With Valentine’s day right around the corner, I wanted to share one of my family’s favorite desserts. I call them Easy Bavarian Cream Puffs! They are divine and perfect for the sweetie in your life. I will be sharing two recipes with you. One is a typical cream puff recipe and let me tell you, it will not disappoint. Cream puffs always used to intimidate me, that is until I got brave enough to try them. They are surprisingly easy to make. You will be shocked.
Just a warning.
They are always a crowd pleaser, so be prepared to see jaws drop, eyes pop, and lots of praise. There will also be jealous onlookers wishing they would have thought to bring a cool dessert like that, but we wont worry about those people. Let’s just focus on the positive here.
The other recipe is my easy knockoff version of Bavarian cream. Real Bavarian cream takes longer, and is a bit more temperamental than I like, but if you have the time, by all means go ahead and make the real stuff!
Both recipes are wonderful for using up those farm fresh eggs. Some weeks we can go through our eggs so quick, but other weeks I feel I have more than I know what to do with. That’s when a recipe like this can come in very handy. This recipe uses 7 eggs, so for those of you with chickens keep this recipe on hand. 🙂 Hope you enjoy my easy Bavarian cream puff recipe!
Easy Bavarian Cream Puff Recipe
Easy Bavarian Cream:
Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. Fine Sea Salt
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 tbs butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Method:
In a medium sauce pan, mix your sugar, flour and salt with a whisk.
Gradually add the milk and mix well. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks and add to the pan. Mix well.
Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat stirring constantly until mixture becomes thick and has the consistency of pudding.
Take off heat and add butter and vanilla to the pan, stirring until well combined and butter is melted.
Cool completely. I put mine in the fridge to help speed up the cooling process. You have just created a vanilla custard. This is heavenly on its own, but to give it a Bavarian cream texture it needs to be a little lighter. We do this by taking a 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, whipping it until soft peaks form and gently folding the whipped cream into the custard mixture.
Now you have what I consider an easy version of Bavarian cream. Place into a piping bag to be used in the cream puff recipe.
Cream Puff Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter
1 Cup of water
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. In a sauce pan bring butter, water and salt to a boil. Add 1 cup of flour to the boiling liquid all at once and stir until a ball forms.
Take pan off heat and let mixture cool for 5 minutes. After the flour mixture has cooled, start beating in the eggs, one at a time. Mixing well after each egg.
Mixture should be smooth and glossy after you beat in your 4th egg.
Place dough by spoonfuls on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
Remove cream puffs from the oven and let cool.
Cut cream puff half way through the center with a knife and pipe in your easy Bavarian cream. Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Below I have included the printable versions of these recipes. Hope you enjoy them!
Easy Bavarian Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, mix your sugar, flour and salt with a whisk. Gradually add the milk and mix well.
- In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks and add to the pan. Mix well. Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat stirring constantly until mixture becomes thick and has the consistency of pudding.
- Take off heat and add butter and vanilla to the pan, stirring until well combined and butter is melted. Cool completely. I put mine in the fridge to help speed up the cooling process.
- You have just created a vanilla custard. This is heavenly on it's own, but to give it a Bavarian cream texture it needs to be a little lighter in texture. We do this by taking a 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, whipping it until soft peaks form and gently folding the whipped cream into the custard mixture.
- Place into a piping bag to be used in the cream puffs.
Nutrition
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Cream Puff Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1 cup of water
- 1/4 tsp . fine sea salt
- 1 cup of flour
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a sauce pan bring butter, water and salt to a boil.
- Add 1 cup of flour to the boiling liquid all at once and stir until a ball forms.
- Take pan off heat and let mixture cool for 5 minutes.
- After the flour mixture has cooled for 5 minutes, start beating in the eggs, one at a time. Mixing well after each egg. Mixture should be smooth and glossy after you beat in your 4th egg.
- Place dough by spoonfuls on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
- Remove cream puffs from the oven and let cool.
- Cut cream puff half way through the center with a knife and pipe in your easy Bavarian cream. Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Nutrition
Loved this recipe?
Make sure to follow on Instagram @happymoneysaver and on Pinterest @happymoneysaver for more money savin' recipes!
To see more of my from scratch recipes go here. Also head on over and follow me on Pinterest where you will see I have a great love for all things food!
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Ash says
So easy and delcious. Thank you
Got Sugar? says
No sugar in the puffs?
Misty says
Excellent !!! 40 minutes was a lil too long in my oven though…
Frankie says
Thank you so very much for this recipe!!
So so simple and absolutely perfect !!
My family went crazy for these cream puffs 😊
Colleen says
I’m a little concerned about adding whole eggs, is that a miss print? I wrote out the recipe will be trying soon ,thanks so much!
Peter says
Great recipe for the Bavarian cream filled cream puffs delish
Ginger says
My puffs came out perfect but my cream is way too runny. I followed the recipe exactly but maybe I didn’t let it cool enough before adding the whipped cream? Is it supposed to be cold? Help!! Lol
katie says
Yes, the custard should be dead cold when you mix in the whipped cream.
Julie says
The 1st time I made the cream puffs the puffs turned out perfect I’ve made it twice today and they’re not puppy enough right any suggestions
Happy-Money-Saver says
There are a few things that might be the problem. If the egg is added too quickly or not incorporated enough that could hinder the puffiness. Also sometimes the dough is too wet and that can stop the puffiness so you may need to cook it just a bit longer. Make sure they are all separate – if they are too close together, the steam can’t escape which can stop the puffing. Hope that helps!
Linda says
I love making cream puffs over the years I have learned that if i want my filling to come out perfect i use instant french vanilla pudding mix using 1/2 the milk it calls for and the other half whipping cream i poke a hold in the pastry and fill it up and sprinkle it with the 10X sugar and enjoy it or give them away as gifts.
Kim says
Can I use this as a pie filling? I’d like to do this for a friend
Karrie says
I haven’t tried to make this into a pie, but you could always give it a try!
Pamela Langley says
No vanilla? That’s unfortunate.
katt copeland says
let the custard cool completely then whisk the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks, add a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar when whipping for about 3 minutes to make the whipped cream a tad bit sweeter if you like, I used a quart of Heavy Whipping Cream and 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar then whipped it till it had semi-stiff peaks then gently fold into the custard filling. that’s how I did this. thanks for the recipe.
Lily says
Can I make the day before and store it in the fridge for the next day?
Happy-Money-Saver says
Yes, you can. Make sure you cover it well.
Cat Valerie says
I think I messed up somehow. I followed it exactly, but it came out more mashed potato like. It’s cooling now but it’s super think and kinda chunky. It was jiggly like pudding when I took it off but looks nothing like the pic. Help
Happy-Money-Saver says
Hmm..I am not sure about chunks. It is thicker but not not chucky.
Irina Nikolaevna Blinnikova says
You probably heat it longer than need (simply overcooked)!
Veronica says
I read reviews and thought I’d give it a try. I was hoping it would make a great cake filling. But I definitely would not recommend for a cake. The custard turned glue like pretty quickly. Adding the half cup of whipped heaving cream did not seem like enough to make this filling light and fluffy. Mine remained like a custard. 😩
Happy-Money-Saver says
Yeah, I think this works best as a filling for the cream puffs but I have never tried it for a cake.
GarthenaLTucker Tucker says
Sounds wonderful I have make cream puffs for so many yrs but have always put almond favor in them I plain vanilla better yes would be delicious also I want to try to make Jewish Donuts so I wanted the Bavarian cream to put in them