The fanciest “easy” dessert you’ll ever make! These easy cream puffs feature light pastry shells filled with a rich vanilla pudding cream filling that all come together in under an hour.
It’s Labor Day weekend! It’s also eight days since my last baking session, eight weeks since I lounged on an Alaskan cruise with my parents, and eight months since my last blog post…Yikes!
Needless to say, things have been busy around here and while not everything has necessarily been easy, I’m happy to report that it’s been filled with some pretty memorable milestones. In the past eight months, I’ve thrown a housewarming party, transitioned into a brand new role at work, completed my third IRONMAN 70.3, traveled the States with both my parents and Wallflour Boy, co-led another (crazy) triathlon season for our team, and hosted a whole lot of family & friends at our new home.
And sometimes when life is filled with a lot of crazy goodness, all you want is something easy. Really easy.
Thankfully, these Easy Cream Puffs are the perfect recipe to celebrate great accomplishments and preserve your sanity! While I am the first to admit that I’d rather run a ten-mile trail than tackle a fancy pastry recipe, these cream puffs are perfect for the beginner baker and classy to boot. They feature:
- Pastry Shells: Easy-to-make pastry shells are cooked on a stovetop and dropped by the spoonful onto baking sheets for a quick, no-fuss cream puff experience.
- Easy Filling: Instant vanilla pudding mixed with heavy cream and milk are all you’ll need to pull together this out-of-the-box (but highly impressive) rich filling.
- Assembly: Pipe and fill if you’re feeling extra fancy, but slice and spoon your cream filling if you’re feeling like having an “easy mode” kind of day!
May your week ahead be filled with great wins and easy baking!
Easy Cream Puffs
The fanciest "easy" dessert you'll ever make! These easy cream puffs feature light pastry shells filled with a rich vanilla pudding cream filling that all come together in under an hour. Original recipe from Allrecipes.
Ingredients
For the cream puff filling:
- 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
For the cream puffs:
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
Instructions
For the cream puff filling:
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine pudding mix, cream, and milk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until set, or at least an hour.
For the cream puffs:
- Preheat oven to 426 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large pot over medium heat, bring butter and water to a rolling boil.
- Stir in flour and salt until mixture forms a ball.
- Remove pot from heat and allow dough to cool slightly. Then add eggs one at a time, beating each one thoroughly into the flour mixture before adding the next. Your dough should be fairly elastic and tacky at this point.
- Drop dough by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches of space between each.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. When shells look lightly golden on the outside, quickly but carefully flip each one over, use a knife tip to poke an "x" in the bottom of each shell, and return shells to oven. (This helps ensure that the inside of the shell dries and isn't soggy.) Bake for an additional 1-2 minutes before removing from oven and cooling completely.
- To fill your cooled cream puff shells, either slice them in half and spoon in filling mixture OR insert a piping bag with star tip into the "x" at the bottom of each cream puff to fill. Enjoy fresh or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
