One might ask why the holiday-scheduling powers that be allowed January 2nd to become National Cream Puff Day. Haven’t we just finished six weeks of heavy eating? Don’t we have resolutions to diet in the New Year? Aren’t we running out of gyms?

But, since it is National Cream Puff Day, a few words of puffery:

Cream puffs are made from pâte à choux (pot-ah-shoo), also called choux paste, cream puff paste or puff pastry.

This very versatile dough is used for both sweet and savory pastries.

 
Pâte à choux is made by combining flour, butter, and boiling water, then beating eggs into the mixture until it becomes very sticky and pastelike. During baking, the eggs create irregular domes in the pastry.
 
> Learn how to make pâte à choux.

> Here’s a cream puff recipe from chocolatier Michael Recchiuti.
 
 
CREAM PUFF HISTORY

Of those two pastries that people consider siblings, the cream puff and the éclair, the cream puff is the elder, dating back to the late 16th century. The elongated éclair did not appear until 200 years later, in the late 18th century.

Originally, the cream puff was filled with whipped cream and served plain (or late, dusted with powdered sugar). Now, the round pastry, which is piped from a bag and baked, is often halved horizontally, as in the photo at right. Profiteroles, cream puffs stuffed with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce, are a 20th-century dish.

Today, both can be prepared in any way that the pastry chef can conceive, from pistachio whipped cream and glaze to saffron custard with caramel glaze to blueberry jam with cassis whipped cream and cassis glaze. Some cream puffs have chocolate-glazed tops, similar to the éclair.

[2] There are also savory cream puffs, like this one of mozzarella and porcini mushrooms in choux paste (photo © Balsamic Vinegar of Modena The Original).