There’s nothing quite like freshly filled cream puffs. A fragile, golden orb of choux pastry encasing sweet, silky vanilla whipped cream in every bite! Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy them as a sweet treat with a hot beverage or as a light dessert.
Master French choux pastry, and a world of possibilities opens up, starting with a batch of irresistible cream puffs. Filled with simple vanilla whipped cream, this classic French dessert is effortlessly impressive and suits any occasion.
With your French pastry dough ready, all that’s needed is a light, vanilla-infused whipped cream to complete these classic cream puffs. Make sure to follow the recipe card below for the full details:
BAKING TIP: Make sure to allow the baked cream puff shells to cool completely before filling them or the residual heat will make the creamy filling runny.
Start by preparing the choux pastry according to the recipe. Remember, you’re going to halve the ingredients for making the right amount of pastry puffs for the amount of cream filling in this recipe.
Next, whip the heavy cream with the vanilla sugar and stabilizer, if using, until stiff peaks form. Pipe the filling in a piping bag with a small round tip.
Insert the tip into the bottom of each pastry puff and fill each with the cream filling. Alternatively, you can cut a small hole in each pastry puff to fill generously.
Once filled with sweet cream, these perfect cream puffs should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
I don’t recommend freezing these cream puffs once they have been filled as it can affect the texture of the filling. Instead, you could prepare and bake the cream puff shells to store in the freezer for up to 1 month and then thaw, reheat, and fill with fresh whipped cream mixture.
The best desserts often play with contrasting textures. And for me, nothing beats a creamy filling inside a crisp pastry shell or crust.
While whipped cream is a favorite choice, a more traditional filling for pastry puffs is rich vanilla pastry cream. That said, you can also have fun and fill them with an instant pudding mix, ice cream, sweetened cream cheese, Cool Whip, decadent chocolate ganache, or even curd like my homemade lemon curd.
These cream puffs are great served as a standalone treat or dessert, or you can enjoy them alongside a chocolate fondue that you can dip these pastry puffs into.
Leave them plain, sprinkle the top of the pastry puffs with powdered sugar, or drizzle with a chocolate glaze.
I recommend making the pâte à choux (pastry shells) in advance to save time and store them unfilled at room temperature in an airtight container for 1-2 days or in the freezer for longer.
When ready to enjoy, make the filling from scratch and reheat the pastry shells in the oven to regain some crispiness. Fill them and serve.
Yes, you can. While the traditional method is to fill the pastry puffs with piped whipped cream filling, you can cut the shells in half and sandwich them with the whipped cream instead.
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