oven to 425. For dough, melt butter in the water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add salt and flour, stir until completely combined. Beat in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, try to not over beat the mixture. (I'm not positive  over beating causes a problem but when my dough hasn't turned out that is the only thing I can think of to blame.) I use a small cookie scoop(melon scoop) and put a level scoop onto a pan with parchment paper (before I started using parchment paper and a cookie scoop my puff pastries were hit and miss, now they turn out every time, I think they are definitely worth the money if you bake a lot). I cook them for 12-14 minutes, or until they are puffed and golden brown. (I'm using and old college apartment oven, so I don't really know what temperature my oven cooks at, this will change the time it takes to cook them). Remove from oven, poke a tiny hole in each of them for the steam to escape from and put on cooling rack.

When pastry shells are cooled use a pastry bag and large cake decorating tip to poke a hole in the bottom of the shell and insert the filling. You could simply cut the shells in half but the presentation is not as great, and I'm a little vain about what the food looks like if my name is going to be associated with it. You can keep them in the fridge or the freezer, I never have room in my fridge so they are usually in my freezer. Freeze them for about 2 hours just on a cookie sheet and then you can put them in a container together and the won't squish all of their contents out onto each other.

Tips for presentation, I put them on mini cupcake liners so people can hold them in their hand and not get pudding all over their hands, also drizzling chocolate over things hides your flaws, to drizzle chocolate I put however much chocolate chips I think I will need into a sandwich bag, and put them in the microwave for 2 minutes on 30% power make sure you change the power so you don't burn the chocolate. Rotate bag every 15-30 seconds squishing the chocolate chips until they are melted. Then cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and drizzle.

I also think they turn out best when I bake them with a friend and while listening to Michael Buble.