Valentine Strawberry Cream Puffs (Printable Version)

Choux puffs layered with smooth strawberry cream and dusted with sugar for a light, festive delight.

# What You'll Need:

→ Choux Pastry

01 - 1/2 cup water
02 - 1/2 cup whole milk
03 - 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
04 - 1/4 teaspoon salt
05 - 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
06 - 1 cup all-purpose flour
07 - 4 large eggs

→ Strawberry Cream Filling

08 - 1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
09 - 1/4 cup powdered sugar
10 - 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
11 - 3/4 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced
12 - 2 tablespoons strawberry jam, optional

→ Topping

13 - Powdered sugar for dusting
14 - Sliced strawberries for garnish, optional

# How-To Steps:

01 - Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
02 - In a medium saucepan, combine water, milk, butter, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
03 - Remove from heat and stir in flour all at once. Return to heat and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
04 - Transfer dough to a mixing bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition until smooth and glossy.
05 - Transfer dough to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe 12 mounds approximately 2 inches in diameter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart.
06 - Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and puffed. Do not open the oven during baking. Cool completely on a wire rack.
07 - While puffs cool, whip the chilled cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gently fold in diced strawberries and jam if using.
08 - Slice each puff in half horizontally. Fill the bottom half generously with strawberry cream mixture, then replace the top.
09 - Dust with powdered sugar and garnish with sliced strawberries if desired. Serve immediately.

# Tips for Success:

01 -
  • They look impossibly impressive but the technique is more forgiving than you'd think, especially once you nail the dough.
  • Fresh strawberry filling means this tastes like spring even when it's the coldest part of winter.
  • You can prep everything ahead and assemble right before serving, which means less stress and more time enjoying the moment.
02 -
  • The choux pastry dough will look alarmingly thick and sticky at first, but that's exactly what you want—resist the urge to add more flour or your puffs will be tough instead of tender.
  • Room temperature eggs make all the difference when mixing into the dough; if yours are cold, they won't incorporate smoothly and you'll end up with lumpy, separated batter that won't pipe evenly.
  • Never fill the puffs more than an hour or two before serving, or they'll start to soften and get soggy from the moisture in the cream.
03 -
  • If your puffs don't rise as much as you'd hoped, it usually means either the oven temperature was off or you opened the door during baking—invest in an oven thermometer and trust the process.
  • Pipe the dough mounds slightly smaller than you think you want them, because they expand considerably and oversized puffs can be awkward to fill and eat.
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