Dulce De Leche Cream Puffs
Posted On 27 November 2022
You’ll hate me if you make these. Even if you don’t make them well.
Dulce De Leche Cream Puffs
These are good and not as hard as you might think
Servings: 48
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Piping Bags and Tips
- 2 Sheet Pans
- Instant read thermometer
Ingredients
Choux Pastry (Pâte À Choux)
- 125 grams water
- 110 grams whole milk
- 5 grams granulated sugar (Baker's works best)
- 5 grams sea salt
- 113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 150 grams all purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
Dulce De Leche Cream
- 33 grams confectioners' sugar (¼ cup)
- 477 grams heavy cream (2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 304 grams dulce de leche (1 cup)
Instructions
Making The Cream Puffs
- Prepare two sheet pans with grease or parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 425°F / 220°C. (400°F Convection if you're doing two pans in one oven)
- Weigh out the flour into a small bowl and set aside.
- In a small stock pan bring the milk, water, salt, sugar, and butter to a rolling boil. Remove from the heat and immediately add the flour and stir to combine completely into a ball. Put into bowl of a stand mixer and let sit until an instant read thermometer put into multiple places registers less than 125°F / 52°C. Be patient. This is so you don't make scrambled eggs. (Note: Put into the bowl and put the bowl into the mixer so it's off the counter and airflow can go around it. You can spread out the dough a little to cool faster, too.)
- With the mixer running on low-medium add one egg at a time. Incorporate each egg fully before adding the next. Won't look very good at first but will come together by the time you've added all the eggs. Beat for another minute or so after adding the last egg and you'll have a smooth batter.
- Put a ½" tip (Wilton 2A I think) on a piping bag. Fill the piping bag with the batter and pipe out ~2"-diameter puffs, leaving a 1½"-2" between them. I use a Silpat designed for Macarons that has guides. Just a thought. My piping bags aren't huge so I did this in two batches. You should get 12-15 puffs per sheet pan.
- Important: During baking, don't open the oven door.
- Put puffs in the 425°F / 220°C oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce temperature to 350°F/175°C (or 325°F Convection) and 10 minutes, turn the oven on to 350°F / 175°C and bake another 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the puffs from the oven and use a toothpick to poke a hole or two near the top to allow steam to escape.
- Return puffs to the oven for another 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
Making The Filling
- Add the Dulce De Leche to a medium bowl and, if cold, spread around. (Note: putting the Dulce De Leche can into a bowl of warm water is good.)
- Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a mixer until you've got peaks.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the Dulce De Leche until incorporated, but not too aggressively as you don't want to knock all the air out of the cream.
Filling
- Put a small tip (¼" maybe) on a piping bag. Fill with the cream mixture. (Again, my piping bags aren't huge, so I had to refill a couple of times.)
- You have options. You can either poke a hole in the bottom of the puffs and fill that way or cut in half laterally and fill, replacing their hats when done.
Optional Toppings
- Heat some Dulce De Leche in the microwave slowly until fluid and drizzle over the top. (optional)
- Dust with powdered sugar. (optional)
Notes
- I bet you’ve seen Pâte À Choux made a million times on baking shows and feel like they left out some steps after making it yourself.
- If you fill at least one by cutting in half you’ll see how large the pocket inside becomes during baking. Pretty impressive.
- If you’re not serving these immediately, refrigerate so that the pastry doesn’t become soggy.