Inspired by Royals | Lorde

Want a little bit of general truth? It’s fucking freezing.

Want some more? Everybody likes cream puffs, and they are easy to make!

So yes, it’s simple, whenever you come home pissed off, caught in a wintery depression you can either go down and eat shit or you can take care of yourself and eventually cheer yourself – and perhaps even friends – up. Prove Lorde wrong, offer yourself a royal treatment, and a good sugar rush! It’s nice, it’s warm, it’s filled with your favorite garnish and dipped into caramel…hello?!

It seems complicated, long, and annoying… but it’s all the opposite. It’s an easy recipe actually and it’s quite inexpensive also – and it always impresses!

| Ingredients |

Cream Puffs

_ 250g of water

_ 80g of unsalted butter

_ 150g of flour

_ 4 eggs

_ 5g of salt

Caramel

_ 200g of sugar

_ 10g of water

| Method |

Ok let’s go! Start by preheating your oven to 170°.

The first thing on our task list is to work the ‘panade’ which is this pastry base made of water, flour and butter. Pour the water and the diced butter in a pan and let it warm up. Normally after a few seconds after the boiling point the butter should be completely melted. Add the salt and the flour at one go. The only technical difficulty is to make a dry ‘panade’ (stir it at lower heat with a wooden spoon to make sure the extra water evaporates) and it’s very important that you get this done as it will be the key to a quick and perfect baking process.

Take out the pan and add the eggs one by one (quick though to avoid coagulation) mixing with energy!

When the mixture is ready, fill a piping bag right away (no cooling) or a zip-loc bag if that’s what you have – it will work fine.

Lay your soon-to-be puffs in lines, crosses or circles on baking paper and bake for one hour at 170°. Time can vary : the puffs need to be hard on the outside and dry on the inside. Watch them closely and try as you go.

As for garnishment, cut a small hole on the bottom of the puffs and fill them with pastry cream, Nutella, Dulce the Leche (which is NOT caramel > google is your friend) or even goiabada (which is a huge addiction of mine ; a sort of between-jam-and-fruit-jelly that you can buy @ Coisas do Brasil in Paris).

To finish, cook a 160° caramel (sugar, water and a lot of patience in a pan, that’s all) and dip your puffs one by one.  

Don’t forget to drink some water between the 4th and 5th cream puff swallowed after 10 minutes.

♫ And we’ll never be royals (royals)…