Carmen Lee

Cream Puffs

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Once you hear the words, “Cream Puffs,” what do you think of? Custard or whipping cream that has been sandwiched by airy dough that has been cut in half, as you bite into it, the custard or the whipping cream would come gusting out of the corners of your mouth.

If we were to compare cream puffs from the past with the current cream puffs now, there will be a huge difference. What I’ll be talking about would be a brief history of the cream puff, characteristics and also making up of them. Let’s not forget the difference between cream puffs and éclairs. Lastly, two bakeries those are famous with their cream puffs in Vancouver.

Above: Cream Puffs with whipping cream. (p6)

H I S T O R Y O F C R E A M P U F F S

The history of cream puffs is truly a mystery. One of the strongest myths had stated that Catherine De Medici's cook had invented the cream puff. Catherine De Medici was the daughter of a famous Renaissance Italy family of Medicis and was also the queen of France. During that time, her cook invented the dessert at the royal court of France, therefore taking the credit. It has been said that her cook didn't invent the puff pastries or the cream puff, it is said that it was invented before.

During the 13th century, Southern Germany and France had been experimenting with the different kinds of puff pastries. One of them were similar to cream puffs. However, it was filled with cheese instead of whipping cream. To accomplish this, they would have baked the pastry dough, causing it to have a huge air pocket and then sliced open to put the cheese in, they also included herbs for additional flavoring.

While Catherine was the queen of France, pastry chefs in both countries, France and England tried making a dough mixture out of flour, water, fat and eggs. This was called a Choux Pastry. The pastry chefs were happy due to the fact that there were an airy hole in the middle. (1) It was called a Choux Pastry because of how it looked like a cabbage after it was baked off. The French term for cabbage is Choux. (2)

By the 19th Century, there has been a lot of different forms of puff pastries. Don't be fooled by the fact that both Cream puffs and profiteroles are the same thing. However, if you were to order a 'profiterole' from one restaurant, it would be different from the next. By mid 19th Century, France and England had the most artistic profiteroles. At the Victorian Diners, pastry chefs would make cream puffs shaped like a swan or pyramids of a tiny filled puffs that is usually served with dessert wine, tea or coffee. (1)

Left: Steps of making a simple swan cream puff (p1)

Right: Making of a swan cream puff (p2)

C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S

Even though the recipe for a cream puff is basically just fat, water, a bit of salt, a bit of sugar, flour and eggs, they can be one of the hardest things to make out. After being baked off, a couple of things to keep in mind for a good cream puff is that they should have a good volume, brown tender crust and also when you break it in half it should be hollow, with maybe a little bit of webbing. (6)

However, there can be a couple of things that you might not have noticed while making up your cream puff to result in a failed cream puff. Temperature is one of the key thing of making up your cream puff. Due to the fact that you are mixing together things that usually do not combine with each other, butter, eggs and flour, they have to be mixed well. Another way that you could have a failed cream puff is the baking temperature. Most recipes would have it at a higher temperature, to let it have an oven spring. After 10 minutes, you should lower the temperature to let it slowly dry out. (7) If taken out too soon, your cream puff could deflate. (6)

HOW TO MAKE CREAM PUFFS

1. Measure out ingredients, put liquids (milk and water) and fat together in a small pot and let it melt to a small simmer. (8)

2. Take it off of the heat, and add flour to the mixture. Mixing it vigorously until it becomes like a ball of dough. Also, peeling off of the sides, and bring it back to the heat for another couple minutes to cook off the flour texture. (8)

3. Cool mixture until by the touch and add eggs one at a time to combine it together. 4. Put it in a piping bag and pipe out the cream puffs. (8)

5. Bake it at 200°C for the first 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 180°C and continue to bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown color. (8)

Top from left to right, Eggs, Butter, Salt, Sugar, and Water

Bottom: Step one, melt the butter with the water, sugar and salt

Top: Add the flour to the butter until a doughy texture where it slides off once picked up.

Bottom: Mix in eggs one at a time until dough is sticky but holds itself.

Top Left: After piping. Top Right corner: Failed Cream puff, underneath, Right consistency.

Bottom: comparing both the right consistency and failed cream puff

D I F F E R E N C E B E T W E E N C R E A M P U F F S A N D E C L A I R S

Some people would get both cream puffs and eclairs wrong. It is really easy to differentiate both of them. Firstly, the shape of both of them are different. Cream puffs are usually round and usually sliced open in the middle to get rid of the webbing then filled with desired filling. Eclairs are usually elongated oval shaped, and usually not sliced in half but filled by piping into a small hole. Another is the history behind both of these small desserts. Cream puffs were from the late 16th century, while eclairs were the descendent of them but they weren't invented until the late 18th century. Lastly, the filling between both of them are also different. For a standard cream puff, the filling would always be whipping cream, and it would be topped off with a light dust of icing sugar, or no topping at all. For eclairs, it would either be whipping cream, a different custard, or a custard mixed with whipping cream, to be topped off with melted chocolate or ganache. It also had been said that Eclairs were made out of donut batter, but most pastry chefs wouldn't call them as eclairs but 'bars' instead. (3)

Top right: Cream puff, Top left: Both Cream Puff and Eclairs, Bottom: Eclairs (p3)

T W O O F T H E F A M O U S P L A C E S I N V A N C O U V E R

According to a couple of sites online, the two famous places in Vancouver are Beta 5 and Beard Papas. Personally, I haven't tried Beta 5 cream puffs but I've tried Beard Papas. Both companies have a variety of flavors in their shop, and both of them are quite unique. For Beta 5, they have banana, blueberry yuzu, coconut & passion fruit, dark chocolate and caramel, milk chocolate praline, milk chocolate s'more, pear & ginger, raspberry - earl grey, salted caramel, vanilla, Vietnamese coffee, and walnut & apricot. (4) For Beard Papa, they have original vanilla, green tea, earl grey, strawberry chocolate, coffee, and pumpkin. Also, on their site, they have three that are coming soon which are blueberry, banana, and mango yogurt. (5)

Top: A couple flavours from Beta 5 (p4)

Right: Beard Papa's Vanilla Bean Cream puff (p5)

R E F E R E N C E S

(1) http://gourmet.lovetoknow.com/History_of_Cream_Puffs

(2) http://gned140305food.blogspot.ca/2012/03/profiterole-cream-puff-history.html

(3) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-cream-puff-and-an-eclair.htm

(4) http://beta5.myshopify.com/collections/creampuffs

(5) http://beardpapascanada.com/flavors.html

(6) http://www.solonschools.org/accounts/dcontinenza/128201065147_creampuffs.doc

(7) http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/did-cream-puff-flat-39599.html

(8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCSKLOuthU8

(9) http://www.joyofbaking.com/CreamPuffs.html

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(p1) http://www.barbarabakes.com/2012/08/cream-puff-swans/

(p2) https://feedsfromveronica.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/choux-pastry/

(p3) http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/04/30/cream-puffs-and-eclairs-puff-stuff/

(p4) http://beta5.myshopify.com/collections/creampuffs

(p5) http://www.groupon.com/deals/beard-papas-cerritos

(p6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZySDgGAobdM