Strawberry Cream Puffs

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Fancy a baking adventure? These Strawberry Cream Puffs are just the ticket! They’re a little project with big rewards: fluffy, creamy, and bursting with strawberry flavor!

Recipe At a Glance

There are many ways you can make strawberry cream puffs. Here’s my take: choux pastry topped with crumb topping and filled with strawberry pastry cream lightened with whipped cream. It’s my Choux au Craquelin, but with strawberry diplomat cream instead of whipped cream.

If you’d like a more flavor-intensive option, replace the strawberry pastry cream with strawberry curd, and keep the rest the same.

The pastry looks beautiful if you top it with fresh strawberries, tastes excellent, and doesn’t require any special skills to prepare. The only downside is that the preparation takes a while.

(If you’re short on time, I cover ways to simplify the dessert later in the article.)

That’s all you need to know for now. Let’s dive right in.

If you’re making these strawberry cream puffs for the first time, please read the ingredients notes, step-by-step instructions, and tips. If you’re familiar with the recipe, feel free to jump to the recipe card.

Ingredients Notes and Substitutes

Choux Pastry

• Water and milk. Full-fat milk works best, but skim should work in a pinch. I wouldn’t experiment with vegan milk, as it might alter the flavor of the choux. It’s better to use just water instead.
• All-purpose flour.
• Unsalted butter.
• Eggs.
• Salt and sugar. Sugar alternatives are perfectly fine.

Crumb Topping

• Unsalted butter.
• All-purpose flour.
• Brown sugar. You can use white sugar instead of brown sugar.
• Red food dye. Great if you want to impress your eaters, but totally optional.

Strawberry Diplomat Cream

• Milk: Whole fat works best as the fat adds that extra bit of richness.
• Strawberries: Fresh, frozen, or canned are all okay. You’ll blend and strain them anyway, so no one will know the difference.
• Lemon juice. Optional, but helps enhance the flavor.
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is best, but you can also use potato starch; just halve the amount. Check out my article on cornstarch versus potato starch for more details.
• Sugar: Regular white sugar works well, but feel free to use any sweetener you like, making sure you adjust the amount.
• Egg Yolks.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds a bit of flavor to the cream, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you skipped it. If you want to use vanilla beans instead, check out my article on creme patissiere where I cover infusing the milk with beans.
• Butter: Use unsalted full-fat butter.
• Heavy cream: Choose the one you use for whipping.
• Gelatin: I use powdered gelatin, but feel free to use leaves if you like.

How to Make Strawberry Cream Puffs

Here’s a brief overview:

1. We prep the streusel so that it’s ready for the choux pastry.
2. We make the strawberry pastry cream, so it has time to chill before we combine it with whipped cream and pipe it inside our puffs.
3. We prep the choux pastry, combine it with the streusel we made earlier, and bake the puffs.
4. Once the puffs cool a bit and the pastry cream is warm but not hot, we whip the heavy cream, combine it with the pastry cream, and pipe the puffs.

Let’s get into the details.

Step 1: Make Crumb Topping

(For more detailed information and tips on crumb topping, check out my article on streusel topping.)

1. Warm Up Butter: Take the butter out, chop it into cubes, and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. We want it nice and soft. Skip if you’re in a hurry.
2. Mix Dry Ingredients: Grab a medium bowl and mix your sugar and flour.
3. Add Butter: Add that room-temperature butter to the mix and mix the ingredients using a fork until you achieve a homogeneous mass. A mixer will also do the trick.

4. Add Food Dye: If using, add the food dye and stir it until well incorporated. Start with a bit and add more if needed. Use gloves if you’re incorporating the dye using your hands (which is probably the best way).

5. Roll Out: Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment paper or silicone mats, and roll it out thin – aiming for about 1/10 inch or 2 to 3mm thick. When it starts getting tough to roll, peel off the top layer, place it on your work surface, and then flip the dough over onto it. Finish by peeling off and placing the other layer back. Repeat whenever it gets hard to roll.

6. Refrigerate: Pop the rolled-out dough, still between the sheets, in the fridge for about 30 minutes. That’s when you can start working on choux pastry. For best results, place the rolled-out dough on something that will retain a low temperature for longer, like a cutting board.
7. Cut: Once the dough is nice and cold, cut it into disks slightly larger than your puffs. Once all the necessary shapes are cut out, gather the remaining streusel scraps using a pairing knife or an offset spatula, form them into a ball, and roll it out or freeze for next time. Be quick here because the dough softens fast.

8. Refrigerate: Put the cut streusel into the fridge, where it’ll wait until your choux pastry is ready and piped. You can prepare the streusel the day before you need it and leave it overnight in the fridge, or do it even sooner and freeze the disks.

Step 2: Make Strawberry Pastry Cream

(Check out my (strawberry pastry cream)[link strawberry pastry cream] recipe for tips and info on how to make the pastry cream more or less intense.)

1. Bloom Gelatin: Whisk gelatin with water in a small bowl and let the mixture sit on the counter.
2. Prep Strawberries: Thaw frozen strawberries beforehand or gently cook them in a saucepan with a splash of water until they soften. If using canned strawberries, make sure to drain them well. For fresh strawberries, wash them and remove the stems.

3. Make Strawberry Puree: Pop the strawberries into a blender and blitz them into a puree. Strain this through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds, aiming for a smooth texture.

4. Prep Pot: Set aside 1/4 cup of milk, then pour the rest into a saucepan along with the strawberry puree, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and sugar. Whisk these together until they’re nicely blended.

5. Cook: Place the saucepan over medium heat and warm the mixture until it’s just about to boil, stirring regularly to avoid cooking the egg. Frequent whisking is crucial here—every 30 seconds, increasing to more frequent stirring as it heats up.
6. Prep Starch Slurry: While the mixture heats, mix the reserved milk with cornstarch in a small bowl until the cornstarch is evenly dispersed.

7. Add Starch Slurry: As soon as you see bubbles forming in the saucepan, remove it from the heat and swiftly stir in the starch slurry. If the slurry has settled, give it a quick stir to redistribute the starch before adding.
8. Cook Until Thick and Bubbly: Return the pot to low or medium heat and keep stirring until the mixture thickens significantly and begins to bubble. This should take between 2 to 4 minutes, depending on your stove and pot. Don’t rush this step to prevent the yolks from curdling.

9. Take Off the Heat and Whisk: Once thickened, remove the pot from the heat and whisk vigorously for another minute to ensure it’s smoothly thickened.
10. Stir in Butter: Drop in the butter and mix until it’s fully melted and incorporated into the cream.

11. Taste Test: Carefully taste the cream—it’ll be hot! Adjust with more sugar or vanilla if needed. If you’re adding lemon juice, now is the time.
12. Stir in Gelatin: Grab the bowl with the bloomed gelatin and scoop its contents into the pastry cream. Whisk until the gelatin melts and is incorporated.

13. (Optional) Strain: If you notice any lumps or cooked egg bits in your pastry cream, pour it through a strainer into a bowl to achieve a uniform texture.
14. Cover and Chill: Lay plastic wrap directly on the surface to avoid a skin forming. Let it cool at room temperature until it’s at about 100°F (or 40°C) before you add the whipped cream in step 5.

Step 3: Make Choux Pastry

(Read my article on choux pastry for a more detailed description and tips on working with choux pastry!)

1. Preheat Oven. Start by preheating your oven to 390°F (200°C).
2. Melt Butter and Bring to a Boil. In a pot, combine butter, milk, water, salt, and sugar, then bring the mixture to a boil, ensuring the butter is fully melted.

3. Add Flour. Take the pot off the heat, add all the flour to the mixture at once, and stir until it roughly combines. Bring the pot back to the stove and continue stirring with a spoon over low heat. The dough will thicken and clump quickly, but you should continue stirring the mixture for 2-3 minutes, ensuring all the flour is incorporated and no white floury spots are inside. While stirring, scrape the dough from the sides and bottom to prevent sticking. After 2-3 minutes, the dough should be glossy and easy to detach from the pot, and a thin layer, or film, should form on the bottom.

4. Transfer. Move the dough to a mixing bowl and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Spreading it across the bowl can speed up cooling.
5. Prepare Eggs. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk them.

6. Make Dough. Once the dough has cooled slightly, start mixing it with a hand mixer at medium speed. After 20-30 seconds of mixing, add half the eggs to the dough and mix until incorporated. Repeat by adding half of the leftover egg mixture. Now it’s time to get the dough to the right consistency: you want it thick enough to hold its shape but still pipeable. The V-Shape test is the best way to check for that: Dip your mixer whisks or spatula into the dough and lift it. The dough should slowly fall off, eventually leaving a piece of dough hanging that forms a characteristic ‘V’ shape or a triangle at the end of the whisk or spatula. If the dough is not there yet, continue adding the eggs bit by bit and checking the consistency.

Step 4: Pipe and Bake Cream Puffs

(Check out my cream puffs article for more info on making cream puffs.)

1. Prepare Baking Tray. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Optionally, draw 2-inch circles on the underside of the parchment as guides, spaced about 1 1/5 inches apart, for uniformly sized cream puffs.

2. Set up for piping. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a round tip or use a plastic food bag with a corner cut off.
3. Pipe the dough. Start by holding your piping bag with a round tip vertically above the baking sheet. Begin piping by gently squeezing the bag, letting the pastry build into a mound. As you form the mound, lift the bag slowly, still squeezing, to let the pastry stack upon itself. Keep the tip partially in the forming mound, guiding it to expand up and out. Aim for about 3/4 inches in height and 2 inches in diameter. To finish, stop squeezing and smoothly pull the tip up and away, leaving a small peak. You can lightly pat this down with a damp finger.

4. Add streusel. Once the puffs are piped, take the crumb topping discs from the fridge and place one on top of each piped mound, pressing gently.

5. Bake. Place the tray in the preheated oven, then immediately reduce the temperature to 356°F (180°C). Bake for 40 minutes. Open the door a tiny bit (and leave them open) for the last 5 minutes for any buildup steam to escape. If the puffs start to brown before the 35-minute mark, lower the temperature to 320°F (or 160°C).
6. Cool. Remove the puffs from the oven, let them cool for 10 minutes, then carefully detach them from the parchment paper or silicone mat and let them cool on a wire rack for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Step 5: Make Strawberry Diplomat Cream

(Check out my diplomat cream article for more details on making and using the cream.)

1. Whip Heavy Cream: Whip heavy cream until stiff peak form. Refrigerate if the pastry cream isn’t ready yet.

2. Pastry Cream Prep: Before starting, make sure the pastry cream is slightly warm to the touch, but definitely not hot. As mentioned earlier, 100°F or 40°C is the sweet spot. If it’s still too warm, you can chill it in a cold water bath, stirring every now and then. If it’s much colder and has started gelling, you can warm it up in a double boiler until it’s warm and not as stiff. Whisk the pastry cream well before adding whipped cream.
3. Fold Whipped Cream: Add about one-third of the whipped cream to the pastry cream and stir it together. That helps loosen it up before adding the rest. Repeat with the second and third portions of the whipped cream. When folding, be gentle, as you don’t want to deflate the whipped cream or overbeat it.

Step 6: Pipe and Serve

1. Pipe: Scoop the strawberry diplomat cream into a piping bag or syringe and fill the puffs. I filled these from the top (as I planned to add a decoration to cover it up), but you can also start at the bottom. Don’t worry about the cream oozing out — it thickens up nicely in the fridge.

2. Refrigerate: Tuck the filled puffs and the remaining diplomat cream into the fridge for about an hour. That should be enough time for the cream to firm up. If it’s still a bit wobbly, give it another half hour to an hour in the cold.
3. Pipe Decorations: When the cream is set, give it a quick whisk to make it smooth and workable again, then pop it into a clean piping bag. Add a little swirl of cream on top of each puff and crown it with a whole strawberry for a finishing touch.

4. Serve: You can serve these right after decorating or keep them chilled until it’s time to wow your guests.

Variations

Here are some ideas for modifying this recipe according to your needs and time constraints.

Simplify

• Skip Crumb Topping: While the crumb topping adds a wonderful crunch to the puffs, preparing it can be time-consuming and somewhat tedious. If you prefer, omit this step and simply dust the puffs with powdered sugar, or opt for a straightforward chocolate ganache. The ganache, as I showed in my vanilla cream puffs recipe, takes only 10 minutes to prepare, plus some cooling time. Consider using strawberry-flavored chocolate in the ganache for an extra burst of strawberry taste. Without the crumb topping, you don’t need as much pastry cream because the puffs won’t expand as much, allowing for less filling. Therefore, reduce the filling ingredients by a quarter.
• Stick with Pastry Cream: Rather than preparing creme diplomat, which involves combining whipped cream with pastry cream and stabilizing it with gelatin, you can fill the puffs with pastry cream. Remove the gelatin and heavy cream from the mix and triple the remaining pastry cream ingredients (or double if you’re omitting the top decoration). This approach results in a denser, richer filling as it doesn’t incorporate the lightness of whipped cream.

Elevate

• Add Glaze: For an extra touch of elegance, prepare a simple powdered sugar glaze. In a mixing bowl, whisk one cup of powdered sugar with a splash of vanilla extract and enough milk or lemon juice (typically 1 to 1.5 tablespoons) to achieve a consistency suitable for drizzling. This will enhance the visual appeal and add a sweet, refined finish to your cream puffs.

Storage

You can store these cream puffs in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Make sure the container is sealed tightly so they don’t absorb any smells.

Please note that the crumb topping will gradually soften in storage, so these are best served fresh or after a couple of hours in the fridge. The overall quality will be noticeably worse the next day.

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