Many years ago, I saw a recipe for Cream Puff Swans, and I thought they were beautiful. So I decided to make them for a church luncheon for about 100 ladies. Oh, my! What was I thinking? I had good help, and it really wasn’t that hard And I’m here to tell you – we did get the compliments. The church ladies were so impressed. Since then I have made them for luncheons, special showers, and the Royal Tea. They never fail to delight the guest.
Piping a question mark for the heads really is easy, and after you cut the top off the puff (1/3 of the way down), you just cut the top in half for the wings. Easy-Sneezy! Not difficult. It really works, and is beyond cool! Trust me, these are not hard, and you get a lot of bang for your efforts.
At the Royal Tea, ours did look beautiful and tasted divine! The filling for the cream puffs was adapted from another recipe by adding cream cheese. I thought it would give it more stability. One guest declared the filling the best she had ever eaten. Made me feel proud, since she is the Queen of Teas around here.
If you want a good tutorial with step-by-step picture directions on how to make the cream puffs, click over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook .
Enjoy!
Cream Puff Swans
By Published: April 15, 2012
- Yield: 18 puffs
- Cook: 25-30 mins
Cream puffs filled with cream cheese filling, and fashioned into swans make a dramatic presentation. This looks complicated but is easy to make.
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup butter 1 stick
- 1 cup all-purpose Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil over medium heat.
- Add flour and salt, all at once stirring vigorously Cook stirring constantly till mixture forms a ball.
- Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Add eggs, one at a time beating vigorously after each until smooth.
- Reserve about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of pastry dough to use for heads.
- Drop the rest of the dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and puffy.
- After you take the puffs out of the oven, pierce the side of each puff to let the steam escape. Cool completely on wire racks.
- When cool, cut the top off each puff (about 1/3 of the way down), reserving tops. Discard the soft dough inside the puff.
- Cut each top in half longways to use as wings.
- While the puffs are baking, use the reserved dough to fill a pastry bag fitted with a writing tip. Mine says #8.
- Pipe question marks to be used as heads for the swans. These will be about 2 1/2 inches tall. and you want to pipe them onto a Silpat or a parchment lined pan. Be sure to make enough heads for the number of swans you made. If you can, make a few extra heads.
- You will only have to cook the heads about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown. Watch them carefully so they will not burn. Let cool.
- To assemble, spoon cream filling into puff. Place swan head into the cream and position the two half tops as wings. The cut edges go into the cream at an angle so the swans look like they are flying.
- When ready to serve, you can dust them with powdered sugar. Serve the swans on mirrors or silver trays. The swans will look like they are floating on water. So pretty!