Cream Puffs (Win)

As far as ingredients go, these puffs are only one egg short of being identical to Alice T's recipe, but the preparation and baking instructions are different. As far as I could tell, the end result is the same, so take your pick.

As usual, I used butter instead of margarine.

Out of curiosity, I also looked up the recipe for cream puffs in The Joy of Cooking. It says to let the hot water-butter-flour mixture cool slightly so it won't cook the eggs when they are added. I assume that this is the same purpose of beating the mixture for 2 or 3 minutes before adding eggs in this recipe.

The batter was not as thick as when I made Alice T's puffs last year. However, I tried making Alice T's recipe again today, and it turned out the same slightly thinner consistency as Win's - so I can only assume it had something to do with the temperature or humidiy of the room.

Baking these puffs at 450° for 20 minutes followed by 325° for 20 minutes is much too long. After the initial 20 minutes, I turned the oven down, but took the puffs from the oven 10 minutes later because they were getting too brown. Next time, I plan to try 450° for 10 minutes before turning it down to 325° (The Joy of Cooking says to start at 400° for 10 minutes then reduce to 350°).

I lightly greased the baking sheet, but to my frustration and dismay, many of the puffs stuck so much that the bottoms tore apart and I couldn't use them for making sandwiches. I'm not sure why this happened. It was at this point that I decided to make a second batch using Alice T's recipe, but they came out the same way, so something else was going on. Perhaps it was the oven temperature, or I didn't grease the sheet enough, or (most likely) whatever it was that made the batter turn out too thin. They are so easy to make, I don't mind trying again.

The puffs otherwise turned out beautifully, but sticking to the pan wasn't cool. Only about half of them were useable.

I was preparing these for a luncheon, and went with savory instead of sweet puffs. For perfect little tea sandwiches, I stirred about ¼ tsp of minced fresh chives into the batter, and put a light sprinkle of sea salt on top of each puff before baking. To serve, I cut them crosswise and put a spoonful of tuna salad in each one.

(Incidentally, I make really good tuna salad - just like my mom's, only with mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip. I also have a fabulous chicken salad recipe, if anyone is looking.)
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Cream Puffs
from Win

½ cup oleo (¼ lb) [margarine or butter]
1 cup water
1 cup flour
3 unbeaten eggs

Heat oleo [butter] and water in saucepan until oleo is melted.
Add flour all at once and heat 2 or 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time and beat after each.
Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet.

Bake in hot oven (450°) 20 min. [I recommend 10 min.] Reduce heat to 325° and bake 20 min. more or until done. Remove one from baking sheet and if it doesn't fall, they are done.

Use 1 heaping tablespoon for each large cream puff.

Small ones make good tea sandwiches filled with chicken or tuna salad.
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