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Nutella-filled Cream Puffs

  • February 5, 2012
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.

World Nutella Day – Nutella Pizzelle Sandwich

  • February 5, 2009

It’s World Nutella Day! Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso started this holiday two years ago for all Nutella lovers out there. The celebration takes place today, when tons of new Nutella recipes, stories, art and other adventures will be posted on the blogosphere. They’ll be sharing all the recipes on Monday, February 9 on the World Nutella Day site.

For those of you who haven’t posted, the day is young. Get going. For those of you who haven’t tried Nutella yet, get thee to a Nutella-selling store anon. Procure spoon. Open Jar. Indulge.

Here’s my slightly gussied-up alternative to spreading on toast: a pizzelle sandwich smeared with warmed Nutella on the inside.

The pizzelle recipe is thanks to my husband’s Aunt Alice, who at 94, is still going strong and making her spaghetti and meatballs every Sunday for her children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. Several years ago, she invited me to her home to show me how she makes her pizzelle. I’m passing on her basic recipe to you, minus the Nutella, which is simply a matter of microwaving for about 20 seconds or until it reaches the right consistency, then slathering it between two pizzelle. My advice though, is if you plan to sandwich the pizzelle with Nutella, use vanilla extract and omit the anise flavoring, which is too strong to pair with Nutella.

3 eggs
1/2 tsp. anise seed or anise oil
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar

Beat eggs and sugar. Add cooled melted butter, vanilla and anise. Sift flour, baking powder. Add to egg mixture. Let batter rest a half hour, then drop by small spoonfuls onto pizzelle iron, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Related Post: Chocolate Nutella Rice Pudding