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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
All the lovely flavours of banana cream pie combined with the lightness of a cream puff! Add this dessert to the appetizer spread at your next holiday party or make a batch for an easy birthday treat.
Rather than waiting for your bananas to ripen, why not learn How to Ripen Bananas quickly? Not a fan of coffee, try this Chocolate Sauce or a Caramel Syrup as a drizzle for your cream puffs instead!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: Medium. Because this recipe involves making a choux pastry as well as a custard filling, it requires a bit more skill and concentration than some.
- Total Time: This recipe will take approximately 70 minutes from start to finish.
- Variations: Once you have the basics figured out, it’s easy to make changes to this recipe. You can try including cocoa powder in your pastry dough, or making a chocolate filling. Try some whipped cream for a lighter filling, or make a quick Salted Caramel Sauce to drizzle over your banana cream puffs. Sprinkle some chopped peanuts on top for some crunch.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a medium pot, a small pot, a whisk, a large baking sheet, a small spoon, and some parchment paper. A couple of small glass bowls will also be helpful, and you may want to use a hand mixer for some of the steps.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Choux Pastry: This classic French pastry is the base for many delicious desserts, like cream puffs and eclairs. It’s also used for cheese puffs! The ingredients are simple: eggs, flour, butter, and water. It can require a little practice to get right, but once you’ve figured it out, you’ll be able to use the recipe again and again.
Filling: The filling for these cream puffs is a fairly straightforward custard, made with egg yolks, sugar, flour, and milk. The addition of ripe bananas is what gives it the rich banana cream flavour. Like the choux pastry, a custard is a base for many dessert recipes. You’ll be able to use the basic ingredients and techniques of this filling for future dessert creations.
Mocha Chocolate Sauce: This mocha sauce is comprised of instant coffee, whipping cream, and chocolate chips. It can be made either in the microwave or on a stovetop. If you don’t enjoy the flavour of coffee in your desserts, try this Chocolate Sauce instead.
How To Make Banana Cream Puffs
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put the butter and water for choux pastry in a medium pot at medium heat. Heat until boiling, add flour all at once and beat until stiff. Remove from heat.
- Beat eggs into the flour mixture one at a time, until dough is smooth and satin-like. Drop dough on to parchment-lined baking sheet in 8 even amounts. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven. Turn off oven.
- Cut horizontally to remove the top 1/3 of each puff. Put all the pieces back on the baking sheet and into the warm oven for 5 minutes to dry slightly. Remove from oven and set aside.
- Filling: Beat egg yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. When yolks are pale yellow, beat in flour and 1/2 cup milk. In a small pot, heat 1 cup milk until it’s just about to boil. Add a small amount of the hot milk to the egg mixture and whisk quickly. Then, add all of the egg mixture to the hot milk and whisk continuously until the mixture is thickened. Remove from heat. Stir butter and vanilla into custard until butter is fully melted. Chill until cool.
- Mash bananas with a fork and mix into chilled filling. Pour whipping cream into a medium bowl and whip until firm. Fold in the banana cream mixture. Spoon the cream on to the cream puffs. Put the pastry tops back on. Melt chocolate sauce ingredients together, stir until smooth and then drizzle onto the banana cream puffs.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Banana Cream Puffs
Modifying the Filling: If you’d like to skip the banana and introduce a different fruit or flavour to the filling, be aware that you’ll change the texture. The bananas add a creaminess that other fruits can’t quite imitate. If you’re looking to change the taste, consider switching to a flavored whipped cream instead, like this Strawberry Whipped Cream.
No Microwave, No Problem: If you don’t happen to have a microwave, or just prefer not to use one, you can make the mocha sauce in a small pot on your stovetop. Just keep the heat as low as possible, stir consistently, and pay close attention to avoid scorching anything.
Don’t Skip the Sauce: On top of adding an extra flavour to the banana cream puffs, the mocha chocolate sauce (or chocolate if you prefer) adds a textural contrast and balances the richness of this dessert.
Storage Instructions
There’s a reason you find cream puffs and eclairs in the freezer section of the grocery store. They freeze incredibly well and defrost nicely too.
More Delicious Dessert Recipes
Looking for more delicious Dessert recipes?
Try this Banana Split Cake for all the flavours of a classic banana split without the chill, or a Classic Banana Cake for something rich and comforting.
If pie is more your thing, make this Marshmallow Pineapple Pie or a Shoofly Pie.
There you have it, everyone. A delicious, handheld dessert with the flavours of banana cream pie, and some new skills you can take with you on future baking endeavors. Try these out and let me know how the work for you.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Banana Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Cream Puffs
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup flour
- 4 eggs
Filling
- 5 egg yolks
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- dash salt
- ⅓ cup flour
- 1½ cups milk , 2%
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 2 small ripe bananas, mashed well with a fork
- ½ cup whipping cream
Mocha Chocolate Sauce
- ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 3 Tablespoons whipping cream
- 2 Tablespoons hot water
- ½ teaspoon instant coffee granules
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F
- For the cream puffs – In a saucepan heat the water and butter until boiling, add the flour all at once and beat on medium heat for 2 minutes until very stiff. Remove from heat.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until the dough is smooth and continue to beat until it is satinlike.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop 8 even mounds of dough onto the parchment paper.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove them from the oven and turn the oven off. Gently slice each puff horizontally slicing about the top 1/3 off so the top will be a bit smaller. Place them back on the baking pan and return to the warm oven for 5 more minutes to dry slightly. Remove and set aside.
Filling
- In a small deep bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar and the pinch of salt until they are pale yellow. Beat in the flour and ½ cup milk.
- In a small pot add 1 cup of milk and bring to scalding, or just before it boils and add a little bit of the hot milk to the beaten egg mixture and whisk the egg mixture quickly. Add the egg mixture to the pot with the remaining milk and whisk to mix continuously, cooking until thick. Remove from heat.
- Add in the vanilla and butter stirring until the butter is melted. Chill until cool.
- Mash the bananas well with a fork and add into the chilled filling. In a medium size bowl whip the cream until firm and fold the banana filling into the whipped cream gently.
- Spoon the banana cream into the cream puffs and place the top back on.
Mocha Chocolate Sauce
- Add all the ingredients into a microwaveable measuring cup and microwave in 20 second intervals stirring until just melted. Do not overheat.
- Drizzle the chocolate sauce over the top of the cream puffs. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
June says
Not impressed with end result. After baking 40 minutes at 375f the puffs were raw in the centre. Followed directions in the recipe precisely.