Easier than you imagine, these chocolate covered strawberry cream puffs are dreamy! A few simple steps will get you on your way to fancy French patisserie.

cream puffs on a cake stand with lightly striped napkin

Last time I was pregnant I did an entire baking series on how big Emmett was week by week. And this time around I am so excited to do it again. I am going to dream up new and fun combos this time as well. It would be hard to pick a favorite recipe from that series, but the tiramisu swiss roll, and the double chocolate creme brulee were definitely hard to beat.

But this week, at Week 11, the tiny little spud is the side of a cream puff! And I had to celebrate by making chocolate covered strawberry cream puffs.

Cream puffs seem insanely difficult, but they really aren’t. The ingredients are very simple, but it does come down to a little bit of patience. When I first made eclairs, I leaned heavily on my blog friend Barbara’s know how, from her Dream Puffs digital cookbook to get me through. Her recipe for eclairs set me up for success when I made triple chocolate eclairs.

Her post on how to make cream puffs has step by step photos, and video, to help guide you.

I wanted to make mine strawberry on the inside, with chocolate ganache on top. Instead of using strawberry jam, and the added sugar that comes along with it, I used freeze dried strawberries that I ground up in my food processor. So simple. But so elegant sounding. The key to keeping these cream puffs stable, is also using a stabilized whipped cream. The first time I used stabilized whipped cream was for my Black Forest Cake. It works like a charm, and I will also be doing an entire how-to on it next week.

So if you are hoping to add to your baking repitoire, and impress the daylights out of some people, these are a great start.

As I mentioned, I’m at week 11, just edging onto the end of my first trimester. And this kid is giving me a run for my money. We have finally reached the end of me being able to wear my usual pants, so maternity pants it is for me from here on out. And unlike last time, the nausea has not gone away. It’s still hanging on, with the list of things I’m cringy about growing. Now we are adding salmon to the list of things that I just can’t even look at. Ugh. That was like a weekly staple in our house. But spicy foods and me are getting along just fine! This kid has weird taste, but thankfully likes strawberries and strawberry cream puffs!

Next week is macarons, and that one I can’t wait to dive back into!

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Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cream Puffs

  • Author: Country Cleaver
  • Prep Time: 20 Minutes
  • Cook Time: 35 Minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 16–20 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: French
Print Recipe

Description

Easier than you imagine, these chocolate covered strawberry cream puffs are dreamy! A few simple steps will get you on your way to fancy French patisserie.

Ingredients

Scale

Cream Puffs

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  •  6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
  •  1 teaspoon sugar
  •  1/4 teaspoon salt
  •  3 large eggs, room temperature
  •  Egg Wash (optional)
  •  1 egg
  •  1 teaspoon water

Strawberry Whipped Cream Filling

  • 1/4 cup Sugar
  • 3–4 Tbsp Freeze Dried Strawberry Powder
  • 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
  • 3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream, chilled
  • 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Chocolate Ganache Topping

  • 1 cup Chocolate Chips
  • 3 Tbsp Butter, cubed
  • 3–4 Tbsp Heavy Cream

Instructions

CREAM PUFFS

  1. Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Measure flour and set aside.
  2. Bring butter, sugar, salt, and 3/4 cup water to a boil in a 3-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
  3. Immediately remove from heat, and quickly stir in flour mixture all at once.
  4. Return to heat and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes, or until dough is smooth and forms a ball. This is where you get an arm workout.
  5. Transfer dough to the bowl of an electric mixer, and let cool 5 minutes.
  6. Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating until mixture is smooth and glossy.
  7. Spoon dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip, or a #12 size round tip if you use Wilton.
  8. Pipe dough onto prepared pans into 1 1/2-inch rounds (1 1/2 inches high). Smooth out peaks and round tops with a wet finger.
  9. Whisk together remaining 1 egg and 1 tsp. water. Brush tops of dough with egg mixture.
  10. Bake at 425° for 5 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 375°, and bake 30 minutes or until puffy and golden brown. Turn oven off; let shells stand in closed oven 10 minutes.
  11. Remove from baking sheets to wire racks, and cool completely.
  12. Cut in half with a bread knife, or other serrated knife to separate for filling.

STRAWBERRY WHIPPED CREAM FILLING

  1. Run about 1 cup of freeze dried strawberries through a food processor, and sift out the desired amount of powder.
  2. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in a saucepan and whisk in 1/2 cup of the heavy cream.
  3. Bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking constantly until the mixture begins to thicken, about 3-5 minutes. Set it aside to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
  4. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the remaining 2 1/2 cups of the heavy cream until it is begins to get very frothy.
  5. Add in the cooled sugar/cream mixture. And beat the whipped cream until soft peaks form, adding in the strawberry powder during the last 15-20 seconds.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE TOPPING

  1. In a double boiler – or a saucepan with a heat safe bowl – fill the saucepan with 1″ of water and bring to a simmer.
  2. Place the bowl over the saucepan with simmering water and add in chocolate chips and cubed butter to the heat safe bowl. With a rubber spatula, fold and gently stir the chocolate and butter together until the chocolate begins to melt.
  3. Just prior to the last few chocolate chips melt, remove the bowl containing the chocolate and butter from the heat and continue to stir until the chocolate chips have melted entirely.
  4. Stir in the heavy cream slowly until just incorporated. Drizzle and serve immediately.

TO ASSEMBLE

  1. With cooled and halved cream puffs, use a piping bag and fill it with the strawberry whipped cream. Pipe a good amount into every bottom half of the cream puffs. Top with other half of the cream puff.
  2. With a spoon, drizzle the chocolate ganache on top and allow to set. You can also dust with additional strawberry powder if desired.

Notes

Cream puffs recipe by Barbara Scheiving of BarbaraBakes.com

 

 

Keywords: Pastry, Baking, Dessert, French, French Cuisine, Cream Puff

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