Gluten Free Cream Puffs with Toffee Whipped Cream

My Childhood Dream Dessert Recipe

Hello Friends,

When I was 12 years old I received a copy of Julia Child’s seminal book. It was old and frayed then (even more so now) and seemed like an entirely new world of adventure to me. An overly emotional middle schooler with a penchant for coffee shop poetry readings and intentionally offbeat clothing choices I was painfully nerdy and resembled a small 40-year-old in my interests. To me, this book was GOLD.

One of the first recipes I tackled was for choux pastry - that is to say, the pastry used in cream puffs, profiteroles, and eclairs. My friends and I would put together cream puffs filled with boxed pudding for sleepovers! I felt so fancy, after all

Dorie Greenspan

thinks the reason pâte à choux dough was invented in the 16th century was so that Catherine de Medici could serve cream puffs to her royal court in France. Ooh la la.

Years later I became enamored with a Japanese chain of cream puff restaurants that filled giant puffs with your choice of filling right in front of you - Beard Papa’s (does that still exist?) My dream is stumbling on a gluten free version of this simple and fun dessert shop idea!

I do still love a cream puff (or profiterole - I mean filling something with ice cream is never out of place) but I’ve learned over the years that making these pastries gluten free requires a few simple tricks for the puffiest pastry delights. The method is not too different from a Brazilian cheese bread recipe - a naturally gluten free bread.

First things first, it’s really important to choose the best flour for the job here. I’ve learned through many tests (and their resulting failures) that any gluten free flour blend that includes sweet white rice flour otherwise known as mochi flour will result in deflated puffs. It’s just too heavy friends. So… if the blue back of Bob’s is your go-to (or any other flour that includes sweet white rice) save that for another recipe. It won’t work here.

Another important tip is that when you first cook this double-cooked dough on the stovetop - make sure that you keep it over the heat until a light film of dough develops on the bottom of the pan - that ensures that enough moisture has been cooked off to have light instead of heavy dough.

My third crucial tip is that after you’ve baked your puffs, poke a little hole in them (the tip of a knife or toothpick works) to let extra steam escape while they’re cooling, and you’ll be rewarded with lovely crisp puffs.

Happy Baking,

Rachel

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Gluten Free Cream Puffs with Toffee Whipped Cream

Yield: 12