Hubby and I have been trying to make cream puffs. My dear departed mother-in-law made them and our memory of them is not being reenacted in our efforts to make them.

It finally dawned on me that we're kind of following eclair recipes. Our memory of mom's cream puffs is they were almost the size of a small???? baseball. Big enough to easily cut in half and fill with yummy filling of our choice.

Our eclairs seem to come out okay but not very big or puffy?

Should eclair and cream puff recipes be the same, just a different shape for the dough?

On our next attempt can we just make the dough shape bigger, start out with the unbaked dough the size we want? Or if we're making the dough correctly should they be puffing up on their own?

And if we start out with the dough shape bigger than we have been making...how long should we cook it?

 

Just Google "choux pastry"

 

The recipes are the same, just shaped different. Use a pastry bag to make eclairs and a rounded tablespoon for cream puffs. You can scoop big rounded tbsp to make bigger ones or a small rounded tbsp to make smaller ones.
They should puff up bigger when baking. They'll be smaller when starting.
Bake them till they're nice and golden color. About 30 minutes. Could be a bit longer or less depending. You really need to just start checking them and looking at them after 25 minutes. You could just put one in to test, then base on that.
I have the same recipe I've been using forever if you want it.

 

Thanks, I would like to try your recipe for cream puffs.

 

I took a pic of the recipe and will attach. Easier. It's from the early 70's.

 

Great, thanks so much. I will let you know how they turn out...of course if it's a failure it will be operator error, nothing to do with your recipe . Neither hubby or I are very good cooks .