Custard Cream Puffs

Okay to be totally honest getting these done took me 4 trys, 5-10 recipes and a lot of tears to finally get anything worth wild. This is unusual, usually I get something reasonable first time, every time; maybe not always photo worthy though...

In retrospect this wasn't that hard, so I will try add a ton of notes to this to make it easier for you. :)

Cream Puff

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. 
3. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. (note: I find it doesn't actually make a ball rather sticks together in a couple of lumps, this seems to work)
4. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. (note: do not wait to let the dough ball cool down, the idea is that the eggs cook during the mixing process)
5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. (note: I use a muffin try. If you have a large muffin tray use that, but a smaller tray works just as well, it just looks more like a muffin than a cream puff)
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry. (note: try not to open the oven during the cooking process, this could result in the shells collapsing or not rising properly. You don't need to cook until they are totally or mostly golden brown, just semi, otherwise they become too dry which isn't as tasty)
7. Cool

Custard Cream Filling:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk, heated to warm
4 egg yolks, beaten

Method:

1. Place the 4 egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk them together and set aside.
2. Mix sugar, flour and salt in a medium saucepan.
3. Warm and then stir in the milk.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring almost constantly. Mixture will thicken and bubble (note: 5-10 minutes).
5. Once it starts to bubble, cook one minute more while still stirring.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Stir about half of the mixture into egg yolk mixture.
8. Blend this back into remaining hot mixture in the saucepan. Stir constantly just until mixture begins to bubble again.
9. Add vanilla and stir until combined.
10. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool fully.
11. Refrigerate. 

Getting it together:

1. With the shells cooled and the custard cream filling refrigerated, you can put it together. There are two options:
• Easy-Auto: Cut open the shell, spoon out the insides and then spoon the custard filling in. The bonus for this way is that you can put whipped cream on the custard before closing the lid for extra calories. Looks pretty cool and tastes great
• Hard Mode: Fill the shells using a pastry pipe. This requires you to have a pastry pipe and can get very messy, though this way it is very easy to dip the finished product in chocolate for the tasty results show in the picture above.
2. Throw cream puffs in the freezer (note: this is to cool the chocolate dip quickly to prevent the chocolate running)
3. Melt 3 ounce of dark (or bitter sweet) chocolate with 1/2 a cup of cream. You want the mixture to be fluid, but smooth and thick. (note: this is a guesstimate, generally this is very forgiving, just start with less cream to adjust the thickness)
4. Half dip each of the cream puffs in the chocolate
5. Place in the fridge until eating time, do not cover or you will ruin the chocolate or dusting

Alternative:

Instead of chocolate topping you can do a French dust

1. If you went the easy auto mode, cut the puff shells into two here, then scope out the middle before dusting. If you went the hard mode, I have no idea how not to smudge the sugar.
2. Pour a cup of powdered sugar into a bowl
3. Dip the cream puff into the bowl (top and bottom, whatever is required to get a good, full coverage) and cover with sugar
4. Handle gently!
5. Pipe/spoon in custard here

References:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-puffs/
http://www.gooddinnermom.com/aunt-pats-famous-cream-puff-recipe/