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Homemade Cream Puffs – This easy light and fluffy cream puff recipes is filled with a delicious cream and dusted with powdered sugar. Always a hit and easy to make.
There are some recipes that you make for years and years and become known for. These homemade cream puffs are it for my husband. He started making this cream puff recipe in college and still makes it today. I am more known more for homemade brownies.
There is just something about a fresh homemade cream puff that everyone loves. The pasty is so light and the perfect texture, even a die hard chocolate lover is going to go crazy for these.
A true classic cream puff, also known as a profiterole is filled with whipped cream. I like to make my own homemade sweetened whipped cream for the ultimate treat. You will see other recipes that are filled with pasty cream or sometimes even a pudding. Those are delicious, but they seem more like an Eclair to me. So I like to stick with the classic.
You want to let the pastry cool completely before filling with cream. But you also don’t want to wait too long, because cream puffs are best served the day they are made.
How to Make Cream Puffs
- First we start with the pastry dough. It is called a choux pastry. It starts with melting butter and water together in a pan. You do not want to boil or get to hot, just heat gently until melted.
- Add in the flour and use a wooden spoon to mix very well. The dough will become smooth and pull away from the sides of the pan. This takes about a full minute.
- Next you add in the eggs and stir until the dough is smooth and almost like a thick cake batter.
How to Bake Cream Puffs
- Now that your batter is nice and smooth it is time to bake it. You can either pipe the dough onto a baking sheet or you can use 2 spoons to scoop balls of dough onto a baking sheet.
- For full size cream puffs, you want about 1/4 cup of dough that is spaced at least 3 inches apart on a lined baking sheet. This will give plenty of room for them to grow and expand.
- Now place them in a hot oven and bake for about 35 minutes for full sized puffs. If you are making smaller cream puffs, you will want to shorten the baking time. They will appear dry on the surface be a very light golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.
- Once they are completely cool, this is when you fill cream puffs. Use a sharp knife to cut the tops off and fill with the whipped cream.
Can Cream Puffs be frozen?
Yes, you can place the shells in an air tight container for about a month. They are best served fresh, but they will last if they are not filled.
Can Cream Puffs be made ahead of time?
Yes they can, but they are not as good. The best option would be to make the shells the day before and then just fill with cream the next day when you are ready to serve. They will get soggy if you fill them and let them sit for very long.
How to Store Cream Puffs:
Cream puffs can be refrigerated for a day or two. But they will not be as fresh and the pastry will dry out a little bit.
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Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Cream Puffs
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
Cream Filling
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a small saucepan melt butter and water together.
- Stir in the flour, reducing heat to low. Stir vigorously, over low heat for 1 minute, or until the dough forms a ball. Remove from heat.
- Beat in all of the eggs at once. Continue beating until smooth.
- Drop 1/4 cup of dough about 3 inches apart on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 35-40 minute, until puffed and golden. Cool completely.
- While they are cooling, prepare the whipped cream. Using a stand mixer whisk the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks.
- Once the puffs are cool, using a serrated knife, cut the top 1/3 off each puff. Fill each puff with a scoop of whipped cream. Place the top back on.
- Dust with powdered sugar
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Those cream puffs look perfect, Erin!
Thank you Carolyn!
I LOVE cream puffs and they’re so easy to make which makes that so much better. Fantastic meeting you this weekend! 🙂
It was so fun to actually put faces to names!
Oh my word, these are so pretty!!
Oh, Thanks Claire!
I love cream puffs! They’ve been on my to-do list forever. These are so pretty!
You should try them, they are so much easier than you think!
Your cream puffs are so lovely, Erin. I love to make them…maybe a little too much and that’s why it’s been a while. Can’t wait to hear about the trip!
SO great to finally meet you, Erin! And I’m impressed that you have a post ready to share…most of my photos were on my iphone and need some major tweaking.
PS…your cream puffs look perfect!
It was so great to meet you Liz!! I made these Cream Puffs a long time ago, so they were ready to share. As for a recap of the weekend, not even close 🙂
When we lived in Taiwan there was a bakery on our street. The least scary thing inside was the most gorgeous cream puffs. I’d get them all the time and dunk them in chocolate syrup. I’m glad to hear they’re so easy to make. I can’t wait to try them for myself.
I remember scary desserts when we were in Japan – they had amazing cream puffs there too! I hope you try them!
Lovely cream puffs-one of my favorite desserts!!!
Looking forward to hearing about your experience at the conference-sounds like you had a great time;-)
I don’t know if I’ve ever had cream puffs. They have something similar called semlor in Sweden. They eat them during Lent and they’re super yummy! I’ll have to go see if they’re the same.
This recipe looks really easy but I’m guessing it’s more complicated than it appears. Or let’s just say this – I’m doomed to fail when it comes to cute stuff like this!
So glad you had a great time in FL with all the blogger buddies. I love cream puffs and these look fantastic. 🙂