Puffi Puffs

Did you know that in Italy Smurfs are called Puffi (Pronounced Poo-fee)?  My sister and I find this quite hilarious.  She lives in Italy and says that they are quite in love with the little blue Puffi, and not because of the recent movies.  They never went out of fashion there.  They like them SO much that they were handing out Puffi trading cards at her local grocery store and she collected hundreds of them over time for my boys.  We have Grande Puffo, Puffo Inventore, Puffo Golfista, Puffetta Fa Shopping, Puffo Surfista…

But that is not really the kind of Puffi Puffs I’m writing about today.  And these are not Italian Puffi, but rather French, for Lego Head’s French Brunch Menu.  These are more like Puffy Puffs, or rather Cream Puffs.  Today, Lego Head presents to you his Cream Puff recipe.  The “Puff” part of this recipe was given to me by my Mother long ago.  The cream part he found on the internet… some where… I apologize for not remembering from where.

Click here to watch Lego Head make his Cream Puffs

Lego Head’s Cream Puffs

Serves 12

Ingredients:

1 cup water                                                             ½ cup butter
1 cup flour, unsifted                                             4 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Heat water and butter to a rolling boil.
3. Stir in flour, stir vigorously over low heat until it forms a ball.
4. Remove from heat, add eggs, beat until smooth.
5. Drop small balls onto ungreased baking sheet, lined with parchment paper would be best. Bake 35 min or until puffed & golden.
6. Cool on racks. Cut of top or poke hole and fill.

Filling

1 ½ cups of milk                                                ½ cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch                                              4 egg yolks
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract                                    16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

Instructions:

1. Boil 1 cup milk & sugar to a boil in a 4-qt. saucepan medium heat.
2. Whisk remaining milk, cornstarch and egg yolk in a large bowl.
3. Slowly pour half hot milk into yolk mixture whisk constantly then return to saucepan.
4. Cook while string with wooden spoon until thickens and boils.
5. Stir in vanilla and transfer to a bowl
6. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled
7. Beat butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add cold filling and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
8. Spoon fill a pastry bag fitted with a ¼ tip
9. Fill the cream puffs.  Eat within 4 hours of filling to avoid soggy cream puffs.

Note:  We found that it is best to do step 7 right before you are ready to fill the cream puffs.  If you chill the cream before filling the cream puffs, it will be difficult to pipe.

-Red

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