Cream puffs with gorgonzola mousse and pistachios are very easy to make and can be served as an appetizer at an important lunch, at a buffet, and with aperitifs. They are tempting finger foods filled with a delicate but flavorful cream made from sweet gorgonzola and milk, enhanced by the sweetness of pistachios. They are refined and decorative, as well as delicious; both the puffs and the gorgonzola-pistachio mousse can be prepared well in advance.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 15 puffs
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas, Easter
- 3/8 cup Water
- 2 1/2 tbsp Butter
- 2/3 cup All-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp Fine salt
- 2 large Whole eggs
- 3 1/2 oz Sweet gorgonzola (or mascarpone)
- 2 tbsp Milk
- 1/4 cup Chopped pistachios
Preparation
Let’s prepare the choux pastry for the cream puffs.
The eggs should be at room temperature and weigh the same as the water. Crack them, weigh them, beat them lightly with a fork, and place them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. Now weigh the water in a saucepan.
1) Put the water and butter cut into pieces in a pot. Over high heat, melt the butter and bring the water to a boil.
At this point, add all the flour at once (which we have sifted beforehand) and stir immediately with a wooden tool. Immediately lower the heat and continue stirring for about 3-4 minutes, until there are no more traces of flour in the dough that has formed.
2) Place the dough in a bowl to cool. Occasionally, press and spread it with a fork to cool it faster. As soon as it is almost cold, we can incorporate the eggs, little by little, I recommend. The final dough should have a soft and creamy consistency like cake batter, but not liquid or too hard.
Lift a bit of dough from the bowl with a spatula. If, when it falls back down, the dough forms a kind of triangle, then it’s ready and we don’t need to add more eggs.
3) Preheat the oven to 428°F.
Meanwhile, lightly oil or butter the baking sheet with very little fat, to keep the parchment paper steady while forming the puffs. With the help of a pastry bag or two teaspoons, form our puffs, which should be the size of a walnut, spacing them a finger apart.
Moisten the tip of a finger and lower the peaks that inevitably form on top of the puffs, to prevent them from burning during baking.
4) Put them in the oven which must never be opened during baking, in the middle shelf, and let them bake for 30-35 minutes. Even if the puffs appear swollen, don’t turn off the oven and don’t open it before the time, because they also need to dry. For safety, if you really want to check the cooking, after the time has passed, quickly take one out and open it. It should be cooked and hollow inside. Puffs should not be cut hot because they would break. At the end of baking, turn off the oven and open the door slightly to let out the residual steam.
5) While the puffs are cooling, let’s prepare the gorgonzola mousse. Put the sweet gorgonzola in a large bowl or in a mixer with steel blades. Add a little milk at a time and whip until you obtain a firm and airy cream, just like a mousse. Finally, add the chopped pistachios and blend them into the mousse.
6) Shortly before serving, cut the cooled puffs in half and fill them with a generous teaspoon of mousse. Place them on a tray, closed in a cake container whenever possible.
