Cranberry Cream Puffs

These delicious treats will sure to be a hit at any holiday table. Not only are these light and not too sweet, but the cranberry compote adds another dimension in flavor to the already loved french classic dessert. Do not be intimidated by the amount of time spent making the dessert, it is not difficult, just make sure you allot enough time so you don’t feel rushed and it will turn out great! Bon appetit mes amis!!

Pate a Choux recipe is taken from Cindy Mushet’s book, the Art and Soul of Baking. This is one of the best dessert and pastry books out there, and I highly recommend this book if you like to bake as I do.

Pate A Choux (Cream Puffs)

1/2 stick of unsalted butter (2oz)

1/2 cup of water (4oz)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, 2.5 ounces

2 eggs

Heat a saucepan to medium heat and add the salt, water and butter. When the butter is melted, turn heat to high and boil the mixture, then take off the heat and add all the flour. Mix with a spoon until everything is well incorporated off the heat. Then quickly put the saucepan back over the heat, and cook the dough for a minute or so, just enough to sweat some water out of the pate (dough).

Get out your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the dough for about 1 minute. Mix the eggs together in a separate bowl, make sure you whisk the eggs well. Then add the eggs, just a little at a time while the mixer is on a low/medium speed. The dough should be light, airy and stick to the sides of the bowl. You can do a “string test” in which the author says that when you put a little of the dough between your thumb and pointer finger there is a 1-2 inch string. Please see the picture below. If the dough doesn’t pass the string test, then add a heated egg, one at a time until the dough passes the test.

Bake your cream puffs

Turn your oven onto 400F

Take a parchment paper and a small circle or cookie cutter. Draw out evenly spaced circles onto your parchment. Flip parchment over so pencil or pen is on the bottom side. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip with your pate a choux dough. Pipe the dough onto your parchment. Wet your finger and smooth any dough tips that may occur from the piping bag. I put craquelin onto my pate a choux, it is optional, but if you want to top it with craquelin, then follow this recipe.

Cover the dough with a little bit of egg wash, and put into the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 350 and cook for another 20 minutes. If needed, rotate the baking sheet if browning is uneven. Then reduce the oven temperature one last time to 300 and cook for another 15-20 minutes to dry out the pate a choux. The interior should be dry when fully baked and crispy on the outside. Serve immediately with filling, or keep in an airtight container at room temperature for another day. Crisp cream puffs in the oven for a couple of minutes before filling and serving.

Cranberry Sauce for Cream Puffs

1 cup of fresh cranberries

1/3 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/8 tsp of salt

Put cranberries, orange juice, salt and sugar into food processor. Blend until well pureed. Put mixture in heavy bottomed saucepan. Cook mixture on low/medium heat until thick and sauce has reduced, about 30-45 minutes. Take off of heat, taste sauce for sweetness (should be sweet but still have tartness from cranberries) and put into container, refrigerate.

Candied Cranberries

You will need a candy thermometer for these cranberries. If you do not have one then just coat some reserved cranberries in sugar. Be careful, hot sugar gets up to 360 degrees. Make sure you do not have any small kids around and you do not leave mixture cooking alone. Wear protected gloves and handle with caution so you don’t burn yourself.

12-16 reserved cranberries

1/2 cup of sugar

1 1/4 cup of water

Heat water and sugar on medium heat. Keep checking temperature until it reaches 305-310 F. When it reaches the hard crack stage, dip each cranberry, one at a time into a mixture. You can use a toothpick or cooking tweezers. Place each cranberry onto wax paper or a silicone mat to harden. Do not the touch the candy with your hands until it has cooled, you will burn your fingers.

Homemade Whipped Cream

1 cup of heavy whipped cream

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

In your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, put the cream into your bowl. Put the speed on medium high, and when cream starts to thicken add the sugar a tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to high and add the vanilla. Stop the mixer when the cream is thick and no liquid remains at the base of the bowl. You can either spoon the whipped cream onto the cream puffs, or you can put into a piping bag with your preferred tip and put into the fridge until when ready to use.

Assembly

Cut the cream puff in half, spoon a tablespoon or two of the cranberry sauce on the bottom. Pipe whipped cream on top. Put the top of the cream puff lightly on the whipped cream. Dust with some powdered sugar and add a small dollop of whipped cream on top. Place the candied cranberries on the lid. I used 2 cranberries on top. Serve immediately.