Italian Cream Puffs

5 from 23 votes

This treasured recipe is from one of my favorite Italian home cooks. It is, hands down, the best Italian cream puff and filling ever!!!

Prep Time30

Cook Time35

Total Time1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 239kcal

Author: Marie Pinto Bialek

Ingredients

For the Shells:

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

For the Filling:

Whipped Cream Layer

1¼ cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup powdered sugar

Ricotta–Cream Cheese Layer

1 1/4 cup whole milk ricotta well-drained
2/3 cup cream cheese very soft
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional: 1–2 tablespoons liqueur amaretto, rum, or similar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For the Shells:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Sift flour and salt together in small bowl and set aside
In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and water over high heat until the mixture reaches a vigorous boil
Reduce heat to medium low and add flour/salt mixture all at once
Stir until the mixture pulls away from sides of pan and forms a ball
Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time, beating vigorously between additions (I used a hand mixer for this)
Using a piping bag or cookie press, pipe dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet (2.5 inches in diameter will yield 6 very large puffs; 1.25 inches in diameter will yield 12 puffs)
Bake at 450 for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 for an additional 20 minutes
Ensure your puffs are golden brown before turning off oven or they will deflate/fall!
When they are finished baking, turn off oven and let the puffs cool for 5 to 10 minutes with the oven door ajar.

For the Filling:

In a large bowl, beat heavy cream, vanilla, and cream of tartar until slightly thickened. Add powdered sugar and whip to medium-stiff peaks. Set aside.
In another bowl, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar (sifted if lumpy) until completely smooth.
Add very well-drained ricotta, vanilla, and liqueur (if using) and mix until fully combined and creamy.
Gently fold the whipped cream into the ricotta mixture until light and fully incorporated. Do not overmix.
Use immediately or refrigerate until ready to pipe.

To Assemble:

Cut puffs in half and use ice cream scoop to fill each puff generously with the cream mixture or use piping bag with star tip to pipe filling inside (will do this next time!)

Notes

The filling may be prepared ahead of time and frozen for up to one month.
Use high quality ricotta that is not watery or grainy. The supermarket variety cannot be used unless it is dried out (drain over cheese cloth in refrigerator overnight or up to 1 day). As an example, ricotta is thick enough if it sticks to the spoon when the spoon is inverted and does not drop off. If you can find ricotta impastata that is ideal!

Cream puff shells (unfilled) can be re-crisped by placing in a 300ºF oven for 10 minutes.

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