Toast the New Year with Champagne Cream Puffs! These bite-size pastries are filled with champagne pastry cream and dipped in rich chocolate ganache.
I’m squeezing in one last post for 2024 – because I can never resist the chance to create a toast-worthy treat for the New Year. For this year’s fête, I turned to three classic pastry elements: pâte à choux, pastry cream, and ganache. The choux recipe is my tried-and-true formula from the . It bakes into beautifully puffed, golden shells with just the right hollow for piping in luscious champagne pastry cream.
And speaking of the champagne pastry cream, it might look familiar – it’s from I shared over a decade ago! It’s a versatile filling perfect for cakes, pastries, or even just eating straight from a spoon. In these cream puffs, it adds decadent, luxurious flavor and boozy notes of sparkling wine that’s perfect for any celebration.
Pâte à choux, also known as choux pastry, is a versatile French dough used to create a variety of pastries, including cream puffs, éclairs, and gougères. The dough is made by combining butter, water (or a mixture of water and milk), flour, and eggs. Unlike other pastries, it relies on its high moisture content to produce steam during baking, causing the dough to puff up without the need for a separate leavening agent.
Make the Cream Puffs
Begin with the pate a choux. It’s one of the simpler French pastry elements and doesn’t take a long time to whip up. I’ve even provided a video tutorial so you can see the process in action.
But, here’s the gist of it – to make pâte à choux, cook butter, water, and flour on the stovetop until a smooth dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Let it cool slightly, then beat in eggs one at a time until the dough is glossy and pipeable. (You can do this by hand or on a stand mixer – I chose the latter this time.) Pipe rounds onto a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet.
Bake at Two Temps
Bake at 425°F for the first 10-12 minutes. The high temp gives the puffs enough boost to puff up and hollow inside. Then lower to 350°F and bake for about 18-20 minute more. This dries the puffs and helps them keep their structure.
After baking, let the choux puffs cool completely. Then you can use them immediately, or store them in the refrigerator (or freezer!) until you’re ready to assemble. (More on this in the recipe notes.)
Make the Champagne Pastry Cream
Pastry cream is another French pastry building block that every baker should practice in their repertoire – and not in a perfunctory way – but because it’s delicious and useful! It’s used to fill tarts and pies, pastries, eclairs, doughnuts – you name it.
This champagne pastry cream is a simple mix of cream, egg yolks, champagne (or prosecco), sugar, and cornstarch. It’s whisked together, tempered with hot cream, then cooked until thickened. Butter and vanilla are stirred in for richness before chilling until firm.
There’s one true test to know if your pastry cream was successful; it must hold in the bowl of a spoon. Meaning, it should not be sauce-like. It should pile up on the spoon when you scoop it. If it doesn’t, that means it wasn’t cooked long enough.
Fill the Puffs
You don’t need a special decorator tip for piping or filling the puffs, but you will need a piping bag – disposable or otherwise – with a 1/2-inch hole snipped from the end.
Use a small sharp knife to create a slit in the bottom edges of the pastry shells. Transfer the chilled pastry cream to the piping bag and fill the cream puffs. Squeezing the shell will help hold it open while you pipe in the pastry cream.
Dip and Decorate
Ganache is a quick, 2 ingredient topping for these that adds a richness and shine. I couldn’t resist adding some sparkle with gold star sprinkles. Find the tiny stars for purchase . But they’re also stocked at many craft stores in the baking aisle. The larger gold stars are from .
Make Ahead Instructions
The pastry shells and champagne pastry cream can be made ahead and stored separately in the refrigerator. The shells can even be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month! Assemble the Champagne Cream Puffs the day of serving. Again, find more storage, freezing, and thawing info in the recipe notes.
Champagne Cream Puffs aren’t just for New Year’s – they’re a rich and elegant bite for weddings, anniversaries, cocktail parties, or even Valentine’s Day. I hope you love them as much as we do.
Happy (almost) New Year, friends. And cheers with Champagne Cream Puffs!
Preheat an oven to 425◦F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Add 1 egg and mix. The batter will appear loose and shiny at first. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
Bake the choux at 425◦F until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10-12 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350◦F degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 18-20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.
Champagne Pastry Cream
In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch in 1/4 cup of the heavy cream, set aside. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a saucepan; heat until the mixture just starts to bubble – don’t let it boil or most of the champagne flavor will cook out. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat. Let cool 5 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and cover the surface with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm and well set, about 4 hours.
Ganache
Whisk together until a smooth, shiny ganache forms. Dip the tops of each puff into the ganache and replace on the baking sheet or on a wire rack. Immediately top with star sprinkles, if using.
