Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are baked pastry shells filled with a milk-based custard and topped with a brown sugar butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux paste

  1. Combine 1 pint hot water and 1 cup butter in a pot, then melt the butter.

  2. Add 1 pint sifted flour and stir until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Add 5 eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Bake the puffs

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking pans.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

Make the custard and sauce

  1. Combine 1 quart milk, 2 tablespoons corn starch, sugar to taste, and 2 eggs.

  2. Cook until thickened, similar to blancmange.

  3. Cream a lump of butter the size of an egg with 1 cup light brown sugar.

  4. Beat in 1 egg and flavor with vanilla.

  5. Pour sauce over the puffs just before serving.

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. 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).

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

Butter
Melted into the water to create the fat base that gives the paste its richness and tenderness.
Flour
Forms the starch and gluten structure that holds the puffs together.
Eggs
Add structure and moisture, and provide the steam-driven rise when baked.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth custard-like sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds richness.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs to the paste. Eggs must be beaten in one at a time so each is fully absorbed. This gives the paste a smooth, glossy texture that can hold its shape and puff in the oven.

Swap the vanilla

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, corn, sugar, sauce. 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.

More cream puffs recipes

Boston 12Chocolate 3 See all 281 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCorn CakesCorn Cakes22 recipes