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Dessert

Cream Puffs

A light pastry shell filled with sweetened milk custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 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 dough

  1. Pour boiling water over butter in a saucepan.

  2. While boiling, stir in the flour until combined.

  3. Add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth.

  4. Drop spoonfuls onto greased pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, heat sweet milk.

  2. In a bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, cornstarch, and cold milk until smooth.

  3. Stir the mixture into the hot milk in the double boiler, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil.

Fill and serve

  1. Open the baked puffs and fill them with the cream filling.

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the starch structure that holds the puffs' hollow shape when baked.
Eggs
Set the dough's structure and help the puffs rise and stay airy.
Butter
Adds fat to the dough, giving a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sweet milk
Forms the base of the filling, giving it body and creamy flavor.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats and boils, giving it a smooth set.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances its flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the hot milk. Cornstarch can clump or scorch if added unevenly, so stirring constantly keeps the filling smooth. It must reach a boil for the starch to fully thicken.

“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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