Mousse Puffs

I've been wanting to make these cream puffs for a couple of weeks now and got the chance to last night. Instead of filling them with the whipped cream, I filled the choux pastry with extra mousse from the chocolate overdose cake and drizzilied them with chocolate ganache. I also added some powdered sugar for garnish. They were delicious! That mousse from the cake is still to die for and the pastry shells baked with the perfect texture. The recipe only yields 12 and I already want to make more!

Cream Puffs

as seen on Joy of Baking

Choux Pastry 

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
2. In a bowl sift together the flour, sugar and salt. Set aside.
3. Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat and let boil. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon or spatula, quickly add the flour mixture. Return to heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball.
4. Transfer the dough to your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, and beat on low speed a minute or two to release the steam from the dough. Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste.
5. Spoon or pipe 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing them a couple of inches apart.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes then decrease the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 35-40 minutes or until the shells turn an amber color and are dry inside when split.
7. Turn the oven off and with the oven door slightly ajar, let the shells cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completley.

To Assemble: Split the pastry shells in half and pipe filling. Place the top half of the pastry shell on the filling and dust with powdered sugar.