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Gluten Free and Dairy Free Cream Puffs!
I’m trying extremely hard to get into Pinterest, but it seems like no matter how hard I try…I just end up forgetting that It’s there! I really want to “pin” things and do whatever else Pinterest allows…but I think I’ve hit my online limit. Has there been research done on how many social networks a single person can handle in their life? My guess is 3.
The good thing about Pinterest though is that for the 5 minutes I’m logged in it gives me some awesome recipe inspiration. After I saw a picture of some cream puffs…I was seriously not going to rest until I had eaten my fair share. has there been research done on how many cream puffs a single person can handle in their life? My guess is at least 10. 
As many of you that follow my blog know…I’m Gluten Free by choice…so I set out to create a gluten-free pate a choux recipe to make these cream puffs. I have made a traditional pate a choux ever since I first stepped food in the kitchen! I actually won one of my first culinary competitions by making fried doughnuts out of a pate a choux dough. Making it gluten-free though…seemed just a little too easy. Weird…I know…but if you just substitute a gluten-free A.P. flour for the regular flour, you pretty much have a gluten-free cream puff! So I set out to really challenge myself. How do I make these Dairy Free too?
While I was testing this recipe…it scared me a couple of times. The best part about not being sure about a recipe turning out…is when the recipe turns out perfect. I was so excited when the Pate a Choux came out of the oven looking…freaking gorgeous…and both of my pastry creams turned out AMAZING. You have no choice…you have to try this recipe. You’ll never even miss the gluten or the dairy! (Okay you do have a choice…but I know you’ll be sucked into the cream puffs magical trance just like I was)
Below is the recipe for the Gluten Free and Dairy free Pate a Choux…as well as two flavors of Dairy Free Pastry Cream! Enjoy!
Gluten Free and Dairy Free Pate a Choux
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup grape seed oil
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tbsp. agave nectar
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 4 large eggs
How To
- Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees
- Combine the oil, almond milk, agave, and salt in a medium-sized saucepan. Using an immersion blender, electric mixer, or a whisk…try to mix the oil into the almond milk. It won’t ever completely come together..but don’t worry! It will still turn out just fine!
- Bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium and dump all of the gluten-free flour in at one time. Using a spoon, just stir it until the dough comes together. Then let it cook for another two minutes, stirring it to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or to a work bowl with an electric mixer standing by. Mix the dough for a minute or two and let it slightly cool off. Then start adding your eggs…one at a time. You can add the next egg once the other is completely mixed into the dough.
- After adding the eggs the dough will be nice and ribbony…which means it’s ready to bake! Using a 2 tbsp. ice cream/cookie scoop…dish out the dough onto a greased cookie sheet. This recipe makes about 16. You can also pipe out you cream puff dough into different shapes if you’d like!
- Bake for 18-20 minutes without peaking in the oven…then open the oven door about 5 inches, and leave it open with the pate a choux still in the oven for another 5 minutes.
- Once they come out of the oven…use a knife to slice a small hole in each puff to allow the steam inside to escape. (make the slice on the side of the cream puff) then allow them to cool for about 20 minutes before filling with pastry cream!
Dairy Free Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 5 tbsp. corn starch
- 2 cups almond milk
- Option #1: 1/4 tsp. whole vanilla bean paste.
- Option #2: 2 tbsp. Nutella
How To
- Bring the almond milk to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan.
- whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a big bowl until it’s nice and smooth. (add the vanilla bean paste to the egg yolk mixture now if you’ve chosen to make a vanilla bean pastry cream)
- Take the almond milk off of the heat and temper the egg yolks by pouring bout 1/2 cup of the hot milk directly into the egg yolk mixture. Whisk constantly and furiously during this time to make sure you don’t end up with scrambled eggs!
- Pour the remaining hot almond milk in with the eggs, and continue to whisk pretty furiously for one minute.
- Transfer the mixture back into the saucepan and continue to cook it on medium heat until the pastry cream is nice and thick, almost frosting consistency.
- Once your pastry cream is beautiful, it’s time to put it into a container, and then into the fridge to cool.
- It will take about 30 minute for the pastry cream to cool…but once it’s ready, just slice your pate a choux rolls in half, and fill them with the pastry cream! (if you want to turn your pastry cream into a Nutella pastry cream, just mix in the 2 tbsp. of Nutella in after it has cooled)
Serve these babies for breakfast, lunch, dinner….or I guess dessert.
Tweet me with questions! I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!
Let me know what you think in the comments.
The best gluten free lemon bar recipe ever.
Happy day after Valentines Day!
Ever since i was little I’ve been consuming massive amounts of lemon bars. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but the point is that I love them and so does my whole family. I think it’s time for me to rise to the TOP of the lemon bar ranks, and this recipe will help me do just that.
How was my Valentines day you’re wondering? Is he just going to skip the whole subject? Well the truth is I’ve never been a huge V-day fan. We should share the love with everyone everyday of the year, right? I’m starting to like this cliché day more and more though, so maybe next year you’ll see a huge valentines day blog post with a big heart-shaped cake or something.
My Valentines day did end up being really great, and lemon bar filled of course. I started out by singing my uncle a great Heytell message. “I, I love you like a love song baby…I, I love you like a love song baby” (thank you Selena Gomez.) That’s what happens when you Heytell my mom, she just hands the phone to me and says “say something to your uncle.” I then proceeded to be accidentally late to school. (it wasn’t an accident…it was calculus) After that I worked worked worked…almost like it was a regular Tuesday, until it came time to hangout and go to dinner with my awesome girlfriend. We had very romantic mexican dive bar food. The best valentines dinner ever.
To be more festive I would’ve cut these lemon bars into heart shapes…but the sad thing is, they were gone before I really thought about doing that. These bars literally fly out of the pan magically into your mouth…again and again and again. (don’t tell anybody, but I ate one for breakfast, lunch and dinner.)
**disclaimer: I never said these were healthy. Please eat them sparingly if possible. I support eating healthy, but these lemon bars are an exception. (There are quite a few exceptions if you know me really well…you just have to make them very very rarely, that’s the key)
But anyway…Enjoy these! They are the BEST.
Ingredients
for the shortbread crust
16 oz. Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
8 oz. powdered sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. lemon zest
for the lemon curd
2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
4 egg yolks
8 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups heavy whipping cream
How To
It’s a chocolaty kind of Friday
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse (Made with Tofu)
(after this recipe, read on to see how Ignite Lincoln went!)
Last week I made my version of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup…But turned it into a healthy almond butter cup. (find the recipe here) So this week I’m sticking with the chocolate and peanut butter theme!
Mousse is one of those desserts that I crave. I always want something creamy, smooth, and rich…something so chocolaty that you can feel your heart beat faster and faster with every bite you take. The thing is…I like the flavors of those kinds of foods, I just don’t believe in eating them when your body is going to be slowly rotting away. Don’t take this the wrong way though…I believe in dessert of all kinds, and I ate them for a long time! (well 16 years) But I just decided that if you can make it healthy, then why eat the unhealthy.
So for you today I have an amazing guilt free chocolate dessert. Enjoy my friends and let me know what you think!
Ingredients
- 12 oz. of Silken soft tofu
- 1/4 cup of agave nectar
- 1 cup of at least 60 percent dark chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup of water
- 2 tbsp. powdered peanut butter/ or an equal amount of regular peanut butter (all natural please, the ingredients in the jar should be peanuts and salt…that’s it)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
How to
- using a food processor or an electric hand mixer, beat the tofu in a medium-sized bowl until nice and smooth. About 2 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate chips over a double boiler. To do this find a 4 quart saucepan and fill it with about 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Dump the chocolate chips into a glass or metal bowl that snuggly fits over the top of the 4 quart saucepan. Place the bowl on top of the pan and stir the chocolate chips slowly while the steam from the simmering water below melts the chips into a velvety chocolate pool.
- Slowly add the melted chocolate into the tofu. Then you can add all of the remaining ingredients while mixing the mousse on low-speed. If you’re using a food processor just pulse the mixture each time you add a new ingredient to the mix.
- Once the mousse comes together, just transfer it to a holding vessel (a plastic container or mason jar) and place it in the fridge for 1 hour. The mixture will become thick and then you can transfer this rich, chocolaty, moussey goodness into your serving dish of choice.
Tweet me with questions and like my Facebook page.
By the way! Ignite Lincoln was an amazing success last night. I had a blast speaking to over 350 people…sharing my passion with Lincoln! I’ll post the video of my talk as soon as I get it.
Lincoln is truly a booming city…with so many amazing people following their passion. It was an honor to be apart of this event!
