Homemade Cream Puffs with Almond Ice Cream, Strawberry Whipped Cream, and Chocolate Cream Cheese Sauce

A cream puff master genius lives in my neighborhood. One lucky Saturday morning, he showed Ryan and I how he works in magic in the kitchen. I watched carefully, took notes, and couldn't wait to make my very own batch in my own kitchen. The cream puffs were the most wonderful thing on this entire planet.

No joke.

Fluffy, soft, buttery and light cream puffs. Sliced in two...

The bottom is smothered with thick and rich chocolate cream cheese sauce.

A thick, sweet and light layer of fresh strawberry whipped cream comes next.

Add a heaping scoop of melty homemade almond ice cream heaven.

Top it off with the other half of the dreamy cream puff, a drizzle of that familiar joyous chocolate cream cheese sauce, and and a loving sprinkle of powdered sugar.

I'm just going to stop right there. 

Sometimes the food just speaks for itself, baby. 

Homemade Cream Puffs with Almond Ice Cream, Strawberry Whipped Cream, and Chocolate Cream Cheese Sauce

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Homemade Cream Puffs

depending on what form you decide, this makes about 12 medium/large cream puffs

ingredients:

1 C water

1 stick unsalted butter

1 C all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

pinch of salt

1 t sugar

method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter then add the water. 

2. make your pate a choux: Sift in the all-purpose flour, add the salt and sugar, and stir all ingredients together. Pull off the heat. Let cool for a minute or so - we don't want the upcoming eggs to cook in the dough/pan. 

3. Add in the eggs one at a time until incorporated and whisk together until thoroughly combined (requires a bit of arm action). 

4. Drop or pipe the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. You can actually drop them close together (about a half inch). They usually puff up, not out. There's a lot of flexibility here, so you can drop them into dough plops and lift your spoon off the top of the dough plop to create little peaks, or you can pipe them neatly into balls or logs. 

5. Bake for about 20-13 minutes in the oven (depending on how big you made them, cook more for larger dough plops, and much less for the smaller.) When they're golden brown, and the center is cooked through, remove from oven and let cool. 

6. When cooled, slice off the top 1/3 of the cream puff, and remove the inside fluff (eat it! it's good!). Stuff with whatever fillings and toppings you desire. 

recipe adapted from Devin Patrick

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Almond Ice Cream

makes a quart

ingredients:

2 C heavy cream

2 C whole milk

3/4 C sugar

2 t almond extract

pinch of salt

ingredients:

1. Whisk all ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Pour into the bowl of your ice cream machine. 

2. Mix and freeze according to manufacturers directions. 

3. After ice cream is made, transfer to an air-tight container and freeze for at least 4 hours. 

recipe adapted from Emeril

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Strawberry Whipped Cream

makes enough, trust me. 

ingredients:

1 lb strawberries, stems removed and sliced

1 pint of heavy whipping cream 

1 t vanilla

1/2 C powdered sugar

method:

1. Throw your metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment into the freezer. 

2. Add strawberries to a mini-food processor and chop into pieces are very small (about 1/8 inch pieces), but not jam/liquid. 

3. Remove mixer bowl and whisk from freezer, and place onto your stand mixer. Add heavy whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form (starting on low for about a minute, then low-medium for a minute, and medium for a minute... on and on until you hit high). When stiff peaks form, add vanilla and powdered sugar. 

4. Blend. Taste. Adjust sweetness to your liking. 

recipe adapted from Devin Patrick

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Chocolate Cream Cheese Sauce

makes about 3 C of drizzle

ingredients:

8oz cream cheese

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/4 C crisco butter

1 t vanilla

small can of carnation evaporated milk 

about 2 C powdered sugar

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

method:

1. Melt cream cheese in the microwave in a glass bowl, about 15 seconds at a time until it's reached a melted-chocolate consistency. Set aside. 

2. In a heavy bottomed medium pan over medium heat, melt butters together. Add melted cream cheese and vanilla. Stir until thoroughly combined. 

3. Add in chocolate chips, stir until melted. Add in powdered sugar very slowly. It will become pretty stiff, but keep stirring. Now, thicken up the mixture with the evaporated milk - add slowly until you reach a good consistency for what you're using it for. This is not like a ganache, and won't harden unless it's far below room temperature. 

4. Spoon mixture into a piping bag, and drizzle to your desire. 

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Assembly of cream puff:

1. In the bottom of your prepared cream puff, pour about 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate drizzle. 

2. Add about 2/3 C of your strawberry whipped cream on the chocolate. 

3. Scoop a nice healthy ball of ice cream over the whipped cream. 

4. Top with cream puff top half, and drizzle with chocolate drizzle. 

5. Sift powdered sugar on top to finish it off. 

Enjoy!