Choux à la Crème Recipe (French Cream Puffs)

Quick Summary: Choux à la crème (French cream puffs) are light choux pastry buns filled with vanilla pastry cream and dusted with icing sugar or dipped in caramel. Choux means cabbage in English, a nod to their puffed, crinkled shape. You can serve them for the morning coffee, afternoon tea, or any occasion.

What is choux à la crème?

Chou à la crème (plural choux à la crème) means a cream puff in French made with choux pastry and filled with French pastry cream (crème pâtissière) or whipped cream.

The word 'choux' translates to 'cabbage' in English. The pastry resembles cabbages puffed in the oven without using raising agents. They often come out with little imperfections, such as cute crinkles.

Choux à la crème topped with a golden-brown crunchy topping, made from sugar, flour, and butter, are called choux au craquelin.

Also, don't confuse choux à la crème with profiteroles made of the same choux pastry (pâte à choux) but filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce.

Why you'll love this recipe

• Choux a la creme is one of the most famous French desserts to try if you enjoy French cuisine.
• They are made of the same pate au choux dough as other choux pastry desserts: eclairs, profiteroles, chouquettes, choux au craquelin, Paris Brest, croquembouche and savory gougères.
• French choux cream puffs make the perfect bite-sized dessert or snack perfect for serving at outside summer gatherings and parties.
• They serve as the basis for a "Number Cake" and cream puff wreaths or a cream puff dessert to enhance birthday and other holiday tables.
• Finally, the French cream puffs recipe made of the basic ingredients is fully customizable. Make choux de cream with or without craquelin, and fill them with numerous creams, from sugar-free whipped cream to Diplomat cream and whipped chocolate ganache.

Ingredients

For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.

• Water, preferably mineral, is an essential liquid ingredient in making choux a la creme recipe. Replace it with milk or use half of it and half the water if desired. Make sure to use cold water or milk.

• Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor of the pastry.

• Butter: The recipe calls for unsalted butter, cold or softened, and cut into small cubes.

• Flour: the recipe calls for all-purpose flour.

• Eggs: Use whole large eggs at room temperature. To weigh the eggs, beat them, and use a kitchen scale, how much of the egg mixture you need.

One little egg is used for the egg wash. Use an egg separator to separate the egg whites from the egg yolks for the pastry cream.

• Milk: The recipe calls for whole milk to make the pastry cream. For a richer result, use half of the milk and half of the heavy cream.

• Sugar: Use granulated or caster sugar.

• Cornstarch is used as a thickener to make the pastry cream.

• Vanilla bean is used for its incredible flavor. Replace it with ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste if desired.

Recipe variations

While the choux a la creme recipe is straightforward, let's reveal some variations.

• Ingredient ratios: While most pastry chefs have their own water, butter, flour, and egg ratios, the ratio 2:1:1:2 of the mentioned ingredients works best. For even better results, you can add a bit more flour.

NOTE: Although the recipe below gives ingredient conversions in cups, precisely measuring ingredients with a kitchen scale provides the most accurate baking. That is why I highly recommend investing in a good inexpensive digital scale.

• Piping: Create exciting and unique shapes by using a piping bag fitted with a fluted piping tip.

• Topping: Top your choux buns with crispy craquelin, crunchy caramel, or decadent chocolate ganache or chocolate glaze. Or try these sugar-free cream puffs topped with roasted flaked almonds for an even more delightful way to indulge.

• Pate a choux filling: Let your imagination go wild by filling your choux a la creme with various creams, from light and airy whipped cream and creme Chantilly to rich creme Diplomate and mousseline cream.

How to make choux à la creme

The secret to choux à la crème's success is to respect the ingredients' ratio and the order of ingredients, and to bake at the correct oven temperature.

These choux à la creme puffs consist of two elements:

• Choux pastry or "pâte à houx," and
• Vanilla pastry cream or "crème pâtissière."

Step 1: To make choux pastry, preheat the oven to 410 degrees F (210°C). Take parchment paper and, using a pencil, draw circles of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. Then turn the paper over and place it on a baking tray or a cookie sheet.

Step 2: Using a flour sifter, sift the flour and place it aside. In a small, separate bowl, beat the eggs for an omelet with a mini whisk.

Step 3: Pour cold water into a heavy-bottomed saucepan, and add salt and cubed butter. Bring the saucepan over medium-high heat and wait until it boils (photo 1). Don't use utensils to mix. The key is to ensure that the butter melts before the liquid comes to a boil.

Step 4: Remove the saucepan from the heat and add sifted flour at once. Mix quickly with a wooden spoon, flattening the lumps on the go.

Step 5: Then bring the saucepan over low to medium heat and cook, stirring until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan (photo 2).

Expert tip: Remove the cooked dough (aka flour paste or panade in French) from the heat once it pulls away from the sides and the bottom of the pan; otherwise, the butter can split from the dough. 

Step 6: Transfer the pate au choux to a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and let it cool for 3-5 minutes. Pro tip: Respect the cooling time; otherwise, you risk cooking eggs at the next step.

Step 7: To cool the dough, flatten it with a rubber spatula to increase the surface area. Or run the stand mixer at low speed for 2-3 minutes.

Step 8: Add the lightly beaten eggs in a few additions, whisking the dough well after each addition with a hand whisk or an electric or stand mixer.

The choux pastry dough will go from lumpy and dry to smooth and glossy (photo 3). To test the right consistency, use a finger test or V-test.

Finger test: Pull your finger along the choux pastry dough to make a trough. The dough is ready if the sides of the trough stay upright and do not collapse. If they collapse, the dough is too runny (see the troubleshooting tips).

V-test: Put a rubber spatula in the dough upright, mix the dough a little, and lift the spatula. If the dough forms a V shape at the end of the spatula, the pate au choux is of the right consistency.

Step 9: Transfer the dough to a pastry bag with a round tip (Ateco plain tip 804). You can use an open star pastry tip if desired.

Step 10: Pipe choux puffs of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter (the walnut size) on a baking sheet lined with parchment (photo 4). Make sure to space them out.

Step 11: Flatten the tops of the choux mounds with a silicone brush, then apply the beaten egg. Or simply use your wet finger to fold down choux pastry peaks.

Step 12: Bake the choux puffs at 410°F (210°C) for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Don't open the oven door while baking!

Step 13: After that time, open the oven door, prick each shell at the bottom with a small, sharp knife, and bake for 4 to 5 minutes longer. Then, remove the shells from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack (photo 5).

Step 14: To make the pastry cream, heat milk with the scraped seeds of the vanilla bean and the split vanilla in a thick-bottomed saucepan. As soon as it starts to boil, remove it from the heat and let it infuse for 10 minutes, covered.

Expert tip: Consult the French pastry cream recipe for step-by-step, photographed explanations, helpful tips, and tricks. Decide whether to include gelatin in your pastry cream.

Step 15: Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until it whitens using an electric mixer. Add the flour and cornstarch, then pour in the hot milk mixture, stirring constantly with a hand whisk.

Step 16: Then pour everything back into the saucepan and cook for a few minutes without stopping, stirring until the cream thickens.

Step 17: Transfer it to a shallow dish and remove the vanilla pod. Add the drained gelatin (if used) to the hot cream and stir until dissolved. Then add the very cold cubed butter, and mix. Cover the cream with plastic wrap, keeping it in contact, and let it cool to room temperature.

Step 18: To fill choux puffs with pastry cream, use the pipe-in technique. Make a small hole in the bottom of each choux puff with the tip of a paring knife.

Step 19: Whip the pastry cream with a balloon whisk a few times. Transfer it to a pastry bag fitted with a small piping tip (Ateco plain tip 8). Insert the tip into a small hole in the back of each choux and pipe with constant pressure until filled (photo 6).

Step 20: The choux puff is filled when you feel resistance, and the cream starts to overflow the hole. Using your finger, wipe excess pastry cream. Continue the same until all the choux cream puffs are filled. Dust with icing sugar or make the caramel topping.

Step 21: To make a caramel topping (optional), boil sugar and water in a saucepan for about 3-5 minutes. Remove the caramel from the heat when it turns golden, then pour it into a heatproof bowl to stop cooking. 

Step 22: Dip the choux puffs upside down into the caramel, then turn them over onto a serving plate. Add a few crushed almonds or hazelnuts to the puffs before the caramel sets if desired. Let the caramel set for a few minutes. Serve.

Expert Tips

1. Measure ingredients with a kitchen scale rather than measuring cups for accurate and precise baking results.
2. Don't let the water boil for too long before adding the flour: if it evaporates, it will affect the balance of the ingredients.
3. You can pipe choux pastry mounds with two teaspoons to form rounds of dough on the prepared baking sheet. Or use a small or medium cookie scoop if desired.
4. Sprinkle choux pastry buns with confectioner's sugar instead of an egg wash for a crisper texture, if desired.
5. The size of the cream puffs should be adjusted to your preferences. To make larger cream puffs and fill them with whipped cream, follow the German cream puffs recipe, which uses the sandwich-style filling technique for assembling the dessert.

Choux pastry fillings

With French cream puffs, you can get creative and choose from a variety of sweet fillings. However, the must-have French favorite is those filled with classic pastry cream.

Other possible variations of the cream puff fillings or creme pour choux include:

• Sugar-free whipped Cream
• Chantilly cream
• Chocolate whipped cream
• Whipped chocolate ganache
• Alcohol-infused whipped cream
• Crème légère
• Diplomat cream
• Crème mousseline
• Classic buttercream

Storing & freezing

Choux à la cream filled with pastry cream should be eaten the same day. Don't store them for longer than 24 hours, even refrigerated.

However, you can store baked, unfilled choux pastry shells in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Kept longer, they lose their crispiness and become soggy.

You can freeze raw and baked choux pastry:

• Unbaked choux pastry. Follow the recipe, pipe choux pastry mounds onto baking paper, and freeze for 2-3 hours. Then place them in the freezer bags, label them, and freeze them for up to 3 months.

When ready, bake choux pastry shells straight from the freezer, adding 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time.

• Baked and unfilled choux puffs. Place them in a freezer bag and freeze them for up to 3 months.

To serve, let the puffs defrost at room temperature, then pass to the preheated oven to 355°F (180°C) for about 7 minutes.

Troubleshooting tips

Choux pastry shells are flat, soft, and soggy

Too little flour or too much liquid. The dough is too runny to hold its piped shape. Fix: cook a half batch of pate a choux with water, salt, butter, and flour (no eggs), let it cool, and stir a little into the runny dough until it firms up. You cannot rescue runny dough by adding raw flour.

Pulled from the oven too soon. Underbaked shells collapse and turn soggy. Fix: bake until deep golden, then prick each shell and let it dry in the oven for a few extra minutes.

Choux pastry shells have cracks

Some imperfections are normal, but a few habits keep shells crack-free.

Wrong ingredient order. Adding unsifted, lumpy flour or adding flour after the eggs causes cracks. Fix: always sift the flour into the boiling liquid first and beat out the lumps off the heat, then add eggs last.

Oven too hot. High heat makes the pastry rise too fast and crack. Fix: bake at the temperature listed in the recipe and check it with an oven thermometer.

Uneven piping. Inconsistent pressure gives irregular, cracked shapes. Fix: hold the bag straight over the tray and pipe steadily. A fluted tip helps beginners get even results.

Choux pastry shells are too dry

Too much flour or wrong order. Adding extra flour or adding it after the eggs dry out the shells. Fix: measure the flour exactly and follow the ingredient order.

Overbaked. Too high a temperature or too long in the oven dries the puffs. Fix: lower the oven temperature on the next batch and check it with a thermometer, since every oven runs differently.

Read more about what to do with failed choux pastry through a Q&A guide.

FAQ

What are cream puffs?
Cream puffs are a classic French dessert made with choux pastry (also called pate a choux), with or without a craquelin topping, and filled with pastry or whipped cream.

What does choux à la crème mean in English?
Choux à la crème translates literally to cabbage with cream. Choux means cabbage in French, a nod to the puffed, crinkled shape of the pastry, so the dessert is simply known in English as a cream puff.

How do you pronounce choux à la crème?
It is pronounced roughly shoo ah lah krem. Choux sounds like shoo, and crème rhymes with them.

Are cream puffs French?
Yes. Cream puffs, or choux à la crème in French, are classic French choux buns that have been baked in France since the sixteenth century.

What is the difference between choux à la crème and profiteroles?
Both use the same choux pastry. Choux à la crème are filled with pastry or whipped cream and dusted with sugar, while profiteroles are filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce.

What is the best filling for choux pastry?
Classic vanilla pastry cream is the traditional favorite, but you can also fill cream puffs with Chantilly cream, diplomat cream, crème légère, or whipped chocolate ganache.

How do you store cream puffs?
Store filled cream puffs refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Unfilled choux pastry shells can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Love French desserts? Try these next!

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The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.