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Dessert

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are choux pastry shells filled with a sweet custard made from milk, egg yolk, sugar, corn starch, salt, vanilla, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, salt, and water over medium heat.

  2. When the water boils, gradually sift in the flour, stirring vigorously until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl to cool.

  4. Once cool, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until smooth.

Bake

  1. Lightly butter a baking pan and drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto it.

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

Fill and serve

  1. After baking, let cool, then split open and fill with cream made from milk, egg yolk, sugar, corn starch, salt, vanilla, and butter.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Flour
Its starch and proteins set the dough's structure as it bakes.
Eggs
Eggs add moisture and structure, and help the dough puff as it bakes.
Water
Water turns to steam in the oven, lifting the dough into a hollow shell.
Butter
Butter adds richness and tenderness to the dough and the filling.
Milk
Milk forms the base of the cream filling, adding richness and body.
Corn starch
Corn starch thickens the cream filling as it heats.

The step that matters

Add the eggs one at a time. The dough must be cool enough that the eggs do not scramble, and beaten until smooth so it holds its shape and puffs in the oven.

“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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