CREAM PUFFS

Sufficient for 1 Dozen Cream Puffs

1/2 c. butter
1 C. boiling water
1 c. flour
4 eggs
Boil the butter and water together until the butter is melted. Add the flour by pouring it all in at one time. Stir rapidly and cook until the mass does not stick to the sides of the pan. Continue the stirring so that it does not burn. Remove from the fire and cool, so as not to cook the eggs when they are added. Add one egg at a time and mix thoroughly with the mixture before adding another. Drop by spoonfuls
on a greased cooky sheet, place close to the floor of the oven, and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes or until the puffs are dry and can be lifted from the sheet. Allow them to cool and then fill with whipped cream or a custard filling. Before serving, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of each.

ÉCLAIRS


When éclairs are desired, make the paste as for cream puffs. Then through a large, round pastry tube, one having a diameter of at least 1/2 inch, force this paste in strips 3-1/2 or 4 inches long, putting the paste on a cooky sheet or some other large pan. Bake in a hot oven in the same way as cream puffs.
When cool, fill with a custard mixture of any desired flavoring and cover with an icing of the same flavor.

ROYAL ÉCLAIRS


Royal éclairs are especially delicious and make a very agreeable change from the usual variety. To make these, bake éclairs in the usual shape and set aside to cool. Cut canned peaches into pieces, add sugar to them, and cook down until the sirup becomes thick. Fill each éclair with several spoonfuls of this mixture and, if desired, serve with whipped cream over the top.

CREAM PUFFS AND ÉCLAIRS

A delicious form of dessert that is usually classed with small cakes includes cream puffs and éclairs. They are made of a special kind of paste that, when baked, becomes hollow in the center, very much as popovers do. The inside is then filled with a mixture similar to a custard mixture or with sweetened and flavored whipped cream. Many persons have an idea that these mixtures are very difficult to make, but the fact is that they may be easily made if the directions for preparing them are carefully followed.
After the paste has been mixed, the way it is to be treated will depend on whether cream puffs or éclairs are to be made. For cream puffs, which are shown in Fig. 19, it is dropped by spoonfuls on a cooky sheet or a large pan, while in the case of éclairs, several of which are shown in Fig. 20, it is forced through a large round pastry tube so as to form long strips. The shapes are then baked in a hot oven, and
during this process they puff up and become hollow in the center. If, upon attempting to fill the shells thus made, the centers are found to contain a little moist, doughy material, this may be removed. The filling may then be introduced either by cutting a slit in the side and putting it in with a spoon or by
inserting the end of a pastry tube into the shell and forcing it in with a pastry bag and tube. In addition to being filled with a filling of some kind, éclairs are covered, as here shown, with an icing that usually corresponds in flavor with the filling. For instance, chocolate éclairs are filled with a chocolate filling and covered with a chocolate icing, while coffee éclairs have a coffee filling and a coffee icing.

Very small cream puffs are attractive and are often served with small cakes for an afternoon tea or a buffet luncheon. These may be made by dropping the paste with a teaspoon on a cooky sheet, baking it until done, and then filling the shells with any desired paste.