Cream puffs recipe

Serves:

Ingredients

• 1 batch of choux pastry
• 1 small carton cream
• 2 tbsp pure icing sugar

Toffee

• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups caster sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 220C. Prepare two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

Fill a piping bag with the choux pastry and then pipe walnut-sized balls of the pastry directly onto the baking tray. Brush with a little of the beaten egg before going into the oven.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 200C and slip a wooden spoon into the oven door so that it is ajar while it cooks for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in a protected area on a baking rack.

Meanwhile, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add the icing sugar and continue to whip until it is very stiff.

Cut open the pastry cases and spoon a generous teaspoon of the cream into the pastry then close.

To make the toffee, heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and has come to a boil.

Stop stirring and allow to continue boiling until the mixture begins to caramelise. Once it becomes a golden brown, take it off the heat and very carefully dip the top of the pastry case into the toffee.

Set aside and allow to cool.

Notes:

• These are incredibly delicious and worth the effort of this multi-step recipe!
• The choux pastry recipe will give you about 30 pastry cases so invite friends over for afternoon tea when you plan to make them because they don’t keep well.
• The unfilled choux buns will store in an airtight container for 24 hours but they will begin to go soft quite quickly so ensure that you keep them completely moisture-free at all times.
• If dipping these pastry into the toffee is a little too scary for you (as it was for me!), simply spoon the toffee over the top of each pastry – you will end up in a bit more of a mess but you’ll probably save yourself a few painful little burns to the hands!

This recipe was created by Ella Walsh for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

Serving Suggestions

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