Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are pastry shells filled with a sweet milk custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux dough

  1. In a saucepan, combine water and butter over medium heat until boiling.

  2. Quickly add the flour and beat until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Beat in one egg at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

  5. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking pan.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes.

  2. For the filling, cook milk, sugar, corn starch, vanilla, and egg yolks over hot water until thickened.

Fill and serve

  1. Let the filling cool, then split the cream puffs and fill them.

  2. Optionally, add chocolate, pecans, or hickory nuts to the filling for variation.

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the dough puff and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the dough stay tender.
Pastry flour
Provides the starch that sets the dough's structure around the steam.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard filling and adds creaminess.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard filling and add richness.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard filling so it holds its shape when cooled.

The step that matters

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Each egg must be fully incorporated before the next is added, or the dough can separate. A smooth, glossy dough traps steam during baking, which is what makes the puffs rise and form hollow shells.

“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