Feeding Friendship: Vanilla!

I chose the key ingredient this time around, but I didn't have something seasonal in mind this time so I chose something sort of all-purpose that skews towards dessert: vanilla. I have a personal battle with vanilla extract because I can never find any that pleases me as much as some cheap mexican vanilla Mom and I bought on a cruise to Mexico in some run-of-the-mill drug store. I wish I had a gallon of the stuff, because even the fancy imported Madagascar kind can't match it for depth of flavor. Alas.

A few weeks ago, my college BFF Amanda came to town with her boyfriend, Brandon, and it happened to be the weekend of both of their birthdays. I just couldn't let that slide without making something, and Amanda has a deep and abiding love of strawberry nutella crepes born out our late-night trips to Cappy's in San Antonio. I had seen a "Milles Crepes Cake" (that translates to 1,000 crepes, but you only need 20) for sale on the Gilt Taste website, and though I didn't want to pay $75 for one, I did want to eat one. So I tracked down a recipe on the Cream Puffs in Venice blog (love that name, btw) that she had adapted, tested, and liked better than a Martha Stewart version. This cake features crepes layered with a vanilla pastry cream, which I found to be both tasty and easy to make, so I made a mental note to use that part of the recipe in the future for other things. Anyway, I made the cake and it went over very well with Amanda and Brandon. I fully intended to at least post a photo of it here, but it slumped over a bit, becoming somewhat un-photogenic, and then frankly we ate it too fast. So, long story short, I re-used the vanilla pastry cream from that recipe as filling for...Vanilla Cream Puffs.

This recipe is stupid-easy, but it does involve a lot of eggs (not egg beaters, sorry) so stock up! Start off by bringing your 2 cups of whole or 2% milk to a boil in a small sauce pan. Then stir 1 Tbl (or a little more, live a little!) and let it cool in the pan for around 10 minutes.

Next, prepare an ice bath with one large-ish bowl full of water and ice and a smaller empty bowl for the finished cream that fits in the larger bowl of ice water. Also get out a candy or meat thermometer to use later and cut 3.5 Tablespoons of butter to have ready for later. Set your bowls aside. While your milk is cooling off, crack 6 eggs and put the yolks in a medium sauce pan with 1/3 cup of sifted corn starch and 1/2 cup white sugar.

Whisk these all together until they're evenly mixed. When your milk has set for 10 minutes, gradually whisk it into the egg mixture over medium heat. You'll continue whisking this mixture for around 2 minutes, and it wil become extremely obvious when you are done. I was kind of amazed by the rapidity of the transformation in the ingredients that takes place at this stage of making the cream, so I decided to video it for you! Hopefully you'll find it a fraction as interesting as I did. 

So I'd been whisking a very soupy mixture for probably a minute and a half at this point (which I have spared you) and then bam! it just thickens up in seconds and it's ready to go.  It looks really yellow in my extreme closeup in the video, but it's more or less cream-colored even though it does get a little more yellow as it thickens. The next bit is the one ticklish part. Take your big glob of cream and push it through a fine-meshed sieve (I used a fine mesh metal colander the first time and it worked) with a spatula or spootula (best word ever) into the smaller bowl you set out earlier. Your whisk will not push anything anywhere. Once it's all through, stick the smaller bowl in the ice water bath and measure the temperature of the cream. If it's still hotter than 140 degrees, then stir the cream with your spatula until it cools to below 140. 

When you hit about 140, add 3.5 Tablespoons of butter and stir until it is incorporated. You're done with the filling! Take it out of the water bath and let it sit on your counter until it comes to room temperature. Depending upon whether you intend to fill your puffs right away, you can cover and refrigerate the cream, even overnight. 

Next comes the bready, puff portion of the project. Take a deep breath, this is easier than it looks. I looked at the various cream puff recipes on AllRecipes, and though the filling varied widely (vanilla pudding, really?), the puffs were mostly the same. I ended up using this recipe. So, add 1 stick of butter to 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. Slowly add 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir until the mixture forms a ball. 

Next I used my fabulous new stand mixer (an anniversary gift from my parents) with the paddle attachment to beat in 4 eggs one at a time. George and I call it the "kitchen Porsche." You can also use a wooden spoon or a hand mixer. 

You'll take this recipe and drop tablespoon-sized dollops onto cookie sheets. The recipe says ungreased sheets, but one of mine stuck and the other didn't, so it your sheets are kind of dry & sticky, you may want to Pam them. I generally tried to make mine round, but they don't need to be too perfectly shaped. Then you pop them in the oven for 20-25 minutes (slightly less on convection setting) until they puff and are ever so slightly browned on top. They also need to be dry in the middle- not still sticky or doughy. 

This goes in ...

and these come out! 

Isn't chemistry wonderful? I just find it amazing that this sticky dough turns into these light, buttery puffs when you add heat and time. Anyway. Wait for them to cool. Next comes what I thought was the only tricky part. Take a sharp knife and cut the top 1/2 or 1/3 of the puff off. I started leaving a small connector "hinge" of puff so that the tops wouldn't fall off when I transported them. The puffs are delicate and a little hard to cut without mushing, so be careful. I took to sticking the knife all the way through it and cutting from the middle out to achieve a better cut and more leverage. Once the puffs were cut open, I spooned the filling in according to how much I felt each puff could handle and then I put on the "lid." 

adding the filling

a finished puff!

I was taking these into work, so I didn't worry about the presentation too much. I think next time I will drizzle a little melted chocolate on top and dust a little powdered suger to finish off the presentation. They turned out both pretty and tasty, earning good reviews from all my coworkers. I think you get a big wow factor on these without too much complicated cooking, and they were a great showcase for the vanilla filling. 

happy cream puffs in a brownie pan, ready to head to the office