White Chocolate Lemon Filled Cream Puffs

Puffs:

1 cup water

1 cup butter(2 sticks)

1 cup flour

4 eggs

Electric mixer

Preheat oven to 400’.  In a medium size saucepan bring water and butter to a boil.  Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until it forms a large ball, about 1 minute.  If you have a Kitchenaid, transfer mixture to bowl and using whisk attachment beat on high.  If using a hand mixer, you can use the pan, turn off heat and whip fast.  Add one egg at a time until mixture is well mixed and all eggs are incorporated.  Use a small cookie scoop and drop level scoopfuls 1 1/2” apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove to cookie sheets right away.  (They’re full of air and almost cool to the touch as soon as you pull them out, but be careful still).  This recipe yields about 48 good size cream puffs.  If you use an even smaller cookie scoop(I played around with extra batter using a tsp. size, and they puffed up to the perfect bite size.

Filling:

1 8oz. block light cream cheese

1 tub whipped topping(not fat free)

1 box vanilla instant pudding mix

1 ½ cups milk

½ cup water

¼ cup sugar

Juice & zest of one lemon, separated

1 egg

2 Tbl. Cold Butter

1 pkg. white chocolate chips.

In a large mixer bowl, allow cream cheese to come to room temperature.  When soft, beat on high using a whisk attachment.  Add pudding mix and milk and whip on high until smooth and creamy.  Set aside. 

In a small bowl, beat egg with lemon zest and set aside.  In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a low boil, until sugar is dissolved.  Slowly add hot water to egg mixture, whisking, and then add the mixture back into the pan and return to heat.  Keep stirring with whisk until thickened to custard like consistency.  Remove from heat and add cold butter and lemon juice.  Mix well.  Add in bag of white chocolate chips and whisk.  Let set for a minute and come back and stir again.  The heat from the mixture will melt the chips and it will be just about room temperature by the time they’re done melting and mixed.  Pour lemon mixture into cream cheese & pudding mixture and blend well.  Fold in Whipped Topping, you can just use the whisk attachment on low spead. 

Fill a decorators bag with a large star tip attached with mixture.  This will have to be done in batches, so don’t overfill or it will make a BIG mess.  Poke tip into side of puff and fill, you’ll feel the weight of the puff change.  Overfilling is not an issue, but may be slightly yugly(my word for yummy/ugly, it’s all good though).  Spread a little of the cream filling on the bottom of the plate you’ll be serving them on, this acts like a glue so the cute little guys don’t roll off!  Layer, and sprinkle with powdered sugar, layer again, more powdered sugar.  I use a tiny fine sieve strainer or shaker.  Randomly place fresh raspberries around the platter.

Raspberry Dipping Sauce

Okay, this is the EASIEST and BEST dipping sauce ever, use it over brownies, ice cream, cheesecake, etc….  A friend told me about this.  Literally, 1 minute!

In a large mixing bowl, pour in one bag of FROZEN raspberries and 1 jar of strawberry preserves and mix.  Set in fridge, covered, and allow the mixture to thaw and set up just right.  Give it a good stir before serving.  Something about the juices from the berries with the pectin from the jam.  Yum.  I made mine last time using strawberry freezer jam, and my oh my!