Pistachio Cream Puffs Recipe
These Pistachio Cream Puffs are an ode to that Saturday you get to spend all day in your favorite nearby small city where the kids 20 years younger than you but old enough to drink think neon hair and bad poetry will save the world, and you wander amongst them on the old streets where every other storefront is either a boutique run by a 60-something lady with neon hair and probably a penchant for bad poetry, or it’s a local restaurant or brewery or cocktail bar where every third drink is lit on fire first so you order a drink that gets lit on fire, and you ask if the rooftop is open, and it is, so you and your love climb up to where the city opens wide with glass everywhere catching the sunlight and you talk about the last time you were here, and next time this moment will be the last time you were here, glancing occasionally down at all the people below making their way to that next time they themselves have been anticipating, and it’s only early in the afternoon, there are still so many stops to make before dinner at the place you always have dinner when you come to visit, where the menu is always different but the feeling the same—you’ll share the plates and crack the jokes, you’ll look at your phone then the last few sips in your glass and it’s already time to go, to make the walk down to the small pastry shop where the cases are filled with so many recipes that made their way over mountains, through valleys, across an ocean to this very moment, placed here sometime in the dark morning by careful, practiced hands—something as small and impossible as a cream puff.
PREP TIME
30 mins
COOK TIME
1 hr
SERVINGS
16
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
- 1 cup water
- 1 stick butter (cut into 8 pieces)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup AP flour
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk chocolate melting wafers
- 1/3 cup raw pistachios, chopped
Pistachio Cream
- 6 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 cup pistachio cream (we used Pisti)
- 1 cup mascarpone cheese (room temperature)
- 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:
Pistachio Cream Puffs
Choux Pastry
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, combine water, butter, and salt then bring to a boil.
- Add flour and lower heat to medium-low. Stir continuously with a spatula until flour is well-integrated and dough forms. Use the spatula to continually press the dough into itself to help the clumps form one large piece of dough.
- Remove dough from heat and continue stirring for several minutes to cool it. Once dough has cooled, add eggs one at a time, stirring each egg thoroughly into the mixture before adding another egg.
- Transfer mixture to a piping bag and, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, pipe 16 swirled mounds about 2” wide and 2” tall (you might need an extra baking sheet depending on sheet size). After piping all of the dough onto the sheet(s), wet your fingertips with cold water and gently press down any peaks on the pastry mounds.
- Bake for 30 mins, or until cream puffs are a light golden brown and stiff to the touch.
- Remove from oven and use a sharp knife to poke a hole in the lower center of each puff where you’ll later pipe the cream. Knife should be inserted halfway into the cavity. Return puffs on baking sheet to the oven and turn off heat. Crack oven door and let sit in oven for another 10 mins. Remove and allow puffs to cool completely before piping cream.
- To fill with Pistachio Cream: transfer Pistachio Cream to a piping bag fitted with a long puff nozzle tip (the nozzle should be small enough to fit into the holes you poked with the knife). Insert nozzle into each cream puff and fill completely with Pistachio Cream until it just starts to come out of the hole.
- Melt baking chocolate in the microwave until loose and dip the tops of each cream puff in chocolate then place on baking sheet with chocolate side up. Immediately sprinkle with chopped pistachios and allow chocolate to harden and cool.
- Enjoy! Store Pistachio Cream Puffs in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or freeze for several weeks.
Pistachio Cream
- While choux pastry is baking in oven: Add pistachio cream to microwave-safe ramekin or bowl. Set aside.
- Fill a small pot with a couple inches of water and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer then place a medium-sized bowl on top of pot so it rests without touching the water.
- Add egg yolks and sugar to bowl then whisk together constantly for 5-7 minutes, or until mixture is smooth and has thickened a bit.
- For the next step, be sure someone is still whisking eggs and sugar, or temporarily remove the bowl from the pot: Heat pistachio cream in microwave in 10-second intervals until it loosens in consistency—be sure to stir after each interval. Do not overheat or else the cream will seize up. Immediately whisk heated pistachio cream into eggs until well-integrated.
- Remove bowl from pot and continue whipping to help it cool for 2 minutes or so.
- Add mascarpone to egg mixture and whisk until well-combined. Set aside.
- In a separate medium-sized bowl and using an electric hand mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Start slow then gradually increase speed to prevent splashing.
- Gently fold whipped cream into egg/mascarpone mixture. Refrigerate until ready to pipe into puffs.
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