Chocolate Cream Puffs Recipe including tips and trouble shooting (2024)

FAQs

What is the common problem in making cream puff? ›

Why did my cream puffs collapse? If the puffs collapse it means there was too much moisture in them. So either you did not dry the dough enough, or they were not cooked enough. To avoid this I recommend drying the dough really well (see below) and cracking the door of the oven open when the choux are baked.

There are multiple reasons why cream puffs may deflate. The first cause is undercooking. When preparing dough on the stovetop, be sure to keep cooking and stirring until a film forms on the bottom of the saucepan. Another cause of flat cream puffs is lowering the temperature during baking.

Remove and oven and let puffs cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack before filling. For best results, use puffs with 24 hours, or wrap airtight and freeze. Unfilled puffs may be stored in an airtight container for several days, but first cut them open and remove the strands of dough to prevent sogginess.

Poking holes in the baked puffs allows steam to escape and creates an opening for easy filling. Returning puffs to a turned-off oven after they've baked helps keep them crisp.

The five faults listed are: mixtures being too soft, pastry not rising and having a solid texture after baking, sinking after removal from the oven, pastry being too thin, and pastry being too thick.

Do unfilled cream puffs need to be refrigerated? No - they should be kept in an airtight container. Once filled, (with cream) they need to be kept in the the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them. If kept, filled, in the fridge, they will go soft.

If too much egg is added or if it is added too quickly, the Choux's ability to rise when baked will be affected. Similarly, if not enough egg is incorporated, it won't puff, causing it to be dense inside.

Add more yeast, blend in the starter, or knead in more flour to help initiate rising. Dough that has expired yeast, too much salt, all-purpose or cake flour, or antifungal spices like cinnamon might have trouble rising.

After baking you'll see only low-grade puffing action from the dough, which will appear smooth instead of craggly. The texture will be soft, and maybe a bit rubbery. To avoid this, take the egg-adding step slowly. Instead of dumping in all of the eggs at once, add one at a time and mix until incorporated.

Why do my cream puffs taste eggy? ›

Some important things to take note of:

Cook the flour mixture until a thin film of residue forms on the bottom of the pot. [Step 4 of recipe] Allow pastry to cool before adding eggs in. If pastry is too hot, it may cook the eggs, thus giving your cream puffs an eggy taste.

If you really want to make these well ahead of time you can freeze the empty cream puff shells. They do tend to go stale fast, so even if you are making them a day ahead of time, store them in the freezer until you are ready to use them. They defrost quickly at room temperature.

I used to eat a lot of eclairs and cream puffs when I was little, so choux pastry has a special place in my heart. And I find it pretty ingenious that choux pastry doesn't use a chemical raising agent to rise. Instead it uses air and moisture trapped in the dough to rise (water and eggs).

Store cream puffs in an airtight storage container or zip-top bag in the fridge for up to three days.

Because cream puffs have a delicate, puffy pastry, they must be kept fresh to maintain their light texture and dome-like structure and there are a few different ways to do this. Cream puffs can be stored in an airtight container or they can also be kept frozen or refrigerated.

What makes whipped cream "break"? The stable foam mixture made up of milk fat and tiny air pockets passes its peak of stability. Too much mixing causes the structure of the foam to break down, and allows the air to escape. At this point, you may feel like your whipped cream is ruined.

Oven too hot, causing excessive lift. Over-baking causing the surface layers to dry out too much. Fat levels too high in pastry. Unevenly flaked as fat not evenly dispersed.

Too much moisture causes the choux pastry to sink. The other important reason is your oven was not preheated enough. The oven must be very hot the moment you put your choux pastry dough in to bake. The last reason your pastry collapsed is because you baked with uneven heat.

Uneven rolling and shaping: Sometimes your puff pastry will have an uneven rise if handled incorrectly, handled too much or rolled unevenly. Puff pastry is notoriously finicky, so don't beat yourself up! Instead, keep your hands off and chill between steps.