Latest recipe experiment - Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs (or Pâte a Choux) can be used for so many things. You can fill them with custard or pudding or whipped cream. You can top them with chocolate. You can use them as a main dish and fill them with crab salad or tuna or chicken pot pie... or you can butter them and just eat them. So versatile. So delicious. So easy... really!

Cream Puffs

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Put one cup water, 1/4-1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp - 1 tbsp sugar (depending on whether they will be for dessert or not and how sweet you want them), and 1 stick butter in a large sauce pan, and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, dump in one cup of flour, and stir and stir until everything gets smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pan into a ball.

Return to medium heat to dry the paste so it will have the maximum puffing ability - turn the ball around in the pan, pressing it against the sides and flipping it over, until butter starts oozing out and the paste no longer sticks to your fingers. Let the pan sit for about 5 minutes while the dough cools, then stir for another minute or so to cool it some more.

Add 1 cup eggs (thats 4, in case you've never measured them) one at a time, stirring each until it is completely mixed in. (note: you'll get more *puff* if you use egg whites instead of one of the eggs). Continue to stir until everything is all mixed together (you'll see it change from a lumpy mess to a smooth dough).

Drop by spoonfulls onto greased cookie sheet (I highly recommend parchment paper). Place in oven on lowest rack and turn heat up to 400. It's the heat from the bottom that allows them to *puff*, so this is important. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they are puffed and browned. Decrease the heat to 200 and bake another 15-20 minutes to dry them more.

Remove from the oven and stab each one with a sharp knife. This puncture lets the steam escape so the insides dry as well. Now let them cool on a rack for about 30 minutes. At this point they can either be eaten or frozen. Don't try to keep them for more than a day, because they go bad pretty quickly.