Catrina’s Easy (Cheater) Cream Puffs

Ingredients:

1 c. water

½ c. butter

1 c. all-purpose flour

4   eggs

Instant vanilla pudding mix

2 containers of heavy whipping cream

Procedure for Puffs:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Heat water and butter to a rolling boil.  Add flour and stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball, then remove from heat.  Beat in the eggs (quickly so they don’t cook before being mixed in).  It will look weird, but its correct.  Drop dough by ¼ c. on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown.  Let cool.

Prepare the fillings:

Okay, this is the totally cheating part because I don’t like to hang out over a hot stove (especially in the summer) cooking custard.  So, don’t tell that I’m a big cheater and just mix the instant pudding mix with the heavy whipping cream until thickened and use this instead of the traditional custard.  In another bowl, beat heavy whipping cream and sufficient powdered sugar to sweeten until thick (or just cheat even more and pop out the CoolWhip).

Assemble the cream puffs:

The cream puffs should be nice and golden and puffed but when you cut off the tops, it has some undercooked “filaments” inside.  For each creampuff, cut the top off and set the “hat” to the side.  Pull out the ucky “filaments”.  Fill with fakey custard mix and then some whipped cream (real stuff is better, but if you really want to cheat, use CoolWhip).  Replace the little “hat” and sprinkle with powdered sugar.