Cream Puffs

Here's a recipe for you all that I tried as our dessert on Christmas Eve. Linda had told me about doing them and how really easy it was but how pretty they looked to serve. So this recipe is out of my old Betty Crocker cookbook, so thankyou Linda and thankyou "Betty" ! They were so easy, I actually made the puffs a week ahead and froze them. Then the day before I made the pudding so it'd be cool, then the morning of actually filled them. I'm thinking this might be great for a friends lunch too using the puffs to hold chicken salad, or miniature versions. Have fun if you try them ! They looked really pretty on each plate with the cherry pie filling dribbling down the sides of each, yum! Cream puffs
1 cup water
½ cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Vanilla pudding ( cooked kind, made according to package …I made it ahead so it would be cold and put plastic wrap right on the top to avoid a skin forming)
Confectioner’s sugar
Cherry pie filling - optional
Chocolate glaze – optional

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat water and butter to rolling boil. Stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. At this point I put it in a bowl that I could use my mixer in. Beat in eggs, all at one time; continue beating until smooth. Drop dough by scant ¼ cupful’s 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 35-40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool and cut off tops. Pull out any filaments of soft dough. Carefully fill puffs with vanilla pudding. Replace tops, dust with confectioners sugar. At this point I made a chocolate glaze to drizzle over the tops using milk, powdered sugar and a square of semi sweet chocolate I had melted. Store in refrigerator until serving. When serving top with a spoonful of cherry pie filling. (I found my pampered chef large scoop wonderful for getting all the same size dough mounds and also for filling with the pudding)