A cream puff is made from a type of pastry called pate a choux. This same dough can be used to make eclairs. These puffs can be filled with yummy pudding, but can also be filled with chicken salad for a great luncheon sandwich!1/2 cup (1 cube) real butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1 cup flour
4-5 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, sugar, salt and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat and then quickly stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Continue to cook and stir over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until a film forms on the bottom of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and dump the mixture into a separate bowl. Allow to cool for about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each egg addition until it is fully-incorporated. You can see that you've added enough eggs when the mixture is sticky, but not slick. It should be able to be lifted to a stiff peak when the spoon is brought up. Transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag with a big, round tip.
Put a tiny dab of mixture in the corners of your silver baking pan. Put down some parchment, using the dabs of mixture as a "glue" to hold down the parchment. Swirl small circles of pate a choux about 2-inches apart on parchment. You don't want peaks or points on top of your cream puffs, so use a wet finger to gently flatten tops. Whisk an additional egg and brush over the tops of the circles before baking...this will give that golden shine when baked. Bake for about 30 minutes without opening oven door! Cool completely and poke a hole in the side for additional drying, as well as filling them. They can be frozen at this point, if using later. Shortly before serving, fill with desired filling. Tops of dessert puffs can be drizzled with chocolate or dipped in chocolate ganache.
