Cream Puffs and Chocolate Eclairs

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I will often get a new book and then not do anything with it for what can seem like ages. Well, sometime last year (I actually think around Christmas of 2011, actually) my not-sister got me a cookbook that I actually only used for the first time last week. Having now made the same recipe twice (because it was just that good), I am now looking through it to figure out when I am going to be making the other recipes suggested. Seriously; I am planning my next couple of weeks meals around what I can make out of this book! Looking at the picture on the left, though, can you blame me?

Even before having to go gluten free, I never made pates-aux-choux, believing that it would be either totally loaded with butter/dairy or just way too complicated or difficult. Let me just say that I am very glad that I was wrong on both counts. Yes, you do need to use a "butter", but Earth Balance works beautifully, and the GF flour that I use produces a light and crisp texture that made me very happy that I attempted these. They take practically no time at all to put together, and as they contain no added sugar, they can be made both sweet or savoury, depending on what you'd like to do with them.

This recipe comes from "gluten, wheat & dairy free: Over 70 delicious and nutricious recipes" , (for some reason, though, their web site doesn't have this book listed; interesting) though I actually only use the pastry part of the recipe. So, without further ado....

Puff Pastry
serves 4

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons GF flour mix
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1/4 cup dairy free butter substitute, I use Earth Balance
• 1 cup water
• 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 425F. The original recipe says to grease 2 baking sheets, but I simply covered 2 baking sheets with parchement paper.

Sift together the flour and xantham gum. In a medium sauce pan, boil the water and the "butter"; once it is boiling, remove from heat and quickly beat in the four mixture (my electric beater died a couple weeks ago so I do this with a whisk). Allow to cool for about a minute or so, then beat in the eggs until you have a thick, glossy dough.

Either spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip or into a clean plastic bag that you can then snip the tip off of; pipe about 16 golf ball-size balls of dough (or if making eclairs, 4 - 2"X4" lengths) onto the baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Cut a slit in each puff (or eclair) to allow the steam to escape and return to the oven for 1 minute. Let cool on a wire rack.

From there, you can do pretty much what you'd like with them! The first time I served them, I filled them with a whipped cream substitute (NutriWhip, if you want to know the truth) and served them on a raspberry and blackberry compote. The second time, I made them up as a chocolate eclair. I am now toying with the idea of savoury fillings though, like something with an avocado based 'cream', or maybe a salmon mousse. Regardless, these were quick and easy enough that I am quite sure to be doing these again very soon. Life is so rough some times, isn't it?!!

Enjoy!