Oma's Cream Puff Recipe & Cream Puff Cake

➤ by Oma Gerhild Fulson

This easy cream puff recipe, aka Windbeutel, is among some of the most impressive quick dessert recipes you'll find. They are great filled with whipped cream, pudding, fruit, almost anything!

If you want to make eclairs, pipe the dough into oblong shapes, about 3" long and 1" wide. They are shown below, glazed with chocolate and served with fresh fruit.

OR, make a Cream Puff Cake, also shown below!

Or, make these cream puff swans (instructions below)... easy enough for your grandkids to help you assemble ... and so much fun making memories!

Cream Puff Tips ...

• Once filled, the cream puffs should be served within a few hours. They will keep in the fridge, but the sooner they are eaten, the better. 

• As an alternative, add 1 package instant vanilla or chocolate pudding mix to 2 cups whipping cream and whip.
• Cocoa can be used or even instant coffee powder (about 1 tsp) shown below, right.
  

• For fruit lovers, add some fresh fruit, such as strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, almost anything!
• Dust the tops of the cream puffs with icing sugar by placing about 1 teaspoon icing sugar into a small sieve. Tap the sieve lightly to "snow" the sugar lightly on top of the puffs.
  

Chocolate Glaze

A chocolate glaze on top is delicious as well. For this, use about 3 tablespoons of cream, 2 oz. of semisweet or unsweetened chocolate, and 1 cup powdered sugar.

In a small pot, melt the chocolate slowly in the cream. Whisk in the powder sugar until smooth. Dip the tops of the filled cream puffs in the glaze. Let set on a wire rack until the glaze has set. That's what I did for these eclairs shown above left.

Serve with extra whipped cream if desired, and/or fresh fruit.

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Cream Puff Swans

To make the swan puffs, remove ¼ of the dough and use it to pipe the swans heads/necks. Do this by piping with a small tip the number "2". Make as many of these as you have puffs.

Bake the head/neck for about 10 minutes. Then bake the puffs.

When cooled, cut the top off. Cut that into 2 pieces to form the wings. Fill the puffs with whipped cream, insert the head/neck and place add the wings. Voila! Swan Cream Puffs!

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Your Kids will LOVE to help!

My 11-year old granddaughter, Lydia, making cream puffs for her own birthday celebration.

Even though the results look amazing, the process of making the dough is so easy. And it's actually fun to cut the puffs apart, pull out the soft insides (tastes like pancakes), and then fill them.

Not many 11-year olds can tell their friends that they know how to make cream puffs or Pâte à Choux! 

Two years later ... she makes these cream puff swans all by herself!

13-year old Lydia made these for Mother's Day for us all to enjoy! Had so much fun watching her bake in my kitchen!

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Alana's Cream Puff Cake

Here's the cake my granddaughter, Alana, wanted for her 16th Birthday celebration. A huge cream puff!

I followed the recipe as above for the dough. I then piped it several times in an 8-inch circle onto parchment paper. It baked for just a few minutes longer than the cream puffs.

I filled it with whipped cream that I added Whip-it to. I needed 3 cups of whipping cream (with 3 packages of Whip-it) to fill this properly.

The chocolate glaze is made by pouring 1 cup of hot whipping cream into a bowl with 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I let that stand about 5 minutes and then stirred it well. Let it cool slightly before pouring it over the cake.

Keep chilled until ready to serve. LECKER!

Oma says:

Puff pastry recipes are such easy desserts to make, really! Another name for them is Pâte à Choux.

It may sound like a strange method for making dough, but once you've tried it, you will fall in love with the ease at making such impressive desserts.

Ready to bake these cream puffs?

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