Tiramisu Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are a very simple and impressive dessert to make. The filling does not have to be complicated--you can whip heavy cream with sugar and vanilla extract or use your favorite pudding mix. (If you follow the basic choux pastry recipe you can even fill the cream puffs with a savory filling such as chicken or tuna salad.)

I decided to change up the recipe by trying to flavor the choux pastry.  I first tried using the International Delight cappuccino mix. I used 4 teaspoons to 1 cup of water as per the instructions. I found that you couldn't really taste it so I used strong coffee instead and the result was much better. (If you want the basic choux pastry replace the water with coffee.)

This recipe is adapted from The Creative Cooking Course edited by Charlottle Turgeon.

1 cup of  strong coffee
1/2 cup (1 stick of butter)
1 cup of sifted flour
4 tablespoons sugar
4 eggs

Preheat your oven to 450F. Heat the coffee and the butter in a medium sized pot until it boils and the butter melts. Add the flour all at once and stir quickly. A wooden spoon is best. Turn off the heat.

After mixing in the flour put the dough into a large bowl.  Beat the dough briefly with a hand mixer to cool it off slightly. (If the dough is too hot your egg could scramble when you add it in.) Add each egg, mixing well before adding the next. When all the eggs are added, you should have a smooth dough.

Using a pastry bag (or a cut ziplock bag) pipe each cream puff onto a baking sheet.** Hold the bag perpendicular to the baking sheet and apply even pressure to make a mound. Stop pressure and pull the bag upwards. You may end up with a peak. You can push the peak down with a wet finger so the cream puff will have a rounded top. If you leave the peak it will burn before the rest of the cream puff is cooked. (Instead of piping the cream puffs you can spoon the dough onto the baking sheet.)

You can vary the size but keep in mind the larger the cream puff, the longer it will take to bake. Bake the cream puffs for 8 minutes then turn the heat down to 350F and bake 20 to 40 minutes until the cream puffs are lightly browned. To check to see if they are done you can cut one open. If the inside is still wet, bake them longer. If the cream puffs are removed from the oven too soon or the oven door is opened too frequently, the cream puffs will fall like a souffle. If you are lucky and move quickly, they may rise back up but will have creases on the indicating that they fell.

When the cream puffs are done, move them immediately from the baking sheet to a cooling rack. Using a small knife, cut a slit into each cream puff. After the cream puffs have cooled, fill them using a #12 Wilton tip or a cut pastry bag. Stick the tip  into cream puff and squeeze the bag until filling starts to come out of the opening.

Alternatively you can cut each cream puff in half and spoon the filling into them.

I filled the cream puffs with tiramisu filling from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/classic-tiramisu/. Instead of coffee liqueur I used Bailey's Irish Cream (a few tablespoons). For a non-alcoholic version use vanilla extract (a teaspoon or more to taste). I also replaced the marscapone cream with cream cheese.

***Note: I made cream puffs again and lined the baking sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper facilitated the removal of the cream puffs from the baking sheet--especially if they were stuck from being a little overdone ( I tried to remove them with a spatula but then the cream puffs lost their bottoms. I used a nonstick baking sheet and did not grease it). The problem I came across was that my parchment paper was not approved for temperatures higher than 375F--which meant the edges browned a bit in the oven.

Tiramisu cream puffs with melted red Candy Melts drizzled on top.