Beard Papa Cream Puff (Copycat)
This is a copycat recipe of Pie cream puffs sold at Japanese famous cream puff shops, Beard Papa. You can also enjoy a nice contrast between a flaky pie crust and a silky diplomat cream (a mixture of pastry cream and whipped cream) inside!
Servings 8 cream puffs (about 12 cm / 5-inch in diameter)
Ingredients
Cream puff shells
- puff pastry sheets store-bought or homemade
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) water
- 56 g (1/2 stick of better in the us) unsalted butter diced
- a pinch of salt
- 80 g (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour sub. plain white flour
- 3 egg
Diplomat cream
- 2 egg
- 5 tbsp (75 g) granulated sugar
- 400 ml (13.6 fl oz) whole milk sub. other dairy milk or almond milk
- 3 tbsp (30 g) all-purpose flour sub. plain white flour
- 100 ml (3.5 oz) whipping cream sub. heavy cream
Instructions
STEP 1: Preparing puff pastry sheets
- Roll the puff pastry sheets with a rolling pin into less than 1 mm (0.04 inch) in thickness. Then cut into 11 cm (4.3-inch) square to prepare 8 thin puff pastry sheets.
- Wrap the puff pastry sheets separately and set aside in the fridge.
STEP:2 Making diplomat cream
- Place the egg and the sugar in a sauce pan and whisk until the mixture is pale yellow.
- Add the flour and whisk to blend. Then pour the milk and whisk vigorously over medium heat until thicken for about 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and cover the surface of the pastry cream with plastic wrap. Let it cool down to room temperature.
- (From this step, you can do while baking the cream puffs.) Beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks with an electric mixer.
- Combine the whipped cream and the pastry cream and gently mix. Set aside in the fridge.
STEP 3: Making cream puff shells
- Preheat oven to 200 °C / 400 °F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the diced butter, a pinch of salt and 125 ml (1/2 cup) of water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat until the butter melted, twirling the pan occasionally.
- Meanwhile boiling the mixture, beat the eggs well in a bowl.
- Remove from the heat and add the shifted flour and quickly stir with a wooden spatula/spoon until well blended.
- Bring it back on the stove and continue to stir over low heat for 30 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and add 1/3 of the beaten egg to the mixture in the pan and quickly stir.
- Add the remaining beaten egg little by little, stirring each addition until it become like pastry cream but a little thicker. More specifically, if you lift up the spatula from the cream puff paste, the paste with the spatula holds a few seconds and fall down very slowly. Some of the beaten egg will be remained.
- Place the puff pastry sheets on the parchment paper. Then evenly place the cream puff paste on the center of the each puff pastry sheets with a spoon, making about 6 cm (2 1/2 inch) circles.
- Gently wrap the cream puff paste with the puff pastry sheets. Then brush the remained beaten egg on the pie sheets.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180 °C / 350 °F and continue to baking for another 20 - 25 minutes until crispy. Do not open the oven throughout the baking process.
- When baking is finished, leave the cream puffs in the oven with the door closed for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and cool down to room temperature.
STEP 4: Assemble
- Cut the shells into half and fill the diplomat cream with a spoon. Or make a hole on the side and pipe the cream with a piping bag.
- After filling the cream, serve straight way while the shells are crispy.
