National Cream Puff Day

On January 2nd every year, dessert and pastry devotees alike get to celebrate National Cream Puff Day which originated in France. Cream puff or “Chou à la crème” is one of the delicious cakes from France, consisting of two parts: a crispy pastry shell on the outside and a sweet and cool egg cream inside. This familiar cake is not only attractive because of its irresistible taste, but also interesting about the history of formation and development.

Cream puffs are quite extraordinary pastries. It is said that in 1533, Catherine deMedici married the Duke of Orleans – King Henry II. She dragged her team of servants to her husband’s house, including chef Panterelli. At his new home, Panterrelli created a dough that, when baked swells, and later becomes Cream puff (choux in French). Since 1604, borrowed from the French, the word “ Profiterole “ has existed in English. A 17th centur French describes “profiterole” as a soup of dried smalls breads with truffles, coxcombs and so on. It wasn’t until the 18th century that the legendary chef and baker of Frend cuisine – Mr. Antoine Careme made a number of edits and officially released the recipe of the cream puff pastry. The cream puff is only clearly presented in 19th century. The “Cream puff” has been observed on restaurant menus in United States since around 1851.

To cerebrate Cream Puff Day, we can do a variety of different recipes to create new unique versions of them. Depending on your resolution status, you may be visit the bakery and buy cream puffs. Then, eat them.

 Alternatively, you can make cream puffs using the recipe below.

Staring off with the necessary ingredients:

For the choux

• 120 ml water
• 50 gram unsalted butter
• 2-gram salt
• 75-gram plain flour
• 2 eggs

For the filling

• 2 Cups of heavy cream (you can use whipping cream or thickened cream or custard)
• 30-gram sugar
• 5 ml vanilla (If you want to make cream puffs with filled chocolate, you can prepare plus a bar of chocolate).

Finally, let us go to make our cream puffs step by step!

Step 1. Preheat: you need to bring 50-gram butter, 2-gram salt and 120 ml water into a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Let the mixture boil, turn down the stove, sift 75 gram of flour into the pot.

Step 2. Turn off the stove, stir back and forth until the ingredients are mixed together, the dough is flexible, and then put on low heat, stir the dough back and forth for about 2 minutes until the dough is smooth and smooth, then remove it from the bowl and let it cool.

Step 3. Put 2 eggs in a bowl, stir well and slowly pour the eggs into the cooled flour mixture (Hot dough will cook eggs). Each time, mix the eggs and dough together and the add the eggs. Mix until the dough is flexible, smooth, and glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. Lift dough up without breaking, it should be neither too liquid nor too dry.

Step 4. Put the dough in a piping bag ( using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip) , take the dough out onto a baking tray ( remember to use parchment paper to line it, if using oil-proof paper, brush a thin layer or butter on top, to prevent the cake from sticking to the tray or paper )

Step 5. Using a water sprayer, spray evenly over the entire cake tray (just spray, do not put too much water). If you don’t have a spray bottle, you can use your fingers to gently dab the water on the cake. At this time, the dough is not sticky, so you just need to press gently, the water helps to make the cake bigger as well as avoid burning the cake.

Step 6. Put the cake tray into the oven, let the temperature be about 220 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 30 – 35 minutes, check if the cake is golden brown and then put the oven at 160 – 180 degrees C for about 15 – 20 minutes until the cake is fully cooked. Try not to open the oven door too usual while it is baking.

Step 7. Remove the cake to cool. Whipping cream uses a mixers with 50-gram sugar (depending on how much or less sweet you like, the amount of sugar you want). Punch a small hole in the base of the cake; use an ice cream bag, a small tip to put the cream in. Of course, if you want to put both cream and chocolate in the cake, make sure you exactly like that.

Step 8. Put cake into the refrigerator; eat within 2 days at most, after 2 days cream will spoil.

Cream puff has a special feature that must be eaten on the same day after being made. Because the disadvantage of this cake is that it doesn’t keep for a long time, especially if you put cream in it, it will be mushy after only a few hours. Therefore, delicious cream puff can only be found in large restaurants, large shops specializing in afternoon tea and cakes, or local businesses, artisans’ bakeries. If you make your own cream puffs, be sure to eat them all or share them with your friends before they go bad.

Cream puff is richer than you think. Since ancient times, bakers have only shaped cream puff so that it is round. Today, thanks to the variety of ice cream tips and creative decorating ideas, people have created many different types of cream puffs in different shapes. The proof is that the variations of cream puffs are extremely famous such as Éclair, Tower of Croquembouches, Cygnet, Religious, and Paris-Brest.

Éclair is a popular type of cream puff, which has an elongated shape instead of a round shape like a regular cream puff. The Éclair usually has a layer of bitter chocolate or coffee chocolate.

Tower of Croquembouches is several dozen equally round cream puffs, arranged in layers and sprayed with a layer of iridescent caramel outside.

Cygnet cake has very beautiful swan shape, but this cake is not sold by many shops because it takes a lot of work even though the shape is very beautiful and romantic.

Religious consists of 2 spherical parts, 1 large and 1 small. After coating both of them with sauce, overlap the small portion over the large portion, and squeeze some white cream in the center. This cake got its name religious because it looked like a nun, with a dark robe and a white collar. Today, baker also create more images of queens wearing crowns, princesses wearing pink dresses, ancient Chinese mandarins…

Paris-Brest is associated with France’s favorite sport: cycling. Paris – breast looks like a donut, it is round and with a hole in the middle. However, it’s not a donut, this shape represents a bicycle tire. The French invented Paris – breast to celebrate the bicycle race of the same name in Paris.

You see, cream puff is made from very simple ingredients, so compared to many other “luxury” French cakes, cream puff is prepared and enjoyed by everyone. Don’t forget the National Cream Puff Day on 2nd January every year and remember to enjoy it. Share your interesting day on social media, use hashtag #CreamPuffDay.