Perfect Cream Puffs

Place salt, water, sugar (if using), and butter in a saucepan, and heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally to melt the butter, salt, and sugar.

When the water is starting to boil (butter should be melted at this point), remove the pot from the heat, and immediately add the flour in one go and vigorously mix the flour in so that it absorbs all of the water. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to do this.

When the flour has absorbed the water and it's coming together to form a dough, return the pan to the stove (low / medium heat - depending on your stove).

Cook the dough for 1 – 3 minutes while constantly mixing the dough and moving it around in the pan. The dough will pull away from the sides of the pan and form a film on the bottom of the pan (if using a stainless steel pan). It should look like a lump of smooth, dry mashed potatoes. (The cook time will vary depending on your stove top.) If you do this for too long, the butter will split from the dough, so if the dough starts to look too greasy, stop cooking it.

Add the vanilla and mix it in.

Transfer the dough into a bowl and let it cool down at least a few minutes, until it's below 160°F / 71°C. Either flatten the dough against the walls of the mixer bowl, OR mix the dough with a paddle attachment on low speed to cool down the dough faster. I prefer to let the dough cool down to almost room temperature.

Preheat your oven to 375°F (I use the same oven temperature with my conventional or convection oven settings).

The eggs can be mixed in by hand (for small batches of dough), or with an electric hand mixer, OR with a paddle attachment in your stand mixer. The goal is to add 1 egg at a time and mix it in well before adding the next. You may not need to add all of the eggs. Because of this, the last 25% of the eggs are whisked in a bowl and then added a little at a time (to prevent adding too much egg to the dough).

You can whisk all the eggs together in a jug. Add about 1 egg at a time (¼ cup = 1 egg), and incorporate it fully before adding the next amount of eggs. Add up to 75% of the eggs this way. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl at least twice during this process.

With the last 25% of the eggs, add only small increments, mixing well in between. Check the consistency of the dough (i.e. a dough with a glossy sheen and pipeable consistency), and stop adding eggs when you have the correct consistency.

Prepare a baking tray with parchment paper. Stick the parchment paper onto the baking tray with a little bit of the choux dough to keep it in place.

Place the dough in a large piping bag that's attached with a large tip (½ inch round tip or ½ in French star tip).

Pipe mounds of the dough on the parchment paper, with about 2 inches of space between each. Pipe the dough at a 90° angle (to the baking tray), making sure to keep the piped dough as smooth as possible. Twist the piping bag and lift it up after piping a pastry mound to get a clean finish. Then flatten the tip of the pastry mound with a dampened finger. Aim for medium sized puffs where the piped mounds are about 1.5 - 2 inches in width, and about 1 - 1.5 inches in height.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes in the center of your preheated oven, or until the choux pastry shells puff up and are golden brown on top. Do not open the oven door, at least until you have reached the 25 minute mark. Importantly, the baking time depends on the size of your pastry shells. If you prefer a drier shell, bake for a couple of minutes longer.

During the last 5 minutes of baking (after the choux pastry has formed a golden brown crust), open the oven door and quickly prick each shell with a skewer or toothpick. Then close the oven door and let them bake for the remaining 5 minutes (or a little longer) and let them dry out in the oven while baking, and until the crust is slightly darker.

Remove from the oven, and prick the cases again to let the steam escape. Let the choux pastry cases cool slightly in a draft-free area.

Place the pastry cases on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the chantilly filling, while the choux pastry cases are cooling.

OR you can store cooled choux pastry shells in an air-tight container for up to one day. To store them for longer, freeze them in an air-tight container. The cases can be re-crisped in an oven preheated to 300°F for a few minutes.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, place the water and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water. Make sure all the gelatin is saturated with water, and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes to bloom.

In a large bowl, place the heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and salt. Stir to combine. Have it ready to be whisked with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer by the time the gelatin is ready.

After 10 minutes, microwave the gelatin in 10 second intervals to dissolve it. Do NOT let the gelatin mixture boil. Stir in the 1 tbsp of cold cream to temper the hot mixture to bring it down to room temperature.

Start whisking the heavy cream mixture on high speed, and add the gelatin into it. Do NOT add the gelatin directly onto the whisk. Instead, add it where the cream is moving quickly due to whisking action. Alternatively, as soon as you add the gelatin, move the mixer around in the cream to make sure the gelatin is mixed in well. The idea is to get the gelatin mixed into the cream as fast as possible, without it touching the whisk when added.

Lower the mixer speed to medium (or medium high), and whisk the heavy cream until you have stiff-ish peaks. See the whipped cream stages here for reference.

Place the whipped chantilly cream in a large pastry bag, attached with a star tip (to create swirls), or with a round tip / bismarck tip (to fill).

Cut the upper ⅓ of the choux puff with a sharp knife to create a “lid”.

Fill the bottom part of the pastry with the stabilized whipped cream / chantilly cream. Then pipe a swirl of chantilly cream to overfill the pastry (as shown in pictures in the post or recipe video). Place the “lid” back on top. Repeat with all the puffs and then dust them with confectioner’s sugar. Now they are ready to be served.

Make a hole in the bottom of each choux puff. You can either use a small knife to cut an “x” to create an opening, OR use a small French star pastry tip to cut a small hole.

Insert the piping tip into the hole and fill the choux puff with chantilly cream. Repeat with all the puffs. Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve.