Strawberry Cream Puffs

When it comes to fancy desserts, Strawberry Cream Puffs cannot be beat. Gorgeous and delicious, you’ll be surprised that they’re so easy to make!

Have you ever bought that big tub of cream puffs from Costco? (Or a big tub of cream puffs from anywhere?) You need a big tub, because they are so addictive and disappear in no time! Whenever we go to Costco and see the tub of cream puffs, my husband always looks at them longingly. If I recall, we had them at our wedding reception.  But that’s not why he wants them. He is not filled with feelings of nostalgia and love. Unless you count his love for cream puffs.

Part of their allure is that they seem so “fancy.” Normal people couldn’t possibly make them, right? How do they get that cream in there? How does the pastry have a hole in it in the first place?

Magic, I tell you. Magic.

Just kidding. It’s actually not magic, and it’s actually really easy.

The first step is to mix up the pastry dough. This dough is a little unique, in that you cook it on the stove. First you boil some water, butter, sugar and salt. Then you just add some flour and stir it in. It will look like a paste. After that, you stir in two eggs (one at a time) until the mixture turns silky and smooth.

At this point, you can put the dough into a piping bag and squeeze it onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Or you can just use a teaspoon and drop it on the sheet. (I used two regular teaspoons and used one to scrape the dough off the other).

Then you pop them into the oven, and they puff up and get hollow in the middle! (I said it wasn’t magic, but it kind of is).

Once they cool, you will stick the strawberry cream in a pastry bag fitted with a large tip, poke a hole in the bottom of the puff, and squeeze all that strawberry goodness inside.

The strawberry cream only has two ingredients. Strawberry gelatin, and heavy whipping cream. You just put them together and whip until stiff peaks form. Voila. Perfect, fluffy strawberry cream.

Then if you want, you can dip the tops into melted chocolate. And really, who wouldn’t want to do that. These remind me of my Strawberry Dark Chocolate Ice Cream and my Chocolate Raspberry Cream Pie. They all have cream and chocolate and red berries. You can’t go wrong!

There are two main kinds of cream puffs. Big ones that you cut in half and fill like these Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cream Puffs, or small ones, like mine. I personally like the small ones better, because you can pop the whole thing in your mouth without making a mess! The big ones are pretty, but the cream gets squished out everywhere when you try to eat them.

Don’t you want to make these now? I’m pretty sure you do 🙂

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Strawberry Cream Puffs

Author: Melissa Howell

Ingredients

For the puffs

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs

For the strawberry cream

• 1 3 oz. package strawberry gelatin
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

For the puffs

1. Boil the water, butter, salt and sugar.
2. Remove from heat, and quickly stir in all the flour at once.
3. Put back on medium heat and stir for 1-2 minutes with a wooden spoon. The dough will form into a ball.
4. Remove from the heat again and let cool for five minutes.
5. Add the first egg and stir slowly until fully incorporated in the dough.
6. Do the same with the second egg. Dough should be smooth and glossy. It will look kind of like cake batter.
7. Put dough into a piping bag with a large tip and squeeze 1 tsp.-worth of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Alternately, you can use a teaspoon to measure the dough.
8. Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes.
9. Let cool ten minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.

For the strawberrycream

1. Mix the strawberry gelatin and heavy whipping cream together. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat at high speed until stiff peaks form.
2. Spoon strawberry cream into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip.
3. Gently puncture the bottom of each puff with the tip and slowly squeeze the strawberry cream inside.
4. If desired, dip tops into melted chocolate (1/2 cup chocolate chips melted with 1/4 tsp. vegetable oil).
5. Store in the refrigerator. Wait until chocolate hardens, then cover loosely with plastic wrap.
6. You can also freeze these. If you do this, wait to dip in chocolate until the cream puffs have thawed out and you are going to serve them within the next couple of hours.