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Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are baked and filled with custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Boil ½ cup of water and ¾ cup of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in 1¾ cups of flour, then remove from heat.

  3. Transfer to a large bowl, stir in 5 eggs one at a time without beating, then add ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto greased parchment paper on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

Make the custard

  1. For the filling, heat 1 quart of milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together 5 egg yolks, 1½ cups of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Flavor with vanilla extract.

Fill and serve

  1. Once the cream puffs are cool, cut them open and fill with the custard.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Its starch and protein set the dough walls so the puffs hold their shape.
Eggs
Build the hollow puff's structure as they set, and thicken the custard with yolks.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dough richness and tenderness.
Baking soda
Leavens the dough so the puffs rise in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and creaminess.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats with the milk.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the hot milk to the egg mixture. Adding hot milk slowly while stirring constantly warms the egg yolks gently, so they do not scramble. The cornstarch and yolks then thicken the custard smoothly as it heats.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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