Cream Puffs

I pulled this recipe from my copy of Baking Boot Camp, my dear Hubs bought it for me (as well as other cookbooks) for Christmas this past year. I've been itching to try a few recipes out of it, and when the time finally came, I went for the cream puffs.

Now, I should add: I made a filling of goji berry pastry cream, but since that portion didn't photograph too well, I'm leaving out that end of the recipe. I basically piped the filling in with a pastry bag, and dipped the cream puffs in melted bittersweet chocolate to hide the holes. YUM. These are soooo good, tiny little bites of fluffy air. Hubs and I polished off my entire batch in the span of a weekend, which doesn't happen often (usually I try to share as to not add too much to the thighs).

Cream Puffs

Ingredients:
1 c. milk
1/2 c. unsalted butter, cubed
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sifted bread flour
3 eggs
Egg wash of 1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp. milk

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir in well. Cook, stirring constantly, until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the pan, about 5 minutes.

Immediately transfer the dough to a bowl and stir by hand or with the paddle attachment until the mixture cools to body temperature. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.

Pipe the batter using a plain round tip or spoon the dough into 20 balls the size of golf balls on a the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Brush the unbaked puffs very lightly with the egg wash. Place the puffs in the oven and bake until they are puffy and lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 F and continue to bake until the puffs appear dry and a rich golden brown, another 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely before splitting and filling.

When the pastry has cooled, slice the top 1/2 inch off each cream puff. Fill the base of each with pastry cream. Replace the tops on the cream puffs. These can be assembled up to 4 hours before serving; keep refrigerated.