Strawberry cream puffs are a great way to use “older” strawberries. The strawberries, cream and chocolate blend together well for a lovely dessert or breakfast treat.
I love making cream puffs. They’re pretty easy once you get the hang of it. You can bake the puffs a few days ahead of time and fill them when you’re ready.
Cream puffs are a staple in my house for Easter breakfast. We’re Orthodox Christians so we go to a midnight service and then break the Lenten fast with our friends afterwards. It’s usually 2 or 3 in the morning so I generally don’t eat too much. One cream puff and a few other things from the buffet is plenty. My kids wolf these down so I usually make a double batch – one for church and one for home.
One Easter a few years ago, I had some raspberries that were just past their prime. They weren’t moldy, just no longer pretty so I thought I’d puree them and add them to the custard filling. The result was amazing.
I’ve been experimenting with fruit additions ever since. Raspberries are incredibly expensive here in Phnom Penh so I opted for the slightly less expensive strawberries for this recipe. If you have raspberries or blackberries, you can definitely use them instead.
There are some things to watch out for when you make cream puffs. You want bake your puffs until they’re a little crisp on the outside. This helps them hold their shape when they cool and will leave a nice air pocket inside to put the filling in.
The filling is the more tricky part. I make a half custard, half whipped cream filling. The custard gives the filling rich flavor. The whipped cream makes it lighter. I also add gelatin to the custard so the filling holds up better. Since you add the whipped cream to the cooled custard, you want the custard to be room temperature (or a little cooler is better) but you don’t want the gelatin to congeal. If you over-cool the custard, use your mixer to beat it until it’s soft again.
I’ve included recipes for semi-sweet chocolate ganache (option 1) and white chocolate ganache (option 2). You can top your cream puffs with either or, if you can’t decide, make half batches of each and top half of your Strawberry Cream Puffs with the semi-sweet chocolate and the other half with the white chocolate. You can swirl a little red food coloring or strawberry juice into the white chocolate ganache for some added color.
Strawberry Cream Puffs are also perfect for high tea, Mother’s Day brunch or Valentines day.
The plain cream puffs (no ganache) freeze well so you can make them ahead and then top with ganache just before serving.Strawberry Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
Strawberry cream filling
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Ganache (option 1)
White Chocolate Ganache (option 2)
Instructions
For the Strawberry Cream filling
Prepare your chocolate ganache (option 1 OR option 2).
Notes
If you’re looking for a breakfast alternative, you might like these Easy Strawberry Sweet Rolls.
You might also like these Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes.
If you like these, you might like this Black-Bottomed Strawberry Cheesecake Pie from Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen
Gail, these look delicious and love the strawberry custard filling!
Thank you Joanne!
Holy strawberry I could eat a dozen of those Gail!
Me too, which is why I try to only make them for holidays 😛