Lille Allen/Eater
Why would I ever make a cream puff from scratch when the frozen ones are so good?
I didn’t grow up longing for Vienetta, which represented the pinnacle of fancy food for many millennials trying to make sense of the world through TV ads. That may be because I was already full of my own fancy-enough frozen treat. By this I mean the frozen cream puffs that my family bought in big tubs from Sam’s Club.
Like Vienetta, frozen cream puffs always conferred an air of highbrow culture to me. They seemed vaguely European, which made them especially appealing when everyone else’s mom was buying Tastykake and Entenmann’s. Even today, I associate cream puffs more with the choux challenge on The Great British Bake Off, charming British accents and all, than a standard American dessert, despite the fact that frozen cream puffs are readily available here.
My impression of cream puffs as kinda-fancy didn’t quite align with how my family tended — or more accurately, still tend — to eat them: usually straight from the container, often while watching TV, and almost always a little frozen. Technically, you’re meant to thaw frozen cream puffs, at which point you can then set them out for a dinner party or, if you’re an overachiever, drizzle them with chocolate or caramel.
But a partially frozen cream puff isn’t just convenient; it also offers the possibility of a new texture. Instead of the thick ooze of thawed crème pâtissière, it gives you something akin to a bite of an ice cream bar that’s been wrapped with a wafer cone. In my opinion, this texture — not fully frozen, not thawed — is the cream puff’s ideal state and the primary argument for even buying them frozen in the first place.
The benefits of frozen cream puffs go beyond texture. As I know from experience, they’re ideal for a late-night snack, as you can eat them straight out of hand. And since they aren’t thawed, there isn’t much to make a mess. On top of that, cream puffs don’t taste quite as sweet when they’re partially frozen, which makes it easier to eat more of them.
I can say with certainty that I’m a good cook, but I’m far from a good baker; I don’t have the patience or the precision. This is where frozen cream puffs provide another gift: They have saved me from ever needing to make my own. For every person who says choux pastry is easy, there’s a person having a bad time beneath the Bake-Off tent.
I thought about frozen cream puffs when I read Lottie Hazell’s Piglet, a novel in which the namesake protagonist tasks herself with making three croquembouche — showstopping towers of cream puffs — entirely from scratch for her own wedding. Spoiler alert: The dessert is a disaster, and I found myself imagining that at least some of Piglet’s problems could have been avoided if she’d just used frozen cream puffs instead.
All of which is to say: Why would I ever make a cream puff, when the frozen ones are so satisfying just as they are?
