The cream puff is the Eiffel Tower of Parisian pastries: iconic, beloved, and displayed everywhere. The recipe is so irrefutably timeless that even Pierre Hermé, France's most famous (and endlessly innovative) pastry chef, still uses the formula he learned as a 14-year-old apprentice.
Ingredients
Makes about 16 Servings
1
1
1
1
1
6
2
Preparation
Step 1
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit 1 large pastry bag (or a plastic freezer bag with 1/2-inch cut from one bottom corner) with plain 1/2-inch tip.
Step 2
Bring milk, butter, 1 tsp. sugar, salt, and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium sauce- pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add flour all at once; reduce heat to medium-low. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until a dough forms and pulls away from sides of pan, 1–2 minutes. Continue beating vigorously until a thin dry film forms on bottom and sides of pot, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl.
Step 3
Add 1 egg and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until egg is incorporated and dough looks dry again, about 2 minutes. Repeat with 4 more eggs, adding one at a time and stirring vigorously to incorporate before adding the next. Dough should be smooth, shiny, and thickened.
Step 4
Spoon dough into prepared pastry bag; pipe out 2 1/2-inch-diameter rounds on pre- pared sheets, leaving 2 inches between rounds. DO AHEAD: Freeze the piped dough rounds on the baking sheets, then transfer to resealable plastic bags and freeze for up to 1 month. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spacing apart (do not defrost) before continuing with recipe.
Step 5
Arrange racks in upper and middle thirds of oven and preheat to 450°. Whisk remaining egg with 2 tsp. water and brush dough rounds all over with egg wash.
Step 6
Transfer baking sheets to oven; turn oven off. After 10 minutes, heat oven to 350° and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate pans front to back and top to bottom; continue baking until deep golden brown all over, about 10 minutes longer (puffs will deflate if removed from oven before fully baked). Transfer puffs to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Step 7
Using a serrated knife, gently slice the top quarter off each puff; transfer tops to a plate. With your finger, gently push down the soft film of cooked dough inside each puff.
Step 8
Prepare a second pastry bag (or freezer bag) with 1/2-inch open-star tip. Beat heavy cream and remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into prepared pastry bag. Fill each puff with cream, finishing with a generous ring of cream on top. Dust tops of cream puffs with powdered sugar; place atop puffs.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (86)
Back to TopI am confused by the measurements above. Is that 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 stick of butter? The layout reads kind of funny.
LesleyP
Novato, CA
3/19/2021
WOW! As a new "baking dad", I gotta say that this recipe, especially using the visual cues from the video, are WAY simpler and easier than I thought. I got some great results! A couple of tips from a newbie: * Consider the 20 minutes at 350F to be a minimum. My oven seems to run a bit cool, I needed a full 5 minutes longer to get the full color, and to prevent an eggy aftertaste. Cooked properly you get this "toasted cream" flavor, which is simply wonderful. Some other recipes recommend a further 10-15 mins at 300F to completely dry them out. * You can absolutely make them a bit smaller than in the video. I can fit 12 easily on a standard baking tray. This recipe made about 32 of this size. * You can absolutely freeze the shells for a month at least! Great for making ahead of time, easy to just whip up some cream when you're ready to serve them.
TheGerm
Fort Worth, TX
8/25/2020
I know that for copyright reasons that Carla & Co cannot use the actual Pierre Herme Choux recipe, but that is no reason for a random recipe that would turn out badly. My result was salty, soggy flat cakes. I assume that in the video, Carla used the Pierre Herme Choux recipe, but read the ingredients from this “Cream Puff” recipe. I admit that one reason opposing the success of the choux was the temperature in Australia, as it is winter here and another is because I baked it in an eclair shape, but Carla did say that you could bake an eclair with this recipe.
Anonymous
Australia
6/14/2020
I froze the dough rounds and placed them in a freezer bag and made two at a time when I felt like something sweet. Just made the cream and dipped the top in chocolate. All was fast and easy. Love this recipe!
cmartinm
Austin, Texas
5/26/2020
This recipe is a new favorite! I have attempted many other cream puff recipes, but this recipe was the best by far!
Anonymous
Waukesha, WI
5/25/2020
This recipe is amazing! I've tried a couple of puff recipes and none of them worked as well. The recipe may be a little bit confusing, but the video is really straightforward and helped a lot with cooking the dough and figuring out the right consistency. Just one thing, everyone's oven is different, and it took me almost 25 minutes at 325 for the puffs to become stable. This final result is just amazing and my family all loved it! It's super crispy and not overly sweet. I substituted cream with lemon custard (since I don't have any whipping cream, covid-19 times) and it was absolutely delicious.
Cindy Wang
Canada
4/10/2020
Made this exactly as stated; turned out great. Definitely follow along with the video because the explanations of when the dough is ready and when to add certain ingredients are helpful. I made mine pretty small compared to the video, but I would recommend making an effort to add some height when piping to give them a good shape. Also, adding some fruit to the whipped cream is a nice touch (I used strawberries and it was pretty good imo).
Anonymous
3/24/2020
This recipe is awesome - would have preferred having metric measurements to follow though but that's just me being picky. I used extra large eggs, so I had to reduce the eggs in the recipe by 1 and other than that everything turned out great. Only thing I substituted was adding a homemade mixed berry preserve with the whipped cream - tasted like a French scone! Will try making eclairs with this recipe next. Cheers!
bellamia
Australia
1/18/2020
This recipe didn’t work for me. And it’s a bit confusing. The ingredients don’t list the 1/2 cup water needed. The recipe also called for 6 eggs total and to add 1 egg, then 4 more eggs, then take the remaining 2 eggs to make the wash. That’s 7 eggs. Not 6. When I used the 5 eggs called for the dough was way too thin. Stop at 4 eggs. And 1 tsp of salt is way too much. 1/4 to. 1/2 maybe. But I would stick to the 1/4. Then again maybe the added salt balances with the sweetness of the cream.
Msapp
Utah
1/5/2020
This recipe is great, and works well. The extra cup of does should not matter, if it’s too much you should end up cooking it off.
Anonymous
Texas
5/16/2019
I'm just saying, if this recipe from a great French pastry chef, why change it to cups? Everyone knows it's better to weight ingredients and I thought this kind of recipe would be one to be accurate, not neccesarily in grams but in like ounces and those other weird american measurements.
Anonymous
Spain
2/6/2019
I use the same recipe for years and its ALWAYS PERFECT! For others, you have to make the necessary adjustments considering your place's humidity and temperature. I usually make this recipe with just 4 eggs. My place is is hot and humid most days.
jaxtrid
Manila, Philippines
7/2/2018
LOVED this recipe. They were perfect, very life changing indeed. I'd love to know how best to store them, though. Will certainly make again.
Anonymous
Rochester, NY
4/4/2018
I just pulled these out of the oven and my puffs are crisp and beautiful. A couple of things, to expand on some of the lower-star reviews. 1) Watch the video. It will give you an idea of the final dough consistency you are looking for, and how to tell if your dough is where it needs to be before piping. 2) Yes, they did leave out the 1/2 cup water addition in the recipe. Be sure to add it to the ingredients in the saucepan. I only used 4 eggs vs the 5 suggested. I was using eggs laid within the last day, and fresher eggs have more egg white, thus the adjustment. Had I added the 5th egg, my dough would have been too wet, as mentioned by other reviewers. Use the "v" check method, mentioned in the video, and your best judgement as to whether or not to add that last egg. As with any recipe, sometimes you need to adjust on the fly rather than follow things to the letter. Also, I'm about 6,000 feet above sea level, and this recipe did splendidly at higher altitude. Give this one a go if you love cream puffs!
jbrown13
Colorado
2/18/2018
My final pastry ended up something like a flat bread!
Anonymous
Illinois
2/16/2018