Chocolate Cream Puffs

Do you agree with me that cream puffs are just a bundle of fluff that brings you joy? I love it - I remember when I was young, my family and I used to go to this small ice cream shop and we always get to pick our favorite ice cream and I remember that my dad loved getting the cream puffs there. It's this huge cream puff that's filled with custard and whipped cream. He loved it so much!

As much as I love cream puffs, it contains a lot of sugar and butter. So I thought, there should be another way to bake cream puffs without all those butter. Well, my cream puff recipe was such a success! I hope you find it helpful as well (:

Servings: Make 14 cream puff shells

Ingredients:
Cream Puff Shells

• 1/2 cup water 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil) 
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon soy milk

Chocolate Cream Filling

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 cups soy milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 3 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (you can add more if you wish) 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and place parchment paper on a baking sheet. 
• In a medium saucepan, mix the water and the oil and bring them to a low boil over medium heat. 
• Reduce the heat then add flour and stir until the mixture forms a ball. 
• Remove the saucepan from the heat, and add the vanilla extract and stir in eggs one at a time and beat until the dough is smooth. 
• Once everything is thoroughly mixed, place the dough in a piping bag. 
• Squeeze out the dough from the piping bag (about 1" or so - depending on how large you want the cream puffs to be) 
• Place 1 teaspoon of soy milk into a small plate and dap some of the soy milk on the bottom of the spoon. Place the wet spoon on top of the dough. It's going to act similar to the egg-wash that you see when you bake puff pastries. 
• Then bake for about 25 minutes or until the dough is puffed and golden brown. It's important to understand that the puffs are golden or crisp or else they may collapse overtime. 
• Remove from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Cream Filling: 

• Mix flour, sugar and salt on a medium saucepan. Slowly stir in the soy milk (I stirred it in 5 increments). 
• Cook them in medium heat - and it is very important that you stir the whole time without creating foam on the side. 
• Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat and stir it for about 2-3 minutes. 
• Cool and using a piping bag, pipe the cream into the puffs. 

Puffs out of the oven :)

Potential decorations: 

This is the best way to use your creativity! 

You can sprinkle powdered sugar, melted chocolate, sprinkles, etc. Whatever your heart tells you to do, do it! This is your unique cream puffs and you should make it the way you want it.

Although sometimes my recipes make my other baking friends "cringe" a little, since I eliminate an essential ingredients for baking - but, I am a true believer that you can bake delicious baked goods without saturated fats. But I just want to let everyone know that just because my recipes is "butter-less", it does not mean that you can eat it as many as you want. It also contains sugar, which eventually breakdown to fatty-acids in the body. Please remember, everything in moderation is important.
I will most likely repeat this continuously throughout my blog (:

That being said, thank you so much for your time and I hope you enjoy the recipe!

From my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking!

Smiles, 

Mei