French Vanilla Cream Puffs

My Easter desserts…..mini Cream Puffs!  
And they were so cute on the dessert bar!  
Yummy and easy Cream Puffs! 

My French born sister-in-law Danielle makes these TO DIE FOR cream puffs every year at 4th of July. Everyone has come to expect and love them. She actually can’t make a different dessert or everyone gets all bent out of shape. So I have been calling her to get her recipe. I wanted to make them for Easter.

The ingredients for cream puffs are only 4….so easy! 
Water, butter, flour and eggs….
Batter before adding the eggs…..I let it beat a little to let off some of the steam….
Then I added 1 egg at a time and beat for a minute in between eggs…..
The cream puff batter is  like pudding…

Easy Cream Puffs:  My French sis-in-law Danielle’s recipe
1 cup water
1/2  cube butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Heat oven to 400. Heat water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour untilmixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Let cool a bit till batter is not hot. Beat in eggs one at a time. Drop dough 1 Tbsp size onto baking sheet using a pastry bag. Mine were about 1 3/4 inches oval x 1 1/2 and I got about 30 little cream puffs.

Cook until puffy and golden. I did 14 minutes at 400 and then turned oven down to 350 for 5 minutes. I think from posts I read on other blogs 20 minutes is perfect for smaller cream puffs. Larger ones about 20 minutes at 400 and 4 minutes at 350 but watch them the last 3 minutes. Your oven might be different as I am at high altitude.

Bunny cream puffs
These are darling cream puffs too. I LOVED these from HERE at Land O Lakes website.
I piped the batter onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper….

I added a blob of cream puff batter to each of the 4 corners…then pressed the parchment paper on top. It helps
“glue” the paper down to the cookie sheets. 

Here are my finished cream puffs….just out of the oven! 

Now they are ready to fill with the creamy, rich pudding filling….each one was a half a handful ! 

Cool. Cut a slit in the side of puff with a knife. Fill cream puffs with a pastry bag filled with the french vanilla pudding mixture.  Make chocolate icing and spread over top.  Keep refrigerated. Makes 12 large or 24 small cream puffs (mine made 30 little round ones- bigger than the Costco size) I think this is a perfect dessert to bring to Easter dinner because if you have other desserts, this can be a side garnish and they are so cute and yummy too.

French Vanilla Cream Filling
1/2 pint whipping cream (smallest carton)
1 small box instant French vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup milk
Whip until thick.

1/2 cup milk, pint of cream and small box of french vanilla instant pudding….

Whip it up and then put into a pastry bag….

Squeeze inside of your little puffs….so easy! 

The filling is really rich and creamy too…I had to pop one in my mouth to taste test it! 

 Chocolate Fudgy Glaze
1/2 slick butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar ( I used a little less, just add it till desired consistency)

Heat until melted, stirring constantly-add 2 cups powdered sugar until melted. Shake a fork
back & forth and then the other way to ice tops of cream puffs if you want a cool design. Or just frost with a knife.

This was the most delicious chocolate glaze!  

It was easy and quick….

And it tastes like the most divine fudge!  Really!  

I just frosted mine. I spread the fudgy icing on very generously!  This chocolaty glaze was finger licking delicious! 
My finished plates of cream puffs…. I wasn’t done sprinkling the sprinkles! And this recipe made 30 puffs….

That was 2 full plates full….enough for a crowd of people….
I added some purple Peeps to the plate of cream puffs… it added the cuteness factor….yeah! .

And I know somebody CUTE who LOVED my cream puffs!  

And somebody else who loved the Easter egg hunt too! 

Hope everybody has a wonderful Easter!