Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the choux dough
In a saucepan, combine one-half pint cold water and rub smooth six ounces flour.
Add four ounces butter and stir continually over low heat until the mixture is thoroughly cooked.
Let the dough separate from the pan like a pancake.
Cool the dough and beat in four eggs.
Bake the puffs
Drop the batter onto a buttered tin in neat, compact little dabs, spaced apart so they do not touch when rising.
Preheat the oven to cookie temperature and bake, turning them up the tin.
Bake until the puffs are hollow balls and no longer fall when removed.
Cool the puffs on brown paper as quickly as possible to prevent sweating.
Make the custard and fill
In a saucepan, combine one-half pint milk, two beaten eggs, one-fourth cup flour or corn starch, one cup sugar, and lemon or vanilla flavor; cook over heat, stirring until smooth.
Let the custard cool to room temperature.
Open each puff with a sharp knife, making a small slit on the side.
Fill each puff with one tablespoonful of custard (or whipped cream).
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Beaten into the dough to give structure and help the puffs rise and hold their hollow shape.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the dough and tenderness to the finished puffs.
- Flour
- Forms the starch base of the dough, setting into structure when cooked and baked.
- Milk
- Gives the custard its liquid body and creamy flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard filling.
The step that matters
Drying the dough and baking until hollow. The cooked dough must be beaten cool enough before adding eggs, or they scramble. Puffs should be baked until hollow and firm, because underbaked centres collapse and turn soggy as they cool.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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