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Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are small puffed pastries filled with a sweet milk-based filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the choux dough

  1. In a saucepan, combine ½ cup butter with 1 cup boiling water.

  2. Add 1 cup flour while boiling, stirring until thick.

  3. Transfer to a cake dish to cool.

  4. Once cooled, beat in 3 eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon baking ammonia and mix well.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter your hands and roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Place the balls on a baking pan and brush with a mixture of 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon water.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until puffed.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine ½ cup flour and ½ cup sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Pour in 1 pint scalded milk and cook over heat until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in 2 whole eggs, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ cup sugar.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Melts into the boiling water to add fat and richness to the dough.
All-purpose flour
Its starch gelatinizes with the hot liquid to form a thick paste that holds the puffs' shape.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, and their proteins set as the puffs bake.
Baking ammonia
Releases gas as it breaks down, helping the dough puff and rise in the oven.
Milk
Provides liquid and milk solids that thicken with the flour and add richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Beat in the eggs gradually. The dough must be cool enough that the eggs don't scramble, and each egg must be fully absorbed so the batter stays smooth and elastic enough to puff.

“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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