How to make cream puffs

A guide for shaping and baking the popular choux pastry.

This “recipe” is really a guide to shaping and baking cream puffs. It depends on two other recipes: Craquelin and Pâte à Choux. Think of this as your construction manual.

I’m guessing that the reason pâte à choux dough was invented in the 16th century was so that Catherine de Medici could serve cream puffs to her royal court in France. I might be wrong about cream puffs being the first pastry made from the dough, but I’m convinced that it’s the first pastry anyone new to pâte à choux should make. They’re pretty much foolproof, especially if, like me, you shape the puffs with a cookie scoop. Of course, if you love using a pastry bag, you should pipe away.

As I said in the recipe for the dough, I’ve been playing around with how I make and bake puffs for a while. This recipe is my current favorite. And, because it’s my favorite, it includes a cookie-like topping called craquelin (here’s the recipe). You don’t need the craquelin, but if you want to use your puffs for dessert, I hope you’ll …