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Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are pastry shells filled with custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 choux paste

  1. Stir the butter into the boiling water in a saucepan over heat.

  2. Add the flour and mix until blended and the paste pulls away from the sides.

  3. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring in one direction.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a few drops of boiling water and add to the paste. Mix the batter well.

Bake the puffs

  1. Butter a baking sheet and drop tablespoonfuls of batter onto it, spacing them apart.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes.

  3. Make a small opening in the side of each puff.

Make the custard filling

  1. Rub the corn-starch in a little cold water and add it to the boiling milk.

  2. Stir and boil the mixture for 3 minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Beat the mixture into a bowl with the beaten eggs, stir, and sweeten to taste.

  4. Return the custard to heat over boiling water, stirring for a few minutes without boiling.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the paste and set the custard filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the paste stay tender.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the puffs and gives them their shape.
Corn-starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard.
Baking soda
Helps the puffs rise and lighten as they bake.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs into the paste one at a time. Each egg must be fully absorbed before the next is added, or the paste becomes greasy or loose and the puffs may not rise well and hold their shape.

“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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