Creamy, dreamy cream puffs

Even though cream puffs look complicated to make, they are much easier than you’d think.

The pastry only has five ingredients; water, butter, flour, eggs and salt. The filling can either be whipped cream, pudding, or a combination of both. If I have the time, I make the pudding from scratch. If I’m in a hurry, I use Jello pudding mix and fold in Cool Whip.

All that is required for the chocolate glaze is melting chocolate chips in hot whipping cream and adding a little corn syrup. It’s all that easy!

CREAM PUFFS

½ cup (1 cube) butter
1 cup water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease large cookie sheet. Melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Add all of flour at once and stir until mixture leaves sides of pan. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition until smooth. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake in 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking for 40 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool.



CREAM FILLING

¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
4 oz. Cool Whip
In a cold medium saucepan,whisk flour, sugar, and salt together until blended well. Add eggs and whisk until smooth and then mix in milk. Heat mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap. Cool in refrigerator. Gently stir in 1/2 of 8 oz. Cool Whip.

Cut top 1/3 of cream puff off and gently press down or remove excess dough. Fill puff with cream filling and place top back on.

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

½ cup whipping cream
1 cup chocolate chips
½ tsp vanilla.
1 Tbsp. corn syrup

Heat whipping cream until beginning to simmer. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth. Spread over filled cream puff and refrigerate until ready to serve.

MAKES ABOUT 15

If you want to do something different, you can make a ring of cream puffs. Just flour greased cookie sheet and draw a 7" ring in flour. Drop 10 mounds of cream puff batter equally around circle. Edges will be touching. Bake as directed. Cool. Cut off top 1/3 and fill with cream filling. Top with chocolate glaze.

Cooking's kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you.

Halloween is a fun time to make crazy treats for kids. With the surplus of books out there filled with spooky Halloween food it's not hard to get fun and easy ideas. Calico is going to be a spider for Halloween this year so we decided to make spider cupcakes.


We used a boxed chocolate cake mix and a tub of pre-made chocolate and vanilla frosting. Easy, easy. All you have to do is prepare cupcakes following the box directions, cool, and frost. Then the fun begins.



We used a variety of candies (chocolate licorice, candy corn, chocolate sprinkles, and Necco candies) to decorate the frosted cupcakes. For the spider legs** we cut the licorice in half lengthwise and crosswise. For the eyes, we used Necco candies, but Red Hots would work well too.


We dyed some of the vanilla frosting orange just for something different. Kids love watching the white frosting turn orange with just a few drops of food coloring. Coconut can also be dyed for different effects. The possibilities are as vast as your imagination.

** For all you entomologist out there that want to be anatomically correct, put eight legs on your spider cupcakes.

Rich and gooey Molten Lava Cakes

I came across this fabulous recipe many years ago in an issue of Bon Apetit. It is delicious, easy and impressive. If you like rich gooey chocolate desserts, you will love this gem. I usually make the batter earlier in the day or the day before and refrigerate it. Then I can visit with my friends up until the time the cakes go in the oven.

MOLTEN LAVA CAKES

5 oz.(3/4 cup) bittersweet(not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup all lpurpose flour

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Butter six 3/4 cup custard cups and dust them well with granulated sugar. Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted. Cool slightly.

Whisk eggs and egg yolks in large bowl to blend. Whisk in sugar, then chocolate mixture and flour. Pour batter into custard cups, dividing equally.

Bake cakes on cookie sheet until sides are set but center remains soft and runny, about 11 minutes or up to 14 minutes for batter that was refrigerated.

Run knife around hot cakes to loosen and immediately turn cakes out onto plates. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy.

serves 6

I usually wear heavy rubber gloves when turning cakes onto plates to keep from burning myself. It works well to place plate upside-down over custard cup and turn over to shake cake out.

Don't let cakes sit in custard cups too long because they will continue to cook, making them less gooey. Gooey is good. The hardest part about this recipe is judging the time. Since ovens vary slightly, you just have to experiment. If you want it even more rich, add a teaspoon of espresso powder disolved in one teaspoon of hot water, and add a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix these into the melted chocolate.

This goes great with a Ficklin tawny port.