We recently hosted some of Tom's wine friends over for dinner and I used the occasion to try a recipe that's been on my to-bake list for a while: Erin Clarkson's (from Cloudy Kitchen) "Cream Puffs with Oak Aged Vanilla Diplomat Cream Filling." The recipe is from a digital booklet I received as part of my reward when I backed a Kickstarter project from Heilala Vanilla to develop a line of flavored extracts, including the oak aged vanilla used in this recipe.
I love cream puffs. They are one of few desserts my mother made when I was growing up; she used a recipe from her Betty Crocker cookbook. When we were in Taiwan over Thanksgiving, I regularly visited Beard Papa's to indulge. My favorite item on the Taiwanese menu -- which I don't think is available on the American menu -- is the "cookie puff," or a cream puff with craquelin on top. I ate one almost daily -- and sometimes more than once daily, like on my birthday when my husband and I bought a cookie puff after lunch and discovered when we returned to our hotel that my mother had thoughtfully purchased an entire box(!) of cream puffs for us.
I had never made craquelin before, but it was straightforward. It's just a mixture of softened butter, flour, dark brown sugar, and (oak aged) vanilla extract that you roll thinly out between two sheets of parchment and stick in the freezer until needed. To make the choux pastry, you bring a mixture of milk, water, butter, salt, vanilla, and sugar to a boil; add flour and continue cooking the mixture for a bit to dry it out; transfer the mixture to a stand mixer; and add lightly beaten eggs. I transferred the choux pastry to a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip and piped it out onto a piece of parchment paper, guided by 2-inch circles that I had drawn in pencil on the underside of the paper. Then I placed a piece of frozen craquelin that I had punched out with a 2-inch cutter on top of each puff.
I baked the cream puffs first at 400 degrees and turned the oven down to 350 degrees halfway through. I started to worry as the puffs were in the oven; they looked like they weren't rising and I was scrambling to come up with a dessert contingency plan for our guests who would be arriving in a few hours. But the puffs made a remarkable recovery and rose nicely during the last half of their bake. In the end, I got 26 beautiful round puffs.
I used a small paring knife to cut a vent into the side of each cream puff to allow steam to escape, and let the puffs cool on a wire rack. Shortly before our guests arrived, I filled the puffs with diplomat cream through the bottom, using a piping bag fitted with a Bismarck tip. I had made the diplomat cream earlier in the day. First, I made vanilla pastry cream (milk and a tempered mixture of egg yolks, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, and salt cooked until thick; finished with butter; and chilled until cold). Second, I beat heavy cream to stiff peaks and folded in loosened cold pastry cream. I made a full batch of the pastry cream, but since we were only going to have five people at dinner, I made only a half-batch of diplomat cream. With the half batch I was able to fill ten cream puffs, so I served two per person. I saved the remaining pastry cream in the fridge.
These cream puffs were freaking delicious. I loved the mouthfeel of the cold diplomat cream which was somehow creamy, luxurious, and light all at the same time. While I love pastry cream, I really liked the lightness of diplomat cream here, especially with its beautiful vanilla flavor. And the cream puffs were perfection. The pastry was crisp and golden,
and the craquelin was crunchy and sweet. This was the most delicious
dessert I've made in recent memory. I'm not going to claim that I could taste the difference from using oak aged vanilla extract instead of regular vanilla in the choux pastry and the cream filling. Maybe I would be able to if I had a side-by-side comparison between two different versions -- but in the end I'm not sure that it matters. All I know is that these cream puffs were amazing.
The next day, I re-crisped the leftover cream puffs in the oven and used the remaining pastry cream to make another half batch of diplomat cream. We gave most of the puffs to a friend to share with his family, but Tom and I saved a couple for ourselves. The second-day puffs were still very good, but probably only about 75% as tasty as the freshly-baked and filled ones. Erin says that you can freeze the baked (and unfilled) cream puff shells, but the next time I make this recipe, I will plan to fill and serve all of the puffs at once. Somehow it seems fitting that a dessert this exceptional should have a short shelf life.
Recipe: "Cream Puffs with Oak Aged Vanilla Diplomat Cream Filling" by Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen. Erin's cream puff with craquelin recipe is available here.
I love cream puffs. They are one of few desserts my mother made when I was growing up; she used a recipe from her Betty Crocker cookbook. When we were in Taiwan over Thanksgiving, I regularly visited Beard Papa's to indulge. My favorite item on the Taiwanese menu -- which I don't think is available on the American menu -- is the "cookie puff," or a cream puff with craquelin on top. I ate one almost daily -- and sometimes more than once daily, like on my birthday when my husband and I bought a cookie puff after lunch and discovered when we returned to our hotel that my mother had thoughtfully purchased an entire box(!) of cream puffs for us.
I had never made craquelin before, but it was straightforward. It's just a mixture of softened butter, flour, dark brown sugar, and (oak aged) vanilla extract that you roll thinly out between two sheets of parchment and stick in the freezer until needed. To make the choux pastry, you bring a mixture of milk, water, butter, salt, vanilla, and sugar to a boil; add flour and continue cooking the mixture for a bit to dry it out; transfer the mixture to a stand mixer; and add lightly beaten eggs. I transferred the choux pastry to a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip and piped it out onto a piece of parchment paper, guided by 2-inch circles that I had drawn in pencil on the underside of the paper. Then I placed a piece of frozen craquelin that I had punched out with a 2-inch cutter on top of each puff.
I used a small paring knife to cut a vent into the side of each cream puff to allow steam to escape, and let the puffs cool on a wire rack. Shortly before our guests arrived, I filled the puffs with diplomat cream through the bottom, using a piping bag fitted with a Bismarck tip. I had made the diplomat cream earlier in the day. First, I made vanilla pastry cream (milk and a tempered mixture of egg yolks, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, and salt cooked until thick; finished with butter; and chilled until cold). Second, I beat heavy cream to stiff peaks and folded in loosened cold pastry cream. I made a full batch of the pastry cream, but since we were only going to have five people at dinner, I made only a half-batch of diplomat cream. With the half batch I was able to fill ten cream puffs, so I served two per person. I saved the remaining pastry cream in the fridge.
The next day, I re-crisped the leftover cream puffs in the oven and used the remaining pastry cream to make another half batch of diplomat cream. We gave most of the puffs to a friend to share with his family, but Tom and I saved a couple for ourselves. The second-day puffs were still very good, but probably only about 75% as tasty as the freshly-baked and filled ones. Erin says that you can freeze the baked (and unfilled) cream puff shells, but the next time I make this recipe, I will plan to fill and serve all of the puffs at once. Somehow it seems fitting that a dessert this exceptional should have a short shelf life.
Recipe: "Cream Puffs with Oak Aged Vanilla Diplomat Cream Filling" by Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen. Erin's cream puff with craquelin recipe is available here.
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