Quick and Delicious Cream Puffs

I blame my mom. There is not a doubt in my mind that my mom is 100%, completely to blame for my current predicamant. You see, she has been visiting for the past few weeks and while she has been here there has been a lot of baking taking place in my kitchen. I came home from work last week and my entire house smelled like chocolate chip cookies. Then last weekend we made butterhorns and yesterday we decided to make cream puffs. And this morning when I went to put my jeans on - they felt a little bit tighter than usual. Way to go mom! :)

WARNING: You will only want to make these if you are having friends of family over. This recipe yields between 12-16 cream puffs and if you decide to make them you WILL end up eating them all yourself. Now don't say I didn't warn you.

Quick and Delicious Cream Puffs

Cream Puff Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp salt

4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

Filling ingredients

2 cups Whipping cream

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a medium sized sauce pot and then add butter and salt. Stir over heat until butter melts and then bring the mixture to a vigorous boil. Add the cup of flour and continue to stir until dough forms a soft ball and leaves the sides of the pan clean. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.

Fold in eggs one at a time and stir them into the mixture briskly until the mixture thickens and becomes quite stiff. Repeat this process with the remaining 3 eggs. Using a spoon,  place the mixture on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

While the puffs cool on the counter, you can make the filling. Place the 2 cups of whipping cream into a medium sized bowl and using an egg beater, whip the cream until it begins to thicken. Add the sugar and the vanilla. You can also choose to add chocolate or raspberry jam or a combination of other tasty ingredients should you choose.

Slice the cooled cream puffs in half and spoon in your filling of choice. We kept it traditional and true to the recipe and didn't add anything else to the filling and it was as delicious as I remember.