{"id":8267,"date":"2026-10-19T15:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8267"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:49:24","slug":"choux-cream","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/choux-cream\/","title":{"rendered":"Cream Puff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A cream puff is a pastry in which cream is filled into the hollow of a dough puffed up by the force of steam. The dough is worked in a pan, eggs are mixed in, and it is heated once more in the oven. The shell made through this two-stage heating is cooled and then finished with a separately made cream. The French word chou means \u201ccabbage.\u201d The round shell is baked until firm enough to keep the hollow inside, so that it can hold a soft milk-based cream.<\/p>\n

Cooking the flour in a pan and adding moisture back with eggs<\/h2>\n

Choux dough (p\u00e2te \u00e0 choux) is made by bringing water or milk, butter, salt, and other ingredients to a boil, adding the flour all at once, working the mixture in the pan, and then incorporating eggs. The first heating lets the starch absorb water, producing a sticky dough. It is important to bring the liquid fully to a boil; if the temperature is too low, this gelatinization does not progress easily.<\/p>\n

After the excess moisture in the dough has been driven off in the pan, the dough is cooled slightly and the eggs are added little by little. When baked, the eggs set and help the shell keep its shape; at the mixing stage, they add moisture to the dough to give it a consistency that can be piped. How much moisture is lost in the pan changes the amount of egg needed. The final amount of egg is adjusted by watching signs such as the dough lifted with a spatula falling in a smooth V shape.<\/p>\n

Adding cold eggs all at once firms up the butter and also changes the consistency of the dough. Bringing the dough and eggs to similar temperatures and piping the dough while it is still warm helps keep the shapes uniform. Some formulas use only water and others combine water and milk; the milk solids change the browning and aroma.<\/p>\n

Puffing with steam and drying the walls around the hollow<\/h2>\n

In the oven, the water in the dough turns to steam and pushes the still-stretchable dough outward from inside. Eventually the structure formed by the eggs and flour sets, becoming a thin wall around the hollow. If the choux are taken out as soon as they puff, moisture remains in the walls, and they cannot support their own weight and tend to collapse.<\/p>\n

Baking includes a stage for puffing up the shape and a stage for baking the walls firm and drying them. In commercial ovens, one method is to open the vent to release moisture; for home baking, another method is to bake through to the end without opening the oven door. Opening the door early and managing an oven\u2019s vent are not the same operation. A large round choux and a long, slender \u00e9clair<\/a> take heat differently, so the baking method is chosen to suit the size and the oven.<\/p>\n

\n\"Homemade\n
Cream puffs made at home by the photographer (June 23, 2022, location unknown). Choux with decorated tops are lined up on a rack. Photo: SUBARU sti 2020 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No alterations to the content or cropping were made on our side.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A thin cookie dough layered on the outside<\/h2>\n

In one style, a dough made by mixing butter, sugar, and flour and rolling it out into thin rounds is placed on top of round choux and baked. This layer, called craquelin, spreads over the rising dough and creates a finely cracked surface and a crisp bite. The rounds are handled chilled or frozen and placed one by one on the piped choux.<\/p>\n

What is called a cookie choux in Japan also combines the inner choux dough, which forms the hollow, with a dough of a different formula that covers the surface. Whether the fragrant outer layer is made thick or finished thin and light changes the impression when it is bitten together with the cream.<\/p>\n

\n\"Cross-section\n
Cross-section of a vanilla custard cream puff from CHOUX Bakery (August 16, 2016, location unknown). The filling is packed inside the thin shell. Photo: Willis Lam \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No alterations to the content or cropping were made on our side.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Cooling the shell and adding a separately made cream<\/h2>\n

Custard is a cream thickened by heating eggs and starch. It sets differently from whipped cream, and some styles combine the two. Another method is to fill the choux with ganache mont\u00e9e, made by emulsifying chocolate and cream, chilling the mixture, and then whipping it.<\/p>\n

The shell is cooled after baking and then filled with cream. In some styles the top is cut off and put back like a lid; in others, a hole is made in the bottom or elsewhere and the cream is injected with a piping bag. When a moist filling is added, moisture moves into the shell over time, and the shell\u2019s texture softens. Keeping the step of drying the shell separate from the step of chilling the cream and filling the shell is the basis for combining different textures.<\/p>\n

\n\"Choux\n
Choux with the top cut off and filled with cream (July 18, 2006, location unknown). Piped cream is visible between the upper and lower parts of the shell. Photo: Stu Spivack \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>. Full-size image obtained. No alterations to the content or cropping were made on our side.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Legends of invention at court and the development of choux dough<\/h2>\n

There is a story that Panterelli, an Italian who came to France in the service of Catherine de\u2019 Medici, invented choux dough and that his successor, Popelini, improved it. However, this is a legend about its invention, and it is uncertain whether a hollow shell and milk-based cream like today\u2019s existed together in the 16th century.<\/p>\n

In 18th-century France, there were recipes for a dough worked in a pan and for small choux filled with jam. In later histories of confectionery, the 19th-century names of Jean Avice and Antonin Car\u00eame are also linked to improvements in the dough. The method of puffing the shell was improved, and fillings appear in a variety of styles, including jam and milk-based cream.<\/p>\n

In France, Popelini, a specialty shop selling small choux filled with a variety of creams, has expanded since 2011, using a traditional dough and marketing the choux as bite-sized pastries. In Japan, Tokyo Fugetsudo\u2019s company history records the launch of a newly made product in 1884.<\/p>\n

Boxed products shared by families, and choux ice cream<\/h2>\n

Before cream puffs became a familiar boxed sweet in Japan, there were also innovations suited to sales methods and the seasons. Hirota, founded in Osaka in 1924, made cream puffs its mainstay and created a box of four, focusing on four-person families. Facing a drop in sales in summer, the company reportedly launched a product with ice cream filled into the shell in 1964, moving from initial summer-only sales to year-round sales by the mid-1980s. Introduced in the Meiji era, cream puffs became boxed products shared by families and choux ice cream enjoyed in summer, and spread to dining tables across Japan.<\/p>\n

Profiteroles and other pastries made from the same dough<\/h2>\n

A dessert of small choux filled with ice cream and topped with warm chocolate sauce is a classic style of profiterole. It differs from the cream puff in that the contrast of temperatures and the sauce are also part of the experience. Many pastries come from the same choux dough, such as the long, slender \u00e9clair and the ring-shaped Paris-Brest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

P\u00e2te \u00e0 choux<\/strong>: The French name for choux dough. A dough in which flour is cooked in a pan and eggs are added, after which the oven creates the hollow.<\/p>

Gelatinization<\/strong>: The change in which starch swells with moisture and heat and becomes sticky. It is involved in the first cooking of choux dough in the pan.<\/p>

Craquelin<\/strong>: A thin dough made mainly of butter, sugar, and flour, placed on top of choux and other pastries and baked.<\/p>

Ganache mont\u00e9e<\/strong>: A cream made by emulsifying and chilling chocolate and cream, then whipping the mixture.<\/p>

Profiterole<\/strong>: A dessert made with small choux. The combination of ice cream and warm chocolate sauce is typical.<\/p>

Paris-Brest<\/strong>: A French pastry in which ring-shaped choux dough is filled with cream.<\/p>

Catherine de\u2019 Medici<\/strong>: An Italian-born queen who married into the French royal family in the 16th century. She appears in the legend of the invention of choux dough.<\/p>

Panterelli \/ Popelini<\/strong>: Names that appear in the legend of choux dough as a cook who served Catherine and his successor.<\/p>

Jean Avice \/ Antonin Car\u00eame<\/strong>: A pastry cook and a chef whose names remain in French confectionery from the late 18th to the 19th century. Later accounts link them to improvements in choux dough.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. \n

    The court legend running from Panterelli to Popelini and the names of Avice and Car\u00eame are not contemporary sources proving that the present-day form was invented by a single person. Tokyo Fugetsudo\u2019s 1884 date belongs to the shop\u2019s own sales history and is not used as proof of the very first cream puff in Japan.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  2. \n

    Dijon Municipal Library food history blog, \u201cLe croque en bouche Happy Apicius\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Documentary research stating that choux dough and small jam-filled choux appear in 18th-century sources such as Menon. Displaying the article directly resulted in an error this time, and only the relevant summary in the search results was confirmed. The full texts of the individual recipes are not treated as having been read.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  3. \n

    Popelini, \u201cLa franchise Popelini\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A small-choux specialty shop since 2011, with several standard and seasonal flavors. The shop\u2019s introduction of the legend behind its name is not treated as evidence of a 16th-century invention.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  4. \n

    \u00c9cole Valrhona, \u201cChocolate \u00c9clair\u201d<\/a>: Drying in the pan, eggs, water and milk, baking in a vented oven.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  5. \n

    \u00c9cole Gourmet Valrhona, \u201cMelt-in-the-Middle Chouchous\u201d<\/a>: Round shape, a disc of dough on the surface, filling after cooling, and ganache mont\u00e9e.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  6. \n

    Valrhona, \u201cCr\u00e8me p\u00e2tissi\u00e8re\u201d<\/a>: Heating and cooling custard, and related creams.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  7. \n

    INBP, \u201cTechniques de p\u00e2tisserie : rappels et \u00e9volutions,\u201d July 2021, pp. 4\u20135<\/a>: Gelatinization, adding moisture back with eggs, temperature, baking, and filling after cooling.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  8. \n

    Le Cordon Bleu, \u201cProfiteroles glac\u00e9es, sauce au chocolat\u201d<\/a>: Checking consistency by the V shape, baking without opening the door, and the style with ice cream and warm sauce.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  9. \n

    Tokyo Fugetsudo, \u201cHistory of Tokyo Fugetsudo\u201d<\/a>: Yonezu Fugetsudo\u2019s sales record from 1884.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  10. \n

    Hirota (Western confectionery) official company history<\/a> \u2014 Founded in Osaka in 1924, with a business centered on cream puffs.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  11. \n

    Sendenkaigi, 2024-03-28: \u201cIt started with improving summer sales\u2026 Hirota\u2019s \u2018Shu Ice\u2019\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A box of four focused on four-person families, Shu Ice in 1964 as a response to falling summer sales, year-round sales from the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  12. Editorial note (Japanese re-edit)<\/h3><\/li>

  13. No contemporary recipes or court records linking Panterelli and Popelini are known. It has not been confirmed that today\u2019s hollow shell and milk-based cream were fully developed in the 16th century, and the main text treats this as a legend of invention.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A cream puff holds cream inside a round baked shell. Behind its light appearance is a sequence of tasks at different temperatures: working the dough in a pan, creating the hollow in the oven, and filling the shell after it has cooled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6604,"menu_order":22,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Choux cream","subtitle":"Filling the hollow created by baking with cream","topics":"Choux dough \/ The hollow and drying \/ Japan\u2019s two-layer cream","country":"France","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["cream","butter","egg"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[154],"class_list":["post-8267","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":[8862,8860,8949],"sweetlore_related_faqs":[8227,8234],"sweetlore_related_voices":[8838],"sweetlore_related_mode":"manual","sweetlore_related_articles":[8268,8269,8252,8253,8256,8261,8262,8263]},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t