Today we are celebrating another virtual baby shower! Courtney, from Cook Like a Champion, is one of my blogging friends and I'm super excited to help celebrate the expecting arrival of her first child. If you haven't "attended" a virtual shower before, it is basically a group of bloggers who post recipes they would've brought to a real-life shower. Since we all live in different parts of the country, this is the closest we can get to an actual party. 🙂
I chose to make these cream puffs for the shower, filled with strawberries and mascarpone. Cream puffs with a plain pastry cream filling seem to be the quintessential shower food, but I wanted them to be even more special for Courtney, which is why I chose this filling.
Always wanting to try my hand at cream puffs, the intimidation of the pate a choux (the dough) was enough to stop me. If only I would have read a few recipes a while ago, my fear would have quickly subsided. It's only an easy method of boiling water and butter, then stirring in some flour and eggs one at a time! The only tricky part is the elbow grease involved when stirring in the eggs, but even that can be bypassed by using a food processor to do the work. (Let's just make it clear that I did not go the "wimpy" route and definitely used up all of my elbow grease for the week. And, let's make another thing clear, that I honestly don't really think using the food processor is indeed "wimpy". Can't have any of you mad at me now.) 😉
You can spoon the dough into individual mounds, or pipe them from a zipper bag or pastry bag. I prefer the piping method, but make sure you have the right sized hole. My experience was a little frustrated while I had to pipe the dough three times before I got it right. The first time the hole I cut in the bag was too small, so the bag burst. I scraped it all back up, got a new bag and cut a MUCH bigger hole that ended up being too big. So, I scraped the dough up again and grabbed one more bag, thinking to myself that the spooning method was going to be my next move if the third time wasn't a charm. Finally, I found my sweet spot and was able to pipe beautiful mounds just to my liking.
Let's talk about the filling...ooohhh, the filling! We had some leftover in the fridge tonight after dinner, along with extra strawberries. Right now, I'm tempted to go back into my fridge for what's left and run my finger right through it for another lick. It's THAT good! Sweet, yet subtle enough to not overpower the puffs, allowing room for the strawberries to add in the right amount of additional sweetness.
Josie (our wonderful host) and Courtney both have roundups of the complete bridal shower spread, so make sure you head over there to check out other amazing dishes!
Courtney, I can tell this group of wonderful bloggers is especially excited for you in this time of anticipation for Baby C's arrival. You are going to love being a mommy and you'll be GREAT at it! Praying for an easy labor and delivery, and a healthy sweet baby! Congratulations!
Recipe Card
Cream Puffs filled with Strawberry and Mascarpone
Ingredients
For the puffs:
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
For the filling:
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup powdered sugar , plus more for dusting
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Sliced strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat; set aside.
- Using a large sauce pan, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the butter. Once the butter is melted, stir in the sugar and salt. Reduce the heat to medium and mix in all of the flour at once, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a dough. Remove the pan from the heat and let sit for 2 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until each egg is fully incorporated and the dough is shiny and smooth. The dough will separate after each addition, but continue to beat until it comes back together. This will take some powerful elbow grease. Alternatively, use a food processor to mix the dough and all of the eggs at once, if desired. Either way, the dough should be shiny, smooth and thick when mixed well.
- Spoon or pipe 8 to 9 mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, about 1 to 2 inches apart. Smooth the top of each mound with your finger. Bake in the preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the mounds are puffed and golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before filling.
- To make the filling, whip together the mascarpone, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
- To assemble, slice the puffs in half and spread filling on the top of the bottom half. Layer with a few sliced strawberries. Spread another layer of filling on the bottom of the top half, then place over top of the strawberries. Repeat with remaining puffs and cream. Dust the plated puffs with powdered sugar and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving.
- Source: Adapted from Sunshine and Smile via A Pinch of Love
Nutrition
Ellie R. says
these were a BIG hit at my house and now they want me to make them for my grandfathers retirement service. i was wondering if it would work if i doubled the batch?????
Nikki says
That's so great, Ellie! Yes, you should be able to double the batch. 🙂
Ellie R. says
i just pulled out the raw stuff and then filled them and they tasted great! thanks for the great recipe! could you maybe make tiramisu some time???? 🙂
Nikki says
lol! I would love to find a perfect Tiramisu recipe. I rarely order it at restaurants any more because it's always a hit or miss with me. So, if I can find a recipe to make at home so it's just the way I like it every time, then I am golden! 😉
Ellie r. says
Thanks nikki. I just made them and they were still raw in the middle. Is that normal?
Nikki says
Hi Ellie, No that is not normal. Did you bake at the higher temperature of 400 degrees for 15 minutes first? Then 350 degrees for 30 more minutes? Otherwise, your oven temperature might be off... You might want to invest in an oven thermometer since oven temps unfortunately vary.
Ellie R. says
can you put these on a greased sheet?
Nikki says
You can probably just use a lightly greased sheet, but I prefer parchment lined. Greasing it instead might make the bottoms crispy or burnt.
Ellie R. says
do they taste eggy with all those eggs??
Nikki says
Hi Ellie, I don't think they taste eggy.
Becky says
Fresh purple hull peas are probably my favorite southern food. They go with all things southern :).
Can't wait to make the Mississippi Mud cake. I have an old recipe, but the glaze is different and this sounds yum.
Trina says
These look absolutely divine!
Tara says
Great job with your first attempt at pate a choux - I can sympathize with you about the bag bursting as my first piping experience with it resulted in the same way. I love the idea of strawberries and mascarpone filling in the cream puffs - perfect for a baby shower!
Jessica @Sunny Side Up says
These cream puffs look almost too pretty to eat! I love the photo styling!!
Congratulations to Courtney!
Jackie Thompson says
These look absolutely delicious! Love the idea of adding in the strawberries!
Kelsey says
These look so delicious. I love your upscale version of strawberry shortcake. What a perfect addition to a shower or brunch table!
Ryan says
These look beautiful and the mascarpone filling sounds heavenly! I love cream puffs and always gravitate towards them if they're on a dessert table. These look delicious and perfect for a shower!
Kankana says
Thanks a lot for the mention and so glad you liked it. Such a fantastic treat for the baby shower 🙂
Courtney says
Thank you so much, Nikki! These are absolutely gorgeous, and the combination sounds divine. I will definitely be trying this recipe soon.
Ananda Rajashekar says
Hey Nikki, thanks for stopping and for trying the Kanana's (sunshine and smile) recipe, cream puff looks beautiful! Such a thought virtual party. Congratulation to your friend!
Annie says
These are lovely. Like a more sophisticated version of strawberry shortcake. Perfect contribution for a shower. Great work, Nikki!
Cookbook Queen says
These look beautiful...cream puffs are one of my favorite things. Congratulations Courtney!!
elly says
These look incredible, Nikki. The mascarpone filling has got to be awesome. When I made gougeres, I couldn't believe how much easier pate a choux was to make than I had originally thought. I definitely need to make it again in order to whip up some cream puffs. 🙂
Shawnda says
They look like they're difficult because the final product is always so pretty 🙂 Yours are perfect, Nikki!
Blog is the New Black says
Very sweet of you all. I'd def have a few of these!