Cream Puff Swans
Pretty, golden cream puff swans filled with rich, creamy pastry cream frolicking in a drizzle of hot fudge.
Update: I’ve included an updated cream puff swans recipe in my ebook, Simple Sweet Dream Puffs. You can print templates on your home computer to help you pipe the perfect shapes for your swans.
Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!
Chocolate eclairs are one of my favorite desserts, so when pâte à choux swans were chosen as this month’s Daring Bakers challenge I was thrilled. I’ve never done pâte à choux in any shape but round or oblong before, so this was a much needed chance to work on my piping skills.
I made my swans bigger than the Daring Bakers hostess, 12 instead of 36. I wasn’t great at piping little beaks, but overall I was really please with my first attempt at swans.
If you haven’t made choux pastry before, give it a try. It isn’t difficult and homemade tastes better than from a bakery because the pastry shells lose their crisp exterior the longer they sit.
You can fill the shells with your favorite filling, sweet or savory. Instead of the challenge recipes, I used my favorite choux pastry and my favorite pastry cream recipes.
Cream Puff Swans
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
Pastry Cream
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
Instructions
Pastry
- Preheat the oven to 425º. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a large saucepan, bring butter, water, salt and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pan from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir quickly until all the flour is incorporated, about a minute. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute or two.
- Transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed for 1 minute to cool the dough down a little.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; beat until the dough loses its “slimy” look, and each egg is incorporated. (You may only need 3 eggs, depending on your climate.) The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl.
- Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2" tip, pipe out 12 swan heads. (You’re aiming for something between a numeral 2 and a question mark, with a little beak if you’re skilled and/or lucky.)
- Remove the tip from the bag and pipe out 12 swan bodies. These will be about 3” long, and about 2” wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other.
- Use your fingers to smooth out any bumps of points of dough that remain on the surface. Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375º and bake until puffed up and light golden brown, about 25 minutes more. Try not to open the oven door too often during the baking.
- Let cool on the baking sheet.
Pastry Cream
- In a medium saucepan combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Cook for 2 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from stove. Slowly whisk 1/4 cup of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the hot mixture in the saucepan. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding mixture to a medium bowl. Cover with plastic; refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour or overnight.
- When pudding is chilled, whip cream to form soft peaks and gently fold in to pudding. Keep covered and chilled until ready to use.
Assemble Swans
- Take a swan body and use a very sharp knife to cut off the top 1/3rd to 1/2. Cut the removed top down the center to make two wings.
- Dollop or pipe pastry cream into the body, insert head, and then add wings. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.
Visit the Daring Kitchen to see all the beautiful pâte à choux swans and other critters the Daring Bakers baked up this month.
Beautiful! My batch did not come out good at all I don’t know where I went wrong
Hi Alice – I need more info to help you troubleshoot. Did they not rise up tall – you need to pipe them taller. Was the dough too thick – add more egg. There’s more information on my cream puff post https://www.barbarabakes.com/how-to-make-cream-puffs-video-and-easy-step-by-step-photos-and-instructions/ as well.
These are gorgeous! Good to know they can be frozen. How should they be packaged for freezing? How long should it be thawed before filling? Could I make tomorrow, fill on Saturday and refrigerate uncovered to eat on Sunday?
I’ve never made pastry before but would like to do this tomorrow and have it for Mother’s Day. The recipe indicates that only 3 eggs may be needed. How would I know if the dough is thick enough? Is 4 more typical than 3? Is it temperature-dependent?
Thank you!!
Thanks Ruth-Ann! Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44rbPtQXphA and you’ll see how thick the dough should be and tips on making them. You’ll just pipe them longer. It depends on the humidity where you live, you’ll probably only need 3 eggs, if the dough doesn’t fall from the beater, you can add an extra egg yolk or an extra egg white.
You can make them tomorrow and fill them on Saturday to eat on Sunday. The more time between when you fill them and the time you eat them, the softer the shell will be, so filling them late Saturday or early Sunday would be best. I usually freeze them on the tray and then once they’re frozen, put them in a Ziploc freezer bag until I’m ready to use them. They thaw quickly, so just get them out of the freezer before you start making your filling. Add powdered sugar right before serving.
Have fun!
My swan bodies didn’t rise very much, can you tell me what I did wrong.
Hi Jean – if you don’t pipe the dough tall enough, there’s not enough dough to create an air pocket.
How high should they be piped? Thanks.
Hi Ruth-Ann – at least 1 1/2 inches high.
I practically invented those. Lol. I use a lg open star tip to pipe body as if piping large shells on edge of cake. When done slice as if your gonna fill them. Then slice top half down center length wise creating 2 defined feathered wings. Fill and insert wings on opposite side they came from. For the beak, dip the tip in chocolate. Wish i could show you a pic
Hi Edwin – thanks for emailing me a picture. You can share a picture on my Barbara Bakes Facebook page or Instagram 🙂
my bodies puffed but then went flat when I took them out of the oven. What could have gone wrong?
Hi Anne – sounds like they were undercooked. Try cooking them a little longer, or cooling them in the oven to dry them out. Do you live in a humid area of the country? If they have a pocket, you could still try filling them and the filling will puff them up.
I would like to know how long the swans will keep with out the filling, planning a party and would like to make them up ahead of time
Hi Sadie – ideally I like to serve them within a day of when I bake the shells. However, the shells freeze very well, so you can make them several weeks ahead and freeze them. You can freeze the unbaked shaped dough as well, which for a large party I like to do because it takes up less freezer space. Then you bake them from frozen just adding a couple minutes to the cook time. Have fun!
Wonderful recipe!! Thank you sooo much, first time I made these, they turned out lovely, looking
forward to trying more of your great looking recipes. Really like how simple and easy you make
it all to follow! Thanks again, Roberta
Thanks Roberta! Such a great compliment. That really is my goal – to give everyone that I can do that feeling. I’m so glad your swans turned out lovely.
Thank you for a wonderful Mother Day’s recipe! They turned out great!
They look great! So fun for Mother’s Day.
Thank you very much for an amazing recipe. I have done before this kind of pastry, but this recipe is the best. Next time I’ll have my friends over for dinner, for sure it will be on my menu. I tried and felt in love!
Podia me mandar a receita em português muito obrigada
Hi Maria – Desculpe, eu sou incapaz de traduzir a receita para você.
These are gorgeous. You’ve inspired me to try them today!
tres delecieux tous les enfants adore
merci!
so …cute…maybe..one day..i want to try
Beautiful swans, Barbara!!
How cute!
I’ve always wondered how the swan shape was achieved. Thank you for showing it so well.
I never thought about the fact that the filling could be sweet or savoury. Suddenly I have an urge for swans filled with creamy cashew chicken.