Double Chocolate Cream Puffs
Filled with a rich chocolate pudding and topped with a decadent chocolate glaze, these Double Chocolate Cream Puffs will satisfy any chocoholic in your family!
This post may contain paid links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.
Are you guys ready for the holidays? Have you made your list and checked it twice? Are your presents all wrapped under the perfectly decorated tree? Hah!
The holidays always seem to come with a crazy amount of hustle and bustle. But here’s the thing. I don’t mind it. Sure, I don’t enjoy standing in long lines…or worse, fighting the mall traffic to get a parking spot 1.4 miles away from the mall entrance. But in general, I don’t mind the craziness. It’s the holidays, after all!
Baby Robbie is getting ready for his first Christmas. I know he won’t remember one bit of it…but darn it, he’s gonna be ready! We’ve even got a nice little collection of Christmas books started for him already. Of course there’s The Polar Express and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Those are classics! But we’ve also added The Cajun Night Before Christmas and Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator.
As the story goes, the light on Rudolph’s nose had gone out, and Santa needed a replacement on short notice. Sacre! He noticed Gaston flying over the bayous of south Louisiana, and Santa called him into service. Christmas was saved…by a flying alligator! Just reading all of these kids’ books again really brings back that sense of boyhood wonder and imagination. I wonder if our son will sit at the window on Christmas Eve looking for a flying alligator. If so, I’ll be right there next to him with my binoculars!
The holidays are the perfect excuse to have all sorts of tasty desserts on hand. I’ve been wanting to make either cream puffs or eclairs lately, so I hit the kitchen and whipped up these Double Chocolate Cream Puffs. Filled with a rich chocolate pudding and topped with a decadent chocolate glaze, these cream puffs will satisfy the taste buds of even the most devout chocoholics in your family!
What are your favorite childhood holiday books?
Do you like chocolate?
Double Chocolate Cream Puffs
Ingredients
For the Shells
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
For the Chocolate Filling
- 2 cups heavy cream divided
- 4 large egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chopped
For the Chocolate Glaze
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ Tbsp corn syrup
- 1 tsp water
Instructions
For the Shells
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Using a medium saucepan, add the water, butter and salt. Heat over medium heat until mixture begins to boil rapidly. Remove pan from the heat and add the flour all at once; stir vigorously to combine.
- Place the saucepan back over medium heat and stir constantly until mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan (1-2 minutes).
- Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool for 8-10 minutes. (If you have a thermometer, the ideal temperature is 140°F.)
- Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a countertop mixer and add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly on medium-low speed after each addition. Once all the eggs have been added, mix for 2-3 more minutes.
- Drop ¼ cup mounds of dough onto a parchment lined sheet pan. (Tip: Leave at least 2” between the mounds.)
- Bake at 425° for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking for another 15 minutes.
- Turn the oven off and open the door slightly. Allow the baked shells to cool in the oven for 30 minutes, and then transfer to a countertop to cool completely. (see note)
For the Chocolate Filling
- Using a medium saucepan, add 1 cup of heavy cream; heat over medium-high until hot, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
- Slowly pour the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly as you pour. Transfer this mixture back into saucepan.
- Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat and then continue cooking for 1 more minute, stirring constantly the entire time. Remove custard from the heat, and continue stirring for another 2-3 minutes.
- Using a double-boiler or a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt chocolate until smooth.
- Stir chocolate into custard; set aside.
- Beat remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into custard, stirring until smooth.
For the Chocolate Glaze
- Using a double-boiler or a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water, add all of the ingredients (chocolate, butter, corn syrup and water) to the bowl, and stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Remove mixture from heat and allow it to cool at room temperature for 20 minutes before applying to the cream puffs.
To Assemble Cream Puffs
- Using a serrated knife, slice the top half off of each shell.
- Fill a pastry bag fitted with a medium-sized round tip with the Chocolate Filling. Pipe a thick layer of cream onto the bottom half of each shell. Set shells aside.
- Pour the Chocolate Glaze in a shallow bowl. Dip the top of each cream puff into the chocolate. Turn the top upright, and rotate it side to side slightly to create an even surface to the glaze. (If necessary, use an offset spatula to help even out the glaze.)
- Place the tops on the filled shells.
- Let cool at room temperature or in refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving (to allow the chocolate to set).
Haha – now this is question “do I like chocolate” is a hypothetical one right???
David – Iwish I had read The Cajun Night Before Christmas and Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator to Lil Shashi when she was little – those sound like a hoot and a holler! And – speaking of a hoot and a holler – so are these treats – heck 1.4 mile hike to the mall means you can have seconds of these puffs right? Wait – I said you – I actually meant ME!!! I decided to paint our family room during Thanksgiving and now I’m so behind this year – we’ve had our tree up and standing naked in our living room for the past 2 days – we need to start decorating tonight…maybe I need some DOUBLE chocolate cream puffs to get me motivated – I’m sending over my drone to steal some!
Hey, who says you can’t read The Cajun Night Before Christmas and Gaston the Green-Nosed Alligator to lil Shashi now? Call it a retro night, and read her a book in bed tonight! 🙂 I’m sure she’d go along with that plan, right? Hopefully you guys got that tree decorated…or if nothing else, you at least got some cream puffs. I think your drone got lost on the way up here. I was waiting for it, but it never showed. Perhaps if you had sent Gaston instead…
David, I’ve gained seven pounds from reading your last couple of posts! I’ll have to make a point of reading your blog only while on the treadmill. (Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll probably just do like I normally do: crack open my laptop at the doughnut shop and read it from there!) I’m planning to make what amounts to one gigantic cream puff (a Zuccotto) for Christmas, so these double-chocolate bad boys are whetting my appetite. In other news, I don’t have a tree up, and haven’t even started my Christmas shopping. 🙁
Hahaha…my apologies for the weight gain, Jeff. I guess this is my subtle way of making sure we look like Santa for the holidays. A Zuccotto, eh? I’m not familiar with this treat…but it sounds like it is right up my alley. I’m thinking a zuccotto in one hand and a shopping cart in the other is a great way to knock out some Christmas shopping this year. 🙂
I know I’ve said this already but you, my friend, are a Maitre Patissier. You don’t belong in Upstate NY but in a fancy bakery in Paris. I mean look at these cream puffs, they’re perfect. Great job D!
#WolfpackFrenchie
Hah! Upstate New York…Paris…it’s pretty much the same thing, right? I appreciate it, Mike!
Well lookie here! Another delicious chocolate treat pour moi I love that you stiuffed them with pudding because I actually don’t really the traditional like pastry cream filling that much. So smart! (but honestly I expect nothing less from you!)
And baby’s first Christmas is soooo exciting! I didn’t think it was possible, but when you said that you already had Christmas books, I loved you more! Books are everything! I’m trying to remember my favorite ones other than the classics. I’ll have to get back to you on that!
Hah! Thanks, Lindsey! I actually do like traditional pastry cream, but I figured why not stuff some chocolate pudding in these bad boys. And you’d be surprised at all of the Christmas books I have. I might have started collecting them before the little guy ever arrived. I have a thing for Christmas books I think…let me know what your favorites were and I’ll add ’em to the collection!
YUM! I can’t wait to read Christmas books to my baby Robert Moose Chunka Love!
You can read til your heart’s content, Courtney…as long as it’s at 2:30am. 🙂
Hi David! OMG these should be called Double Chocolate DREAM Puffs! I can’t wait to make these, knowing full well that I will wake up in the middle of the night and head straight for the frig! 🙂
Haha! Love that play on words there, Dorothy! Hey, there is nothing wrong with a snack in the middle of the night. We’ve had some late nights (or is it early mornings?) lately, and I’ve definitely thought about pulling out a snack to keep me awake! 🙂
Yeah…..these are pretty much made just for me! They look beautiful and soooooo…..chocolaty!
Thank you so much, Kathy! I hear that Santa really likes chocolate…just a thought! 🙂
Do I like chocolate? Are you serious, David? You could send me a whole box of chocolate, and I’ll prove it to you! Well, I will likely hate you for having sent it to me for a while once that chocolate has gone…So don’t send it to me! But I definitely love your generosity, David. Double cream, double chocolate, double lavender (ouch, the last one isn’t the perfect example). Delicious stuff (as usual)!
Oh please, you wouldn’t hate me one bit for sending chocolate, Ben! You might hate me for like 5 seconds until you opened it up. Haha! Funny enough, I’m about to go buy a bunch of local chocolate and send it off to my Dad as a Christmas present. Some of it might get lost and go north instead…
Thank goodness you can’t gain weight just by looking at food pictures, right?! I hope so anyway.
You said the magic word with this recipe….double chocolate. I mean, what could go wrong?!
Hahaha…I think the weight gain via photos is the new technology for next year, Dannii! For now, we can all just stare at each other’s photos and drool blissfully. Double chocolate is the key to happiness! 🙂
I love baby Robbie’s Christmas book collection! 🙂 Now these cream puffs? Dreamy!! I’ve never made them before but they are definitely on my baking list of new things to try.
Thanks so much, Tamara! I’m determined to make Robbie a reader like me. And you totally need to give cream puffs a shot. The dough is so very different than anything else…but really fun to make!
I loveee cream puffs! Especially with chocolate glaze! These look delicious. Cream puffs are my favorite Christmas dessert that my grandma always made every year, and I’ve been wanting to try her recipe out for myself….maybe this year!
Haha…thanks so much, Nicole! You totally should go make Grandma’s cream puffs this year…I mean the holidays are the perfect excuse, right? Plus, cream puffs are really fun to make! 🙂
Dream Puffs indeed, go Dorothy! These look outstanding. I mean is that really a custard or a heavenly mousse like creation of chocolate goodness. Superb! #WolfpackBakers
P.S. My favorite childhood book would have to be Stuart Little. Love that little guy!
I kinda wanted to just stick my face in that bowl of custard, Kevin. Except a photo of me with my face in custard just wouldn’t be the most appealing here I don’t think. Funny yes. Appealing no. 🙂 Stuart Little! Oh man, I had forgotten about him…totally need to add some Stu books to the collection now!