Strawberry Cream Puffs with Milk Chocolate Sauce

Some problems can only be solved by Fiona Apple songs.  Loud.  In headphones.  All up in my brain.  In the car.  Drowning out surroundings.

Fiona Apple reminds me of heartbreak that I no longer mourn.  Young loves from years ago.  Young loves that feel old now.  Loves that I feel faded into just good memories.  The sting is gone… and it’s all just sweet.  The memories are indulgent.  The drama so pleasingly removed.  It’s like watching a movie in my head… me and that cute boy I loved are the star.  It’s tender and earnest.. and there is good even when it gets sad.

It’s hard to imagine how my now will someday have this faded comfort of my current memories.  All of the now feels so… now… and pressing and urgent.  If I’m lucky, my now will be my sweet moments later.

But really… the now is sweet indeed.

I made pastry vessels for whipped strawberry cream…. then I covered the whole thing in chocolate.  I’m not the first and I won’t be the last to do this.. but I feel pretty much like a genius.

If you had told me ten years ago that I’d be sitting on a bed eating strawberry cream and NOT crying to this song… I wouldn’t have believed you.  I would have called you a liar… because that song would always and forever tear out my heart.  Or.. not!  Because now it just feels sweet, and tender, and reminds me of love and strawberries and cream.

Is it completely hard to believe that flour and butter turn into cream puffs?

It sort of blows my mind… it can’t be this simple, right?

Right…

We need eggs.  Eggs do all the heavy lifting in this recipe.  They create the webbed and moist texture.  Eggs also create the lift and lightness in this dough.

Eggs are a wonder.

If you’ve never made a pate a choux dough… it’s a little different.

Don’t let its difference intimidate you.

Flour is added to a mixture of simmering water and melted butter.

Sounds crazy, but it totally works out.

The mixture gets cooked and stirred over a low flame, helping the moisture cook out.  The process is entirely satisfying.

Once some of the moisture is cooked out, we’re going to add more fat and moisture with eggs!

This is the dough after two of four eggs are added.

It looks slightly tough and glue-y.

It will smooth out with the addition of more eggs.

After four eggs are beaten into the flour mixture, the dough is glossy and smooth.  Thick and juuuuust pourable.

The dough gets piped onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Pro Tip One:  when this recipe asks you to line the baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper…. just do it.  Trust the process.

Pro Tip Two:  I used a 1/2-inch pastry tip (the #9) and disposable piping bags for this recipe.  It’s an investment…. but it’s totally worth it.  If you like to bake, disposable pastry bags and a few tips are really a great thing to have on hand.  Think on it.

I have a new obsession in my kitchen:  freeze-dried strawberries!

These strawberries are my favorite part of packaged breakfast granola.  They come in a bag of just freeze-dried berries from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.

I suppose you could even make your own freeze-dried strawberries.  That’s a whole thing that requires machinery.

Because I don’t have proper machinery… I buy the bag of freeze-dried berries.

I used a spice grinder (though you could use a small food processor) to grind the berries into a powder.

This is the powder that will flavor and tint our whipped cream.

The best, right?

(The Tomato Tart has an amazing use for freeze-dried strawberries.  It’s the inspiration!)

Just barely pink and full of strawberry flavor.

All you really need is a spoon.  Truth.

Because I don’t know when to stop…. we need milk chocolate.

Let’s pour hot cream over it and call it a ganache.  Come on…. what’s better than that? (nothing… duh.)

Let’s smash three desserts into one!

Profiteroles + Strawberry Cream + Milk Chocolate Sauce

Nothing bitter.  It’s all just sweet.  Let’s keep it sweet.

This recipe is slightly adapted from Thomas Keller.  Ok… so it’s ballsy to adapt a Keller recipe… to be sure.  But!  I added strawberry cream.  I’m sure he’d understand.

If you don’t have access to freeze-dried strawberries, you can make a whipped cream filling with vanilla beans, you can add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder and double the powdered sugar, or you can add a splash of bourbon.  You’ve got options.

This might not be the sort of recipe you’d think to make.  I know… there are a lot of steps.  I know… you’re cooking dough.  It might feel weird and overwhelming.  Try something new!  Surprise your kitchen brain.  It needs surprising.