Puff Daddy

When I was a kid, my mother would make me cream of wheat, and it would have chewy lumps in it, no matter how hard she tried not to. I liked the lumps. Now they make it so you don't get lumps.

Tonight, our daughter Debbie called up and wanted the recipe for cream puffs. I had never heard of cream puffs when I met Connie, and the first time she made them for me I wondered why they weren't as popular as cheesecake. Growing up, Debbie loved them too.

Every now and then we would encounter cream puffs from real bakers, and they weren't the same. When Connie made them, they would puff up in the oven into round balls, and when we took them out they would deflate. Then we'd fill them from a can of whipped cream and they'd blow up like a balloon, if you ever filled a balloon with whipped cream, that is.

Cream puffs from bakers aren't like that. They come out of the oven nice and round, and they'd pretty much stay that way. I wanted ours to be like that, too. I learned how to make cream puffs from Connie, and I started researching them on the Internet, doing experiments, and asking a local baker how to make them. They started turning out better. (It's only taken 28 years of marriage and cream puffs to get them that way.)

After Debbie called, Connie wanted cream puffs. She's suggestible that way. Love that woman. Anyway, we made a batch, and they were our best batch ever. They're darker brown than we used to bake them, and they thunk when you tap them. Puffed up nice and round, and stayed that way after we took them out. I filled one with whipped cream, and another I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Yum!

Oh, and Debbie's batch? It turns out that Debbie likes them soft and lighter colored, the way we made them as she was growing up. Go figure.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Chatter