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Heart-Shaped Cream Puffs (Valentine's Dessert)

Decorated heart-shaped cream puff dessert on parchment paper.
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4.9 from 14 reviews

Heart-shaped cream puffs are choux pastry hearts filled with white chocolate Chantilly cream and dipped in chocolate. Made with vanilla and pink strawberry cream, they are a pretty French dessert for Valentine's Day.

Ingredients

Scale

For the choux puffs:

  • 4 large eggs
  • 3.9 oz (110 g) butter
  • 7.9 fl oz (235 ml) water
  • 1 cup + 2 1/2 tbsp (145 g) flour
  • 1 pinch of salt

For the Chantilly cream:

  • 2 cups + 4 tsp (480 g) whipping cream
  • 8.5 oz (240 g) white chocolate

 For the decoration:

  • 7 oz (200 g) white chocolate
  • 1.7 oz (50 g) ruby chocolate
  • pink praline, chopped
  • pink sugar pearls
  • freeze-dried raspberries, chopped
  • freeze-dried strawberries, chopped
  • pearl sugar

* If needed, please refer to Baking Conversion Charts.

Instructions

  1. To make choux puffs, preheat the oven to 410°F (210°C). Sift flour in a bowl and set aside. Whisk eggs until homogeneous, pass through a sieve to remove chalazae, and put aside. 
  2. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, place water, butter cut into small pieces, salt, and bring to a boil. Pour the fluid over sifted flour and combine it with a wooden spatula until homogeneous. Place the dough back in the saucepan and dry out the dough, constantly stirring with the spatula.
  3. Once the dough comes away from the pan's sides, transfer it to the bowl of a stand mixer or a simple large bowl. Mix the dough with a stand mixer or an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, using a low speed, for two minutes to cool down.
  4. Add beaten eggs in three to four times, mixing well between each addition. The dough has to become smooth and glossy. Test the dough by dragging your finger or a spatula along the surface of the ready dough: the sides of this "trough" have to stay upright. 
  5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and fix it with a bit of dough at the corners. Place the dough in a pastry bag with Ateco plain tip 804 and pipe into a bit less than 1 inch/2 cm balls about 2 inches/4 -5 cm between each. Wet your fingertip and gently press each choux bun down. Bake for 20 minutes, until deep golden. Poke each choux bun's base with the tip of a small knife, place on sides, and bake 4 to 6 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. 
  6. To make the Chantilly cream, break the white chocolate into small pieces. Bring whipping cream to a boil, pour over white chocolate and mix with a hand whisk. Cover with a plastic film on contact and refrigerate overnight. 
  7. To decorate choux puffs, whisk the cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks. Take half of the cream, add dried strawberries powder (as much as you desire) and whisk for a few seconds to get the pink-colored Chantilly cream. Transfer white and pink cream in pastry bags with Ateco plain tip 8 and pipe each choux bun through the hole in the bottom until full.
  8. Break white and ruby chocolate into pieces and place them in a separate bowl. Melt chocolate in a microwave at medium power (50%) for 30 seconds. Remove and stir the chocolate. Repeat this step every 30 seconds with stirring in between until small lumps remain. Remove a bowl from the microwave and stir to complete melting.
  9. Dip each choux puff into melted chocolate and dip in chopped pink praline, chopped freeze-dried strawberries, and raspberries, pink sugar pearls. Leave some buns covered, drizzled, or both, with chocolate; leave some puffs with plain white or ruby chocolate. Refrigerate buns for 15 to 30 minutes until chocolate sets. Arrange decorated cream puffs in the shape of a heart and serve.

Notes

  1. Use a silicone baking mat instead of parchment paper.
  2. Bake one sheet of choux puffs at a time, and decorate them while another batch bakes. Bake two sheets at once if your oven bakes regularly.
  3. Make choux puffs one day in advance and store at room temperature till the next day.
  4. Replace the white chocolate in the Chantilly cream recipe with milk, dark, or ruby chocolate.
  5. To make dried strawberry powder, crush freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor, then make the powder using a mini strainer. Omit this step if you want to make Chantilly cream, using white chocolate only. 
  6. Decorate cream puffs as you desire: use chopped nuts (pistachios, almonds, etc.), gold sugar pearls, edible rose buds, store-bought pink crushed pralines.
  7. Shape a heart out of the cream puffs right after decorating if you want to stack the puffs on top of one another. 
  8. Serve the dessert within a couple of hours to keep the choux puffs crisp.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://www.bakinglikeachef.com/heart-shaped-cream-puff-dessert/