Pistachio Cream Puffs...Can you say mmmmm?!

Great news! Finally a pastry cream filling that holds up as well as the ones in the fancy bakeries!!!! I owe it all to Sarah from the Curry Cooks fb group, Sarah formerly managed a restaurant which included a bakery. I've attempted many variations of fillings and although the flavors were great I felt the fillings were never quite thick enough. Sarah, bless her heart came up with the answer--unflavored gelatin! The perfect thickener and why didn't I think of this? I have packets of it in my pantry at all times yet never put the 2 and 2 together. After playing around with the different measurements of ingredients to create the consistancy I wanted, I finally found the one for me. Not too thick and not at all thin. You'll notice I used only 1 package of pudding mix, it gave the cream a nice gentle flavor. I'm a happy woman!

Mighty Moe and I were enjoying these last night and he asked me what I did differently, when I told him, he commented that punk rockers use gelatin to make their mohawks stand straight up.....who knew eh?  

Ingredients Pastry Cream filling (adapted from Sarah Myers recipe):
2 packets unflavored Knox gelatin 
2 tablespoons hot water (to help dissolve gelatin)
1 package Pistachio instant pudding (use any flavor you want)
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (plus more for dusting cream puffs)

Ingredients for Cream Puffs (makes 9 large or 12 medium ones)
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Directions: 

In small cup stir together gelatin and water. It's important to quickly stir in the hot water and then slowly add it into the cold whipping cream--you don't want the gelatin to harden. Combine all the other pastry cream ingredients. 

Beat on medium high until thickened. 

If it's too thick for your preference, add more milk or heavy cream alittle bit at a time. 

Cover bowl with plastic wrap to avoid the filling skinning over. Place in fridge for at least 3 hours before serving. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a medium nonstick pan, add the water, butter, vanilla and salt and bring to a boil. Stir and remove pan from heat. With a wooden spoon stir in the flour. You'll notice the dough will easily form a ball. 

Get ready to beat. At this point you can remove the dough from the pan or beat the eggs in directly in the pan (I use a hand mixer). Beat in the eggs until smooth and thick. 

Line a baking tray with tin foil and drop generous dollops of the dough onto the foil at least 2" apart. 

Bake for about 40 minutes or until puffy and golden. Let completely cool on wire rack.

To assemble cut the cooled puffs horizontally with a knife being careful not to tear the delicate tops. Fill frosting tube with the cold pastry cream with a large sized tip. Depending on the size of puff--pipe out about 2/3 to 1 cup of filling onto each bottom puff. Cap it with the top and dust with powered sugar. You can drizzle with chocolate or caramel. For pistachio I kept it simple with the powered sugar.