When I was little, my parents used to take me and my siblings to a little bakery on the outskirts of the city to buy sweets. Usually donuts and cream puffs. It was like little Christmas, no matter the season. It was a small family run bakery, behind the house, and mostly open from the afternoon onwards. That was a good and a bad thing. Good, because it was after school. Bad, because a lot of people knew of this place too, and it was late enough so there was normally a huge line. The smell of fresh donuts, stretching for almost a kilometer, not seldom contributed to our increased orders. And I’m pretty sure, not only our.
To this day, everytime I visit my parents, we go there to buy some cream puffs and donuts.
Of course I bake it from time to time at home too. And I have to say, there are things, baked or cooked, that disappear in a blink of an eye. Especially when you want to try only one, and suddenly there is nothing left. And I think cream puffs top the list in my household. With or without the cream.
For 14 small puffs you need
100g butter
100g flour
200ml water
4 eggs
1tbsp sugar (optional)
For the cream:
2 packs of vanilla pudding
500ml milk
100g sugar
150g butter
Preheat the oven to 195º. Put the water and the butter in a pot on middle heat and melt the butter. Add the flour and stir until it creates a solid mass, with no lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and add the eggs, one at a time. Let it cool a little bit and spoon the batter into a piping bag.
Squirt the batter in a round form on the baking sheet. The puffs with grow, so make sure you let enough space between them. Put it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
For the cream heat the milk in another pot. Add the puddings and the sugar and stir thoroughly. When the mixture becomes more solid, remove from the heat and let it cool. Mix the cold mass at high speed adding the softened butter until smooth.
Kate cooks things 