Cream Puffs

Since I made some Angel Food Cupcakes the other day, I was left with 12 egg yolks. 

I would never throw them away. Never ever.

My mother taught me better than that.

So I decided to make pastry cream. A big batch of creamy deliciousness. One can do a lot of things with pastry cream, but I decided on making cream puffs, since my better half is so fond of them. 

Cream Puffs

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 whole eggs, room temperature

Vanille extract, optional

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Slowly heat water, butter, salt and sugar in a heavy saucepan until the mixture boils. Decrease heat to medium and add 1 cup of flour. Mix until the dough forms a ball. Take off the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

2. Using a wooden spoon or a mixer, beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Mix until a sticky dough forms. You can add some vanilla extract if you'd like. This can decrease the possibly eggy taste.

3. Drop spoonfuls (about 1-inch diameter) of dough onto the baking sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. (You can poke a small hole on the side of the shells with a toothpick right when they come out of the oven to prevent deflating. I've never had to do this though). Let the shells cool.

4. Split and fill the shells with pastry cream or pudding filling. 

Pudding Filling

1 pkg (3.5 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 1/2 cups milk or half-and-half

12 oz whipped topping

Mix together pudding mix and milk. Fold in whipped topping. Cover and refrigerate.