blackberry cream puffs

Eggy shells with sugary-crunchy top, filled with whipped cream what has been spiked with blackberry jam. Um, yes, you did just read that sentence right. I love putting a little kick of something unexpected in the ordinary. Just by looking you would think that those are just normal innocent cream puffed guys. But no! Those are infused with my mother’s homemade blackberry jam. Giving you a chic little number that is sure to impress.

I remember making cream puffs with my grandma when I was little. Every time I make a choux now, I always think of that time in her kitchen: We had just added the flour to the hot milk, and the directions said to cook it until there was a film on the bottom of the pot, and that should take about 3 minutes. Well, ours had a film within a minute. My grandma, leaning over my shoulder and giving the mixture a good stir said, “well aren’t we just ahead of the class”. I don’t know why that one memory stuck in my head above all the other cooking adventures my grandma and I had. So if your choux dough is done before 3 minters, remember you are just ahead of the class.

Choux recipe slightly adapted from Tartine’s eclair recipe.

Notes: You will need this piping tip and this one (or something equivalent). Also, for things like this, I use a Ziplock bag. Just cut the corner of thebag and put the piping tip into the corner, and fill the bag.

For the shells (choux):

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

5 eggs

sugar in the raw

Heat oven to 425. Grease 2 cookie sheets

In a medium sauce pan combine the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt together. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the flour all at once, stir over medium to low heat until the mixture forms a smooth ball. Transfer the dough to your mixung bowl, turn the mixer on medium to high. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. The mixture should be glossy, and thick when it’s done. Put the batter into a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip (something like this), pipe 1 inch circles on the prepared cookie sheet. Heavily sprinkle the tops of the pipped choux with sugar in the raw.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until they start to show some color. Then, turn down the oven to 375, continue cooking until they are noticeably brown and very light. Do not under bake, they will collapse.

Cool completely on a wire rack. Pipe blackberry cream into the cooled shells using a pastry bag and a filling tip (something like this). Serve right away, sprinkled with powdered sugar.

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Blackberry Cream:

1 1/4 cup cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup blackberry jam

2 tablespoons sugar

Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla in your mixer until soft peeks form. Add the jam until just combine.