Homemade Cream Puffs
One of my mother’s fancy desserts she has always made for special occasions are Homemade Cream Puffs. Not because they are hard to make, but because we would eat WAY too many of them :)
I made these for our New Years Eve party and they were quite the hit with the crowd. How could anyone turn down a delicious cream puff?! Especially ones as good as these! Definitely make these for your next get together- everyone will be asking you for the recipe!
Homemade Cream Puffs
Enjoy the A simple and delicious recipe that everyone will be talking about!
Author: Nikki
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
CREAM PUFF SHELLS
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup water
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 cup flour
- 4 eggs
CREAM FILLING Option 1
- 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant french vanilla pudding mix
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 cups milk
CREAM FILLING Option 2
- 16 oz. cream cheese, softned
- 2 cups cool whip, thawed
- 3 cups powdered sugar, more as needed to reach desired consistency
- 1 tsp. vanilla
CHOCOLATE FROSTING
- ½ cup butter
- ⅓ cup cocoa
- ¼ cup milk
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- ⅛ tsp. salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
TO MAKE CREAM PUFF PASTRY:
- In a large pot, bring butter and water to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt, consistently stirring until the mixture firms up and forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. With hand or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 17 minutes at 425 degrees F. After 17 minutes, reduce temperature to 375 degrees F and continue baking for an additional 5 to 10 min. Centers should be dry. When finished cooking, let cool completely.
- When the shells are cool, make FILLING
Cream Filling Option 1
- In a medium bowl, Mix together milk and vanilla instant pudding. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, Beat whip cream and ¼ c. sugar until peaks form.
- Fold the whipped cream into the vanilla pudding until mixed in. Cover and set in fridge.
Cream Filling Option 2
- Beat cream cheese, cool whip, powdered sugar and vanilla together until smooth. When shells are cooled completely, use a pastry bag to pipe filling onto half the shells. Place remaining shell halves on top.
TO MAKE FROSTING
- Melt butter and milk in microwave saft bowl. Add powder sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla. Wisk together and pour into a lage zip lock bag. Cut a small corner off and drizzle chocolate over cream puffs.
Enjoy!
Jan Tanis
Oh Nikki...these look sooooo yummy! I might have to make these while we get "snowed in" today! 7-9" headed our way!! Have a wonderful day!
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
My husband's all-time favorite dessert are cream puffs or as he calls them profiteroles. We don't have Cool Whip in Australia (wacky, I know) but you've reminded me I should do the good wife thing and make these for him tomorrow. Gorgeous photo!
Katarina
What is a Cool Whip? Is there anything that i can substitude with? THey truly look divine and for surenot dificult to make!
Viktoria
Heavy whipped Cream might do :)
Robin B.
These look delicious. I always fill mine with a mixture of vanilla pudding made with a little less milk and then whipped cream that you gently fold in to the pudding after it's whipped. And homemade chocolate frosting is a must!
maria
can also be filled with ice cream when you don't have a pastry cream made. Still delish
Lea Ann (Cooking On The Ranch)
Impressive and they look beautiful. Cream puffs just seem like something that would be impossible to make at home. And if they were sitting around, I'd probably eat about 50 of them. :) Cheers.
Renee @ Awesome on $20
The first time I tried to make profiterole dough was for some ementaler gougeres. They were delicious, but didn't puff up like they should. I'm determined to master this dough method. I'd love to try your recipe.
Lisa
How do you drain Cool Whip, I have never heard of such a thing.
Chef in Training
sorry that was an auto entry. I typed in the word drain and on a previous recipe I typed up had well drained. It was a automatic typo. I apologize for that! No you can't drain cool whip lol! just thawed :)
Viktoria
LOL! I blame the keyboard...
Julianne @ Beyond Frosting
Cream puffs are one of my favorite holiday desserts! I would love to be able to make them myself!
Jacqueline
These look fabulous and your pictures are so wonderful. I have always loved these from when I was growing up too!
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking
My mom used to make cream puffs for holidays and special occasions as well but I have never attempted to make my own. Yours are so adorable!!
Kristi
Sometimes recipes scare me because I think they are so complicated, but my Dad loves cream puffs and I'm really going to try and make them for him on his birthday in Feb. Fingers crossed!
Trish - Mom On Timeout
These cream puffs are just gorgeous Nikki!
susan
Hellllp...making now very runny
Chef in Training
Are you talking about the filling? Add more powdered sugar until it gets to the desired consistency. I used closer to 3 cups so I will fix that in the recipe. Please let me know how it turns out for yoU!
susan
No the batter..so I added 3/4 cup more flour to firm up after the eggs as I didn't want to waste..
The filling was fine......they turned out to be good
How many does this recipe make?
MJ
Darn ... wish I had read all the way down to Susan's comment about adding additional flour before putting these in the oven. Followed directions exactly but my cream puff shells were very wet and "eggy" in the center. They also didn't rise like the ones in the photos. Had to toss them. Oh well, maybe next time.
Ashley
How many cream puffs does this recipe make? I would love to make them tonight but I am wondering if I should half the recipe. Where the filling calls for 16oz cream cheese I am assuming that it make a lot of cream puffs. Let me know thanks
Ruth Quiring
Thanks for reminding me of cream puffs. I used to make them years ago and agree, they are not hard at all to make. I would be interested in trying the cream cheese filling. I have always made a homemade vanilla pudding as the kind you would make for a cream pie.
Pat
I usually get 21 cream puffs. The( empty puff
) can be frozen for 2-3 months
carole
how far in advance can I make these for a party and how long will they keep?
marcie
These are gorgeous! I love making anything with choux pastry -- you just can't go wrong. :)
Boni
Me and my girlfriends made these this weekend and they came out perfect. We loved them! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will definitely make these again!
SC
I've made cream puffs many times, but couldn't find my recipe so thought I'd try yours. The dough was very runny and I had to add a lot of flour. Are the proportions correct on this?
SC
I found my recipe and the ingredients are the same, but in my recipe it says to keep it on the heat while you add the flour and cook until it forms a ball, about a minute. I had to throw away my first batch but made another and kept it on the heat and they turned out great.. I make a lot of your recipes- thank you!
KAM
how many puffs does this recipe make? Do they freeze well, and would the puffs freeze better w/out filling and then fill and frost later when thawed?
Mary
freeze before filling
hafsa
What is cool whip. Pls explain n if there is a substitute????
Jerri
The batter for the cream puffs is very runny! I double checked the recipe to ensure I follwed it properly.! There is no way these can be dropped by Tablespoon onto parchment paper, it would run into a round puddle! I see from previous comments that some have added an additional 3/4 c. of flour, so your recipe correct with only 1 c flour? Help!!
Barbara
Last time I made cream puffs, they came out of the oven beautiful, however within seconds they flattened out like pancakes. HELP! What did I do wrong?
Janice Reed
Are you using all-purpose flour? That could be the reason. You should use self-rising flour!
Becky
For those asking about cool-whip, it is a nondairy whipped topping that is sold frozen in a plastic tub at American grocery stores. A good (and possibly better depending on your preferences) would be freshly whipped cream. You'd want to sweeten it since cool-whip is sweet.
RB
I agree with SC. THe flour should be added while still on stove. Continue to stir until it forms a ball.
Pat
How come mine turned out like pancakes? They're flat :(
Mary
Love your recipes, everything looks delicious. I do wish they all were made from scratch. I live in Ecuador and we don't have pudding mixes, cool whip and graham crackers. :( I have made pudding from scratch and we have wonderful cream here. What do you think? Substitutes ok?
Emily
I've never added cream cheese to the filling. I will have to give it a try!
Krysta
The filing is way to cream cheesy it was like eating plain cream cheese, I added more sugar and it got a little better but I definetly say 8 oz of cream cheese not 16 yuck! The dough however amazing!!!
mary
Mmmmmmmm Nikki I love yummy things,also to serve my family !! And do they have a sweet tooth?? All of them! Thank you for sharing your recipes.......they are great. Its nice to be able to make a treat and it does not flop!!
Christina
Will the cream filling melt or will it be okay for a few hours during a gathering?
These look delicious!
Sabrina
pleasepleaseplease edit your recipe to clarify your flour!! I, like so many others, fell prey to making this recipe without reading the comments & ending up with flat pancake puffs. If you're using self-rising flour (which is pretty uncommon, I would say) please say so in your recipe so it's clear that you're not using regular flour & we need to use more to get the same result. Thank yoooooou in advance!
Ellie
The dough for the puff became really runny and after I baked it, it is very flat, I don't know is it because of the flour or not, I used all purpose flour this time. What type of flour am I suppose to use?
shagun
How many puffs does the quantities written here produce?
Christina
Will this whipped cream stay stable for a while? I would like to make these for a get together how long would they be okay to be out of the fridge and how will they be okay for a while in the fridge if I make them that morning ?
They look delicious !
Thanks.
esther
how many does it make?
Morag
Can you give me an idea if weights for 'cup' measures please. Tried a recipe before with cup measures and it didn't work out. Think my cup was too big?
Judy collins
I wish you had put self rising flour in the recipe. I used all purpose. I'll have o try again.
Sharon
I'm a choclatier and going to make cream puff hot fudge sundaes.
Linda Stairs
I am definitely making these! Wonderful recipe!
Hoover
How many cream puffs does this recipe make? Can recipe be doubled? How much butter, cocoa for frosting?
Samina
Hey tried these! Their super easy and turned out perfect till baked. Fell a bit flat after removing from oven. I used just regular flour as in recipe. Would it help if I added some baking powder to the flour? But it was really delicious. I'm definitely going to try again. Thanks
Tora welch
I made these tonight. My hubby said they brought back a million memories. Thank you so much.
Angela
Okay I followed Susan's advice and increased flour to 1 3/4 cup and added 2 tsp of baking powder and increases salt to 1/2 tsp. Otherwise dough is too runny and would not rise. Please update your main recipe.
Terri
Plain flour or self rising??
Joanne
I made the puff pastry twice following the directions given. The first batch were burned on the bottom and collapsed as soon as they were out of the oven. I shortened the cook time on the second batch and they didn't burn but also collapsed as soon as they were out of the oven. Googled another recipe which only called for half cup of water and to add the eggs one at a time by hand, no mixer. Baked for 30 min. And they came out perfectly.
Maira
Hi I tried the recipe. The taste is great but I halved the pudding mix topping since i had one pack of vanilla pudding and then subsequently halved the rest of the ingredients as well. The pudding didn't set properly. Also, approximately how long do I whip the cream because I whipped for about 10 minutes and peaks didn't form.
Please do let me know.
Linda
Seriously delicious...I am have been baking forever and these are always a big hit..thank you for sharing your recipes
Maria
Love this pastry, have to give it a try; the recipe looks clear and easy, I will give it a try. Thanks' for posting -
Tim
I wanted to make these, but there’s a lot of questions, and it’s not cheap to buy all of these items to have to throw out. Please let me know how many this makes. Also, is there a preferred type of flour like the comments say? One cup of flour doesn’t seem like very much. In the filling recipe number 1, it says set aside, then just kinda ends.