Don't buy cream puffs and eclairs (they are crazy-cheap to make!)

(It was a rainy Thursday afternoon. I was stuck inside all afternoon, so guess what? You get me this morning, as I had time to type up what I was doing -- baking. Now aren't you lucky?! Haha!)

This week, the grocery ads for Mother's Day are featuring cream puffs and eclairs for $6 for a 7 to 9-count package.

They are so easy to make (really!!), and crazy-cheap.

I baked 15 medium-size cream puffs the other day, for under $1. Here's the breakdown in cost:

• 1/2 cup butter -- 50 cents
• 4 eggs -- 36 cents
• 1 cup all-purpose flour -- 8 cents
• 1/4 teaspoon salt -- 1 cent

total to make my own cream puffs -- 95 cents. Even if your grocery costs are double mine, it would still be under $2 to make a batch of 12 to 15 cream puffs. My filling (whipped cream and fruit -- remember the whipped cream I bought on markdown, whipped, then froze back in February?) will cost about 50 cents for the whole batch. So for me, my price per cream puff will be about 10 cents per filled puff. The grocery store cream puffs work out to almost $1 per cream puff!

So you're thinking, "what do I need 15 cream puffs for?" Well, unfilled cream puffs freeze beautifully. You can use however many at a time that you need. And since the batter to make them is not at all sweet, you can use them to hold savory as well as sweet fillings. I sometimes make tiny cream puffs (referred to as cocktail-size) to fill with chicken salad, to take to potlucks.

Cream puffs are egg-risen. Once they puff up, they have a hollowed out spot inside, just right for a dollop of filling.

For a dessert, I pull frozen, unfilled cream puffs out from the freezer, allow to come to room temperature for 20 minutes, on the counter, then fill with either sweetened whipped cream, ice cream, or homemade vanilla pudding. You can frost the tops, sprinkle with powdered (confectioner's) sugar, or drizzle with a chocolate glaze or syrup.

What's the best, though, is if these are for guests, they look so spectacular everyone thinks I'm some sort of master baker!

I bake the cream puffs, in advance, so I'm not rushed at the last minute. (I baked the Mother's Day brunch ones on the Thursday before Mother's Day, then froze unfilled.) If more than a day in advance, I pop them into a ziploc and freeze them.

Here's the recipe I've been using for the last 30 years, and that my mother used for 20 years before that.

For 12 to 15 3-inch diameter cream puffs:

ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

equipment:

heavy-bottomed medium saucepan

large spoon

small bowl and fork

rubber spatula

large baking sheet

Prep:

Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (non-convection). Grease the baking sheet.

Cook:

In the saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add butter, and stir until butter is melted. Stir in salt.

Add the flour, all at once, and stir vigorously until throughly mixed in, and a large mass develops. Remove pan from heat.

In small bowl, beat 1 egg with fork. Add to this slightly cooled flour/butter/water mixture, and beat vigorously. When thoroughly combined, break 2nd egg into small bowl, beat with fork, then beat into the flour/butter/water mixture. 

By now, the mixture is cool enough, that you can add the last 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well in between, whole, and not need to beat the eggs in a bowl first So, add the last 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat vigorously until thoroughly combined. You'll have to beat hard for about a minute or so.

With the large spoon and a rubber spatula, spoon the batter onto greased baking sheet. The dollops will be about the size of a ping pong ball, before they naturally flatten. If desired, you can flatten the "points" with the back of a spoon, dipped in water. It's not necessary, but does make them more professional-looking.

Bake:

Bake the cream puffs at 450 F, for 14 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F, and bake for about 20-22 additional minutes, until golden.

Allow to sit on baking sheet for about 1 minute, then remove to a cooling rack. Cool throughly.

Filling cream puffs:

Just before serving, use a serrated knife to cut 1/3 off of the top, leaving a large hollow inside. Fill with sweetened, whipped cream, ice cream, cornstarch pudding or meat/egg-based salad. For the dessert cream puffs, you can also add a few slices of strawberries or a few blueberries, after the whipped cream. Replace the tops.

(Fill just prior to serving, as the pastry will become soggy if they sit too long already-filled.)

Once filled, sprinkle with powdered (confectioner's) sugar, drizzle with chocolate glaze or syrup, or ice with a thin frosting.

These freeze beautifully. Once cooled, slide into a large ziploc, whole and uncut, and store in freezer up to 4 months.

As far as calories go (I really am trying to cut back on extra calories, I know, hard to believe when you see me posting about cream puffs), these are only as naughty as you make them. Unfilled, each one has 107 calories. If filled with sliced strawberries (13 calories for 1/4 cup sliced) and use a fat-free whipped topping (15 calories for 2 tablespoons fat-free Cool Whip), then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar, you can make a "decadent" dessert for under 150 calories. Even if using real whipped cream (30 calories for 2 tablespoons whipped), instead of fat-free whipped topping, the calorie count only "jumps" to 150 calories.

To make eclairs:

For eclairs, the recipe is exactly the same, only instead of using a spoon to form the dough on baking sheets, fill a pastry/icing bag, without the tip, with the dough. Pipe in ribbons, directly onto greased baking sheet, 1-inch wide, 3-inches long. Bake as above, at 450 F to start, then 325 F to finish, until golden. Slice eclairs horizontally, and fill with ice cream, whipped cream or cornstarch pudding.