My First Cream Puff

Is their anything prettier than a cream puff?  I was having a Monday, for sure, and languishing over these little babies for my favorite clients made me happy, happy, happy (clearly I'm in the right profession-I was seriously cranky).

I got the cream puff recipe here.  I especially loved a tip left by a reader who said to leave the puffs in the oven after baking.  Simply turn off the heat, crack open the oven door, and let them sit for awhile so the dry completely, in order to prevent "sagging".  Cream puff dough is kind of like a souffle; it will puff way up but will deflate quickly if it's not completely dry.

The recipe I used suggested filling the shells with pudding.  Eww.  I'm not a pudding fan and will gladly put whipped cream on almost anything.  This is how the whipped dreaminess was created:


1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp granulated sugar

Stir cream, vanilla and sugar together in a large metal bowl.  Put whisk in bowl, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (cold cream, bowl and whisk makes for faster whipping).

Whisk until soft peaks form.

I was super fancy with filling the shells:  cut shells 3/4 of the way (left them whole at the back), put whipped cream in a freezer bag.  Cut the tip with scissors and piped the fluffy clouds into their little bready homes.

I have a feeling my clients will pour some chocolate sauce on top of these (I found some in the fridge).  They also have fresh cherries, which I pitted, chopped, added a tiny bit of sugar to, and left for them to do what they will.  My next baking challenge will be macarons.  I had these for the first time over the weekend, courtesy of Daydreamer Desserts, and they changed my life. 


In other news, I just returned my first blog conference, Camp Blogaway.  It was wonderful and I am completely traumatized.  This has nothing to do with the conference and everything to do with me.  I am overwhelmed and extremely busy comparing my blog with everyone else's blog, and feel like a complete blog, photographer, culinary and social media failure.  I'm ready to become a ultrasound technician now.  Just sayin'.