12.4 Steam Leavening: Cream Puffs and Popovers

Objectives

  • To prepare baked products that have little gluten development.
  • To demonstrate the techniques needed to produce a steam-leavened product.
  • To determine the importance of the emulsion to the success of a steam-leavened cream puff.

 

Cream Puffs

Yield: 5 medium puffs

2 tbsp. butter 1 egg, blended
¼  cup water ¼ cup sifted flour
Vanilla Pudding

Heat oven to 425°F.  Add butter to water in saucepan.  Bring just to a boil.  Immediately remove from heat and add all the flour.  Stir quickly until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms a ball around the spoon.  Cool slightly and add egg in two portions, beating well after each addition.  Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet; do not add to puffs already on pan.  Bake at 425°F for 20 minutes; reduce heat to 325°F and bake 10 minutes.  Turn off heat.  Pierce each cream puff on the side with a sharp knife, and let stand in oven for 10 minutes.  Cool and fill, with vanilla pudding.

 

Vanilla Pudding

¼ cup sugar 1 cup milk
1 ½  Tbsp cornstarch 1 ½ tsp butter
1/8 tsp salt ½ tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened.  Reduce heat; cook and stir 1 minutes longer.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.  Pour into serving dish and cool.

 

Popovers

Yield: 4 medium popovers

½ cup milk ⅛ tsp. salt
1 egg ½ cup sifted flour

Heat oven to 425°F.  Prepare popover pan.* Combine ingredients in small mixing bowl; beat with rotary beater until smooth. Fill cups ⅓ to ½ full.  Bake at 425°F for 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325°F and bake 15 minutes.  Turn off heat, pierce each popover with a sharp knife, and let stand for 10 minutes.  Serve warm with butter and jam.

* Cast iron pans require preheating and should be greased before preheating.  Coated steel pans require greasing, but not preheating.

 

Characteristics of the Standard Product:

Cream Puffs

Appearance Texture Flavor
Volume three to four times that of dough, irregular surface.

Uniform, golden brown crust.

Hollow interior.

Crisp yet tender outer crust.

Interior slightly moist.

Mild flavor, with no predominance of egg flavor.

Popovers

Appearance Texture Flavor
Volume up to five times that of batter, dark golden brown crust, irregular shape.

Hollow interior.

Crisp yet tender outer crust.

Interior slightly moist.

Mild pleasing flavor.

Evaluation

Product Appearance Texture Flavor
Cream Puffs
Popovers

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Basic Scientific Food Preparation Lab Manual Copyright © 2023 by Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.