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These lovely french cream puffs are sure to wow your guests at any party! Delicate and airy, these delicious french cream desserts, originally called choux a la creme, are the perfect way to indulge!

Choux A La Creme

These french cream puffs are so adorable and I had so much fun making them (and even more eating them, lol). It may be my European roots but I love anything French and of course pastry and this easy cream puffs recipe has been on my list for a long time. I love watching this french cream puff recipe baking in the oven, puffing up in the heat, all crackly and full of air! A sight for sore eyes!

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The french cream puffs dessert is undoubtedly considered the “king of desserts”. I must confess that at first I found this otherwise easy cream puff recipe quite difficult to make; these puffs looked intimidating to me. But I’ve tried my hand at a few ideas for choux a la creme recipe and experimented a lot to get the absolutely perfect recipe. Also the cream puff filling recipe is super easy to make and tastes amazing, making a great pair with the puffy, light pastry!

French Cream Puffs

To make the delicate shells in these French cream puffs you need what they call choux pastry (“pate a choux” as they call it in France). This is a classic French pastry batter used to make various desserts from cream puffs to profiteroles and eclairs. The choux pastry is made by mixing milk, butter, flour, and eggs together to make a thick paste that is than baked, fried or sauteed.

While this is a simple and quite easy recipe, you need to have a bit of experience with pastry in order to make these French cream puffs. I chose to cut the baked choux in half and then fill with cream but you may opt for simply piping the filling into the shells. They won’t look as impressive but will definitely have the same amazing taste!

I made a simple vanilla filling for these desserts, using a mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, butter and flour. The mixture gets its flavor from vanilla sticks. I opted to add some homemade whipped cream too for added yumminess and make these taste even creamier.

To make these French cream puffs you’re also going to need:

While the baked shells can be frozen for up to 2 months in freezer bag they do taste best when freshly baked. Thaw them at room temperature for up to 10 minutes before attempting to fill them with vanilla cream and whipped cream. Do not fill cream puffs until they are completely cooled.

To keep your cream puffs looking and tasting fresh, don’t dust them with confectioner’ sugar until you’re ready to serve them. The dough will absorb the sugar while refrigerated.

A few tips before baking your cream puffs:

refrain from piercing or cutting the shells as soon as they’re out of the oven. This will allow the steam inside the shells to escape, causing the shells to deflate. Instead, allow the dough to fully cool before cutting.
when boiling the choux ingredients don’t over boil them as the water will evaporate. The puffs need steam to inflate and the steam comes from the water.
as tempting as it is, refrain from opening the oven while the puffs are baking. Opening the oven will let the steam escape and as mentioned above, puffs need steam to inflate.
don’t remove the choux from the oven too early. They need to get a golden brown crust before you turn off the oven. If they don’t get this firm crust, the puffs will cave on themselves.

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