Nutella-filled Cream Puffs

It's useless. I'm not even going to apologize for posting a decadent dessert after the more waistline-friendly pavlova dessert in my prior entry. Blame it on World Nutella Day - and the creators of the phenomenon -  Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso. 

Together, they've managed to corral Nutella lovers around the world with recipes, stories, artwork and other adventures involving the chocolate-hazelnut treat.

Today, February 5, is the sixth year of World Nutella Day - an event dedicated to spreading the Nutella joy across the blogosphere. So if you haven't participated as an entrant, at least you can enjoy the hundreds of posts from other Nutella devotees - and try making some of them yourself, like these cream puffs. 

I got the best results when I used an ice cream scoop to portion out the batter. I used a piping bag with the first batch and made flatter "disks" that didn't rise as high. They were certainly edible, but didn't reach the heights of the second batch, made using the ice cream scoop.

You can see for yourself the height I got from using the ice cream scoop as a measurer and form for the puffs.  

Those were the ones I took to a dinner party a few nights ago. They were also the ones where the chocolate glaze didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted, even if it tasted good.

This cream puff is one of the rejects I kept from the first batch - a little flatter but still delicious - and this time I used a store-bought chocolate syrup from Hershey's as the glaze.

Cream Puff Shells





printable recipe here

makes 8 large cream puffs



1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 t. salt

1 cup flour

4 large eggs



Melt butter and water in a saucepan, add salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball around the spoon.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture should be smooth after each egg is added. Using an ice cream scoop if you have one, drop some of the mixture on a cookie sheet that has been greased, or on a sheet of parchment paper or Silpat. Bake at 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another half hour. Let cool completely before cutting in half and filling.



Filling:



2 cups whipping cream

1 13-ounce jar Nutella



Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add the Nutella, by spoonfuls, until all the Nutella is incorporated and the cream is stiff. Fill the cream puff shells and drizzle with a chocolate glaze. I used a store-bought syrup made by Hershey's.