Cream Puffs with Crispy on top – Vanilla w/ Strawberry

We have so many favorites, and this Choux à la crème à la Vanille is one of our best favorites.  When I find some fresh strawberries, I simply add them to the cream puffs.  We love this creamy, light super vanilla cream. This is a heaven. I also like to make small sizes to eat little by little without stuffing stomach.

Cream Puffs with Crispy on top – Vanilla w/ Strawberry

<Ingredients for 16 puffs>

Crispy part

• 50g Butter  (1/4 cup) Room temperature
• 60g Cane sugar (1/4 cup)
• 60g All-purpose flour  (1/2 cup)

Puffs

• 50g Water (3tbsp. + 1 tsp.)
• 50g Whole Milk (3tbsp. + 1 tsp.)
• 2g Sugar  (a pinch)
• 2g Slat (a pinch)
• 46g Butter (3 tbsp.)
• 56g All-purpose flour (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp.)
• 100g Eggs (2 eggs)

Vanilla custard cream

• 500g Whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 100g Sugar
• 20g all-purpose flour
• 20g Corn starch
• 1 Vanilla beans
• 200g Whipping Cream

• 16 – 20 Strawberries 
• 1 tbsp. to 2 tbsp. Sugar (depends on the sweetness of strawberries)

Directions

Make the crispy part

• In a mixing bowl, mix the butter, cane sugar and flour together. Wrap in a plastic film, thin and flat as possible, keep in the refrigerator for 3 hours. 

Puffs  :

• Preheat the oven to 200˚C (390˚F).
• In a sauce pan, combine the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt, place over medium heat. Stir as the butter melts, and continue until boil. Remove from the heat and add all the sifted flour, stir until the dry flour disappears. Place over medium heat and stir for 1 to 2 minutes.

• Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl, add about 1/4 of the beaten eggs. Stir until the egg is completely absorbed before adding the second 1/4 of the eggs. Add the last batch little by little to have the perfect condition. When the spatula is lifted, it hang like a triangle from the spatula. If the dough is too stiff, add the remaining egg.

• Transfer the dough into a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch round tip.
• Line the baking pan with parchment paper, pipe out the dough the size of 1 and 1/2 inch to 2 inches (4 -5 cm), spaced.

• Spread the crispy dough with rolling pin, to thin about 2mm. Cut out with a round cookie cutter, place each one onto each puff dough.
• Bring the temperature down to 180˚C (365˚F), bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not open the oven while baking. Cool completely before filling.

Cream :

• Split the vanilla bean and scrape the caviars.
• In a sauce pan, pour the milk and add the vanilla pod and the caviars. Bring to simmer. (if you have time, leave it off the heat with a cover on the pan for 3 hours to infuse the vanilla)
• Put the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, mix well, add the sifted flour and cornstarch, mix well again.
• Reheat the milk, pour slowly into the egg mixture, mixing with the whisk.
• Pour back into the sauce pan passing the liquid through a strainer.
• With medium heat, continue mixing with the spatula. When it starts to get thicker texture, change to a whisk.
• After start to bubble, continue cooking 2 – 3 more minutes.
• Pour into a flat pan, cover with the plastic wrap with no air touching the cream. Let it cool completely.

Strawberry:

• Wash the strawberries and take off the stems. Cut into quarters, or so.
• Sprinkle the sugar and mix. Leave marinate for about 15 minutes. 

Assembly

• Whip the whipping cream and mix with vanilla custard cream until smooth, transfer to a decorating bag with star shaped tip.(or whatever you like)
• Cut the top 1/3 of the puffs, fill with the cream, put the strawberries, cover with the top.

With strawberries:

Without; with just simple vanilla cream:

You will have some left over crispy part. I simply wrap with a plastic film again, put in a ZipLock, and keep in the freezer until next time. As you store flat, it will thaw quickly.

I often bake the same things, especially when they are our favorites. I already baked 5 times after I posted the recipe Chocolate Cinnamon Chip Brownies.  Yes, we still have Easter chocolates and my kids are not eating them. I also bake often this cream puffs, especially when I need to use up the whole milk and I need to have more egg whites. And this is one of our favorites, so it works well to me.