Thursday, May 6, 2010

Cream Puffs 101 with Sugar Free Chocolate Stove Cook Pudding




They don't look diabetic do they? They look like a sugar coma. That's the beauty.

Dream Cream Puffs

yield 8 servings


1/2 cup water
2T butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs

pudding:
2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup baker's cocoa
12 packets Truvia natural sweetener
1tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup corn starch
Directions:
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a small saucepan, combine the water and butter. Bring to a boil.
Add the flour all at once, and stir vigorously.
Cook and stir until mixture form a ball and flour lumps are gone.
Cool for ten minutes. It's important that dough be cooler than 165 degrees or the eggs will cook on contact. I use a thermometer, or my finger if I'm feeling brave.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a a wooden spoon after each addition. You can either drop by rounded spoonful onto the baking pan lined with parchment, or put the dough in a large pastry bag, fitted with a large star or straight tip. I like using the bag. It makes really pretty cream puffs.
You can divide into 8 puffs, or smaller bite size puffs. I went with the one inch single bites, and got 24. This is how they should look. The mound of dough is about one inch high.
Leave about an inch between puffs.

Bake in a 400 degree oven 20-25 minutes for smaller puffs, and 30-35 minutes for larger puffs.
Do not open the oven often or under cook. These are not like cookies that will be okay if they are a little undercooked...they will fall and be gummy inside if not cooked all the way. I tend to go with a darker looking puff than an anemic one. They should be good and brown on the tops.

When you get to the cooking time check a puff by pulling it out of the oven, but leave the rest in there. Open up the puff. If it isn't gooey inside, it's ready.
Pull them all out of the oven and open them with a fork or knife.
To make the pudding, in a saucepan with a whisk, combine 1/2 a cup of milk with the cornstarch until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir over medium heat until thick, about 5-7 minutes. When it boils, remove from heat. Cover with a lid and allow to cool. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Chill until ready to serve.
Just before you want to serve the cream puffs,
put 1 tsp of sugar free strawberry jam at the bottom of each puff.

Spoon 1/4 cup of the filling into the bottom half of each cream puff if you made 8. For smaller puffs, use about a tablespoon. Sprinkle with sugar free sweetener. For the chocolate drizzle, I melted some sugar free chocolate over a double boiler and spooned it into a pastry bag.

There you go.

Nutritional Info for 8 puffs, serving size one puff:
112 calories
4 g fat
63 mg chol.
231 mg sodium
13 g carbo.,
0 fiber
5 g pro.

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

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