Strawberry Cream Puffs

Continuing on with bite-sized treats theme, Strawberry Cream Puffs came to be on the party menu when I was remembering a cream puff from my childhood. My aunt would make Stella D'oro Anginetti cookies stuffed with a pineapple cream. These showed up at most, if not all, family events and I remember licking every last sugar crumb off my fingers. I knew sister-in-law would love these!

To my disappointment, Stella D'oro discontinued Anginetti cookies. I hear they may be making a come back soon, I certainly hope so! I was determined to make something similar when I found this Strawberry Cream Puffs recipe on Glorious Treats.

The great thing about this recipe is that I was able to make the cream in steps ahead of time, and just bake off the pastry to fill right before leaving for the party. You don't want bake and fill in advance since the pastry doesn't hold up very long (a couple hours at most).

Here is what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup strawberry puree (about 1 cup of strawberries)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• confectioners' sugar (for sprinkling)
• strawberries, sliced for garnish

Take puff pastry out of freezer and let sit 20 minutes while you make the filling. Preheat oven to 430F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

To make the puree, place 1 cup of strawberries in a blender or food processor and pulse until pureed to an almost smooth consistency. Set aside.

To make strawberry cream, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat heavy cream on high until foamy Add 2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Be sure to scrape down the sides to make sure ingredients are well combined. Add strawberry puree to cream cheese mixture and mix on low until combined. Remove bowl from stand mixer.

Gently fold whipped cream into strawberry cream until combined. Transfer cream to pastry bag with large tip, or alternately use a zip lock bag with corned cut off. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make pastry, unfold a sheet of puff pastry on wax paper. Cut each sheet into 9 pieces for regular sized cream puffs, or 25 pieces for mini cream puffs.

Transfer cut pastry to parchment lined baking sheet. Brush pastry with egg yolk.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until pastry has risen, browned and looks dry. Remove from oven and completely cool on wire racks.

Cut each pastry in half. Pipe ~1/4 cup of cream onto each pastry bottom. Place other half of pastry on top of cream. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Pipe a small dollop of cream on top. Garnish with strawberry slice. Serve immediately.

For mini cream puffs, I baked the puff pastry for 8 minutes. After the puff pastry cooled, I cut a hole in the top of the puff pastry, sprinkled with confectioner's sugar, filled the hole with cream and sprinkled a few pieces of diced strawberries on top of the cream.

Makes 18 cream puffs (shown here) or 50 mini cream puffs (not shown).

Source: Adapted from Glorious Treats