Frozen White Chocolate Cream Puffs

Frozen White Chocolate Cream Puffs

Originally published September 10, 2012.

This September certainly is a milestone month for Rock Recipes. We will be celebrating our 5th Blog-iversary this month in what is shaping up to be our best traffic month ever. Our Facebook Page just surpassed 20,000 "Likes" and today we are posting our 900th recipe! Thanks so much to all our readers, both veteran and brand new who have supported us along the way. We certainly have a lot to celebrate as we head into Autumn and we have plenty more to come as we are planning new recipes for the Thanksgiving and Holiday season.

To celebrate this weekend, I thought about making a new celebration cake but since our 5th Blog-iversary is around the corner, I'm saving that luscious idea for later. Instead, since I have been craving some simple Cream Puffs lately, I decided to make some to display in a new centerpiece presentation that includes some simple chocolate dipped sweet strawberries and a drizzle of melted white chocolate. Wouldn't this make a stunning platter to offer guests at any special occasion gathering?

Makes about 18 Cream Puffs

For the cream puff pastry combine add to a saucepan

1 cup water
½ cup butter

And bring to a boil. Reduce to medium flame and add, all at once

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt

Cook this mixture stirring constantly for an additional 3 minutes. Allow this mixture to cool slightly for about 10 minutes before adding, one at a time

4 large or extra large eggs

Beat well after adding each egg until batter is smooth
Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls ( or pipe small mounds using a piping bag ) onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until the puffs are golden brown and do not collapse when removed from the oven. These should be uniformly golden all over with no pale sides and sound hollow when tapped. Cool completely on a wire rack.

White Chocolate Cream Filling

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler over gently boiling water. Cool to almost room temperature.

Beat to firm peaks:

2 cups whipping cream
3 rounded tbsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract.

Gently fold the melted chocolate into the whipped cream.

Place the white chocolate whipped cream in a piping bag with a star tip or large round tip . Push the tip into the cream puff shell and fill the entire inside of the shell with the cream. If you do not have a piping bag you can also split the cream puff shells in half with a serrated knife and spoon the filling into the top and bottom halves and then putting them back together.

Freeze the cream puffs on a baking sheet for several hours or overnight. Move to an airtight plastic container if you are storing them longer than a day.

Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of melted white chocolate if you like. Chocolate ganache dipped strawberries make a beautiful presentation with a plate of these cream puffs.

These are also excellent when made at half size as profiteroles and served at a dessert buffet.