Cream Puffs With Vanilla Pudding

For me, the best part of the cream puff is the pudding center. There is never enough. This is why I decided to share how to make your own cream puff, so you can add as much (or as little) filling as you would like. They are still the same fluffy puff pastries that we all love, with this huge added bonus. These are made with common ingredients found in most kitchens, and are easy to whip together for unexpected last-minute guests or if you need a sweet treat after a long day. Cook now, bask in the compliments later.

1 Cup Water

½ Cup Vegetable Oil

4 Eggs

½ Tsp Salt

1 Cup Flour

In a three-quart pot boil 1 Cup of water over medium-high heat. Make sure that it is a strong rolling boil before moving to the next step. While you are waiting for the water to boil, measure out ½ Cup of Vegetable Oil, ½ tsp salt, and one cup of flour. This would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 425o because once the water starts boiling the next steps go very quickly.

Add ½ Cup vegetable
oil and ½ tsp salt to boiling water and bring to a boil again. Because you are not working with a large amount of liquid, this does not take very long, it is back to a rapid boil in a minute or less, so watch carefully.

After the boil returns, add in the 1 Cup of flour and mix together until dough is formed. You will notice the dough forming rather quickly. It is light and airy and you will notice little openings where air pockets have formed throughout. It will be completely removed from the side of the pans and stick to the other dough making it very easy to transfer to our mixer.

Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl and beat in eggs one at a time. You can use either a stand-alone mixer or hand mixer for this portion. It is very important to mix all four eggs in one at a time. This will lead to the light and fluffy texture that cream puffs are known for. Mix each egg in for 60 seconds on speed 6 of your mixer before adding in the next egg. You will not notice the dough changing texture until the addition of the third egg. Once they are all mixed in the dough will be extremely sticky.

Grease a standard muffin tin well, and transfer dough in equal part to muffin tin. You can either grease the muffin tin with butter, or baking spray. Make sure when transferring the dough, you use well-greased utensils as it will want to stick. The dough does not need to lay flat in the muffin tin as it will expand as it bakes. Try to make them as even as possible filling up approximately one-third of the muffin tin

Place muffin tin into a preheated oven of 450 Degree oven and bake for 20 Minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 20 Minutes. When lowering the temperature, you do not have to take the cream puffs out just lower the temperature and start your 20 minute timer right away.

When the timer goes off, remove the cream puffs and allow to cool while you make the cream filling. Don’t forget to turn off the oven. At this point, I would like to note that some people choose to eat them with a premade yogurt and pudding. It is still very good, but since you made it this far may I recommend finishing up.

2 Cups Milk

2.5 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 Tbsp Butter Room Temperature

2 Eggs Beaten

1/2 C Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla

Mix together corn starch and sugar into one bowl, in another beat eggs. For the cornstarch and sugar I would recommend mixing with a hand whisk. Make sure they are well combined. For the eggs I used my stand mixer, but these can also be mixed with a hand whisk.

Then combine the sugar mixture into one bowl along with vanilla, and milk. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. These can be added in using either a hand whisk or your stand mixer. Transfer to microwave safe bowl and add butter.

Microwave for 3 Minutes. Once the 3 minutes is over, take out and stir with a hand whisk thoroughly. This will help to avoid clumping later on. Place bowl back in the microwave

Microwave for 2 minutes. Remove from the microwave and stir with the hand whisk for a minute to break up any clumps. At this point it should be a pudding consistency, if It is not you can microwave for one more minute. This is typically not necessary.

When finished open a cream puff and place as much or as little filling in it as you would like. Can be served either warm or cold. Enjoy!

Place uneaten cream puffs in an air tight Ziploc bag or container. Do not refrigerate. Place the filling in a Tupperware container and store in the fridge for up to one week.