Orange chocolate cream puffs (Choux a la creme)

Smooth, rich cream with a bright burst of orange is wrapped inside perfectly puffed choux pastry. These cream puffs are topped with rich dark chocolate ganache for the ultimate indulgent dessert. Swap out the creme patisserie filling with Greek yogurt for a lighter option.

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With everyone staying at home nowadays, there really is no better time than to be perfecting French patisserie. Seriously, when else are you going to have the time to make dozens of fiddly and delicate little desserts?

I mean, on a normal Saturday I would be eating bakery-made cream puffs while sipping a freshly foamed almond milk latte. But quarantine Saturday’s are for making your own cream puffs while wearing the pajamas that you only change out of when you have a Zoom conference call. Then after you’ve managed to coat your entire kitchen in flour and cream, you can sit down on the floor and eat your way through 18 beautiful cream puffs filled with orange creme patisserie and dipped in dark chocolate ganache.

Actually that makes quarantine life sound pretty good.

I’m also including a lighter filling version that uses Greek yogurt instead of creme patisserie. As an added bonus, it’s much simpler to make than the creme patisserie. If you’re a fan of the sour tang of Greek yogurt, this is the filling for you!

The process

There are many components to these cream puffs, but never fear, it is actually quite straightforward. To make these cream puffs, we’re going to follow the choux pastry recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. If I thought I had a better recipe I would share it, but she does a great job explaining each step for beginners. As the pastry puffs are baking, we’re going to make our citrus creme patisserie (aka pastry cream) on the stove, or our honey Greek yogurt in a mixing bowl. You’ll let your pastry cream cool in the fridge and remove the choux puffs from the oven. Once the pastry and cream are cooled, we’ll pipe each little choux bun til it’s full to bursting. For a final touch, we’ll quickly mix whipping cream and chopped chocolate to create a chocolate ganache, then dip in each cream puff for a glossy finish. They will be simply divine!

Some tips

Choux pastry

• Don’t open the oven door when the puffs are baking. The cool air will cause the puffs to deflate. Choux pastry achieves it’s puff when the moisture in the wet dough becomes steam in the oven, essentially blowing up the pastry like a balloon. 
• Make sure your eggs are at room temperature and your pastry mixture has cooled a bit off the stove before you add. Otherwise you’ll get scrambled eggs.
• When adding the eggs, add a little at a time until the pastry achieves the right glossy consistency. You may not need all 4 eggs in the recipe. You can check out 1:30 in this video if you need an idea of what the right consistency looks like.

Creme patisserie

• Whisk constantly to avoid burning
• Because you’ll be adding eggs to a hot mixture, make sure you temper your eggs before adding in. To do this, slowly add about a 1/4 cup of the hot mixture to your eggs, whisk, and then pour the eggs into the main mixture. Again, this will help you avoid scrambled eggs.
• If the pastry cream seems a little runny, that’s okay. It will firm up as it cools.

Ganache

• Ganache is a simple 1:1 mixture of heavy cream and chocolate. If you only have milk, you can sub a 1/2 cup of heavy cream for a 3/8 cup of whole milk + 3 tbsp butter. Make sure you use whole milk though, because there needs to be enough fat content to achieve the right texture.
• Chop your chocolate nice and fine so it will melt easily.

Piping

• If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off. I cut off a corner with a base about 1/4 in to 1/2 in wide.
• When filling choux buns, you want to make sure they are all the way filled. Otherwise you will bite into a half-empty puff. As you fill, you will feel the pastry grow heavier in your hand and then expand slightly. Once you feel that slight expansion, you will know that your pastry is filled to the brim. 

Okay, I know that was a lot of tips, but I want to make sure you feel ready before diving in! It’s not too complicated and the end result is simply delicious.