Creamy Chocolate Coated Cream Puffs

These cream puffs are filled full with creamy vanilla pastry cream and dunked in a great chocolate ganache coating!

this Recipe

Cream puffs are made with Choux pastry, which is easy to make. They are hollow crunchy vessels to fill with whatever filling you like. You can use whipped cream or fill the center with some strawberries, then some whipped cream. Then, there are the lemon lovers who can plop a scoop of lemon curd right into the center for a tart, but sweet lemon taste. Our favorite is the pastry cream; just love the creamy vanilla-rich pastry filling for these delicious little beauties!

This is a versatile piece of pastry, meaning it can be sweet or savory. They can also be big or they can be small or bite-size. They are a vessel to hold whatever you think will taste good in one. They can be dessert or hors d'oeuvres for your next dinner party. Kids love them and so do the grown ups! You can make them any way that you like, they are always a favorite.

The creamy chocolate-coated cream puffs we made are decadent. They are filled to the brim with sweet creamy vanilla pastry filling. Then, we dip the cream puff as far as we can into the shiny chocolate ganache coating so every bite gets some chocolate on it.

Choux Pastry Ingredients:

• Water
• Butter
• Salt
• Sugar
• Flour
• Eggs

Pastry Cream Ingredients: our recipe

• Whole milk
• Heavy cream
• Vanilla
• Egg yolks
• Sugar
• Cornstarch
• Butter

Chocolate Ganache: our recipe

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Heavy cream
• Corn syrup

Making these creamy chocolate coated cream puffs:

The first step in making these cream puffs is to prepare the pastry cream, so that you can get it into the refrigerator to cool. If you prefer whipped cream, that is a good choice too, so you can skip the pastry cream. We used our pastry cream recipe, but feel free to use whatever center that you want.

Choux Pastry:

These are very fast to make; it just take a little time to cook. You just take a saucepan and add the water, butter, salt, and sugar, then bring it to a boil. Now ,dump the flour into the water and stir until it all comes together; keep it cooking on the stove while you do this.

Now, put the mix into a stand mixer and beat it for a minute or two, just to cool it off some. Now, add the eggs and beat one at a time until all incorporated.

Drop the batter onto a baking sheet or use a piping bag; either works. You can now make them the size that you want. We made ours big.

Pipe them onto a baking sheet with a large open piping tube.

The cream puffs will have peaks when you pipe them onto the baking sheet. Put a little water onto your finger and just tap the down so they are not pointed.

Bake them in them in the oven at 400ºF for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

The Cream Center:

You can use whatever center that you want, Some people prefer cream puffs with sweetened whipped cream. . We like to use pastry cream for the center of these cream puffs. When we use pastry cream we whip up ½ cup heavy cream and fold it into the pastry cream before piping it into the cream puff.

Time to stuff the cream puffs!

After the pastry cream is cold, it is time to stuff the cream puff. Put a hole at the bottom of the cream puff or slice a small "x" onto the bottom. This makes it easier to get the piping tube into the puff. If you don't have a piping bag, you can slice the top of the cream puff off and scoop in the pastry cream or whipped cream if you like.

Squeeze the pastry cream into the cream puff until it is filled. You can tell because the cream starts to come out at the bottom. Just scrape the excess filing off of the bottom of the cream puff with a knife (you can reserve the pastry cream, just in case).

Making the Ganache:

Heat the cream in a saucepan until just starting to boil. In the meantime, put the chocolate chips into a bowl that will hold the hot cream. When the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate chips and add the corn syrup. Let the mixture sit for 1 to 2 minutes, then mix until incorporated. Let the chocolate mixture cool before you dip the cream puffs into it.

Dipping the Cream Puffs:

Hold the bottom of the cream puff and dip into the cool chocolate ganache. Then, set it onto a plate or wire wrack and let it set.

The finished product is nice, chocolaty and shiny. Put them in the refrigerator to get the chocolate harder.

Don't want pastry cream? Try fresh whipped cream!

An alternative to pastry cream is fresh whipped cream. Just whip some heavy cream and add a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar to the cream. Then, just either pipe it into the pastry choux or scoop it in with a spoon.

Here are the Cream puffs!. Either way, you will be rewarded with nice, delicious cream puffs that everyone with love!

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Vanilla Pastry Cream(Opens in a new browser tab)

Ganache Chocolate Mousse(Opens in a new browser tab)

Hot Chocolate(Opens in a new browser tab)