These gluten free Cream Puffs have a crisp outer shell with a nice large hollow in the middle, perfect for your favorite filling. The cream puffs are perfect for both sweet or savoury fillings.Which will you choose?
I will admit it now… Before having to eat gluten free, even though I was a baker, I never mastered making cream puffs.
I always had trouble with them not rising properly, or with them staying soggy in the middle. My Grandma was really good at making them though, and if they were coming over for supper, she would whip up a batch filled either with pudding or whipped cream. This was always a treat, because my Mom never had success baking them either.
That was all in the past though. Now, I think I make a pretty awesome gluten free Cream Puff. They are crisp with a beautiful hollow in the middle, perfect for your favorite sweet or savory filling. The trick, I believe, is in making the “Pâte à Choux”, which is the dough that can be used to make Cream Puffs, Éclairs, or Crullers.
Here are some tricks to making sure your gluten free Cream Puffs bake up properly:
You have to be sure to fully incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet before adding the eggs, and once it comes to adding the eggs, they have to be added slowly, making sure that it is fully mixed in before adding the next.
The easiest way to beat the eggs into the dough is with a stand mixer. A heavy duty hand mixer may work, but I’ve never tried it. A good old wooden spoon would work too, I’m sure, you just have to have good arm muscles. I can’t imagine my Grandma got out her stand mixer to bake up a batch, I’m sure she used her wooden spoon or hand mixer when making cream puffs.
Since the dough itself has no sugar in it, you can use these gluten free Cream Puffs for either sweet or savory fillings. Whether you chose a rich, creamy pastry cream, or a spicy chicken salad, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Looking for something besides whipped cream to fill your gluten free cream puffs with?
How about some smooth Peanut Butter Pastry Cream, or Lemon Curd?
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the white rice flour, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring the water and butter to a boil. Once they have reached a boil, pour all of the dry ingredients in at once, and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated, and the mixture looks similar to play dough. Place hot dough into a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for a minute or two to cool the dough down a bit. With the mixer on medium speed, add one egg at a time. Beat dough until the egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one. When you add an egg, the dough will look like it breaks apart, but keep mixing it until it comes back together again. Repeat until all 4 eggs have been added. Mix on medium-high speed for 1 minute, until the dough is smooth. I use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to place the dough onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2-inches between cream puffs. You can use your fingers, dipped in water, to help smooth the tops of the cream puffs before baking. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, open the door, and pierce each cream puff with a sharp knife. This will help any steam trapped inside them to escape, giving a nice crisp cream puff. Leave the cream puffs in the oven, with the door open a few inches, until the oven has cooled completely. Once cream puffs have completely cooled, fill them with a sweet or savory filling. They are best served the same day, but can be stored in an air tight container. To crisp unfilled cream puffs again, place in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes. This dough, the Pâte à Choux, can be frozen to use later. Spoon the dough onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, store in a zipper seal freezer bag. To bake, place frozen dough onto parchment lined baking pan, and let come to room temperature before baking (about 15 minutes). Bake the same way you would if you were baking immediately. You can also use a piping bag, or a heavy plastic bag with the corner cut off, to pipe the dough onto the parchment paper.Gluten free Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Recipe & images updated Feb 2016.
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Beth says
July 23, 2012 at 9:18 amThose look amazing!!!!
Jeanine says
July 23, 2012 at 9:54 amThanks, Beth! They tasted great too. Hope you give them a try!
kelsey says
July 23, 2012 at 11:22 amWhat type of filling did you decide to use? The filling looks really yummy~:)
Jeanine says
July 23, 2012 at 11:39 amThe filling is super simple – heavy whipping cream beat with vanilla pudding mix (added enough to make it nice & thick, plus it stabilizes it) and raspberry extract, with a drop of red colouring for the pink colour. Topped it with some homemade hot fudge sauce (from Brown Eyed Baker’s site). DELICIOUS and pretty. 🙂
Sarah says
July 23, 2012 at 11:54 amOh my, I can’t wait to make these! It’s been so long since I’ve had a cream puff!
http://www.sarahbakesgfree.com
-Sarah
Jeanine says
July 23, 2012 at 12:03 pmYou’ll love them! 🙂 With the variety of fillings you can do, the options are endless. Followed your blog on FB & Pinterest, love your site, Sarah!
Michelle says
July 23, 2012 at 4:32 pmWOWW!!! I’m thinking these would make a perfect anniversary dessert!!! Thank you for the recipe! 🙂
Jeanine says
July 23, 2012 at 4:35 pmOh, they would be! Bake what you need, freeze the rest, and it’s perfect! Happy Anniversary!
Margaret A. Massey says
July 23, 2012 at 6:40 pmHmmm! I think the recipe could be cut in half. I don’t have any room in my freezer. 🙁
Company coming in August.
Jeanine says
July 23, 2012 at 6:56 pmAbsolutely! Cutting in half would be easy, since it has 4 eggs! I always find recipes with 3 eggs difficult to halve. 🙂
Betty Reimer says
July 25, 2012 at 9:28 amAnother beautiful recipe mastered! I just told another friend about your website, she loves it!!
Jeanine says
July 25, 2012 at 10:52 amThanks, Betty! I appreciate it! 🙂
Susan says
July 27, 2012 at 9:46 pmJeanine, I use Jules GF flour would it work?
Jeanine says
July 29, 2012 at 9:56 amI’m not sure, since I haven’t ever used Jules GF flour blend. If you do try it, let us know how it works!
rwect says
September 20, 2012 at 4:19 pmJeanine, these look devine! How long do they keep in an airtight container? I’d like to make them ahead of time, just need to know how much time they have!!
xRx
rwect says
September 21, 2012 at 4:21 am…also thought you might be pleased to know that a chef (who is not coeliac) said he could not tell the difference between the ones I made and regular gluten filled choux pastry.
Good job!
Camille says
December 26, 2012 at 12:11 amI made these today as a Christmas treat and they were divine. The dough puffed up beautifully even though I made my cream puffs quite large. This tasted just like the delicious cream puffs I used to eat before I got diagnosed with celiac disease. I used the cream puff filling recipe from the food and wine magazine’s website and put dark chocolate sauce on top. My family could not believe how good they were. I will absolutely be making these again.
Camille says
December 26, 2012 at 12:20 amCorrection: I used the chocolate sauce from the Food & Wine website and the filling from the gluten free cream puff recipe on Seriouseats.com. I am sure these would be delicious with any filling and topping however. Again, this was an amazing cream puff recipe. Try it!
Vivi says
January 16, 2013 at 10:53 pmThanks Jennie, after a few trial, i finally get a great result. After nearly a decade not eating cream puff, theybtaste so good !!!
Anna says
March 3, 2013 at 11:34 pmHi! I really appreciate you publishing this recipe online! I love to bake, even more so french pastries. I bring them to my French class (I’m in highschool), but unfortunately my teacher and one of my close friends are gluten intolerant. I can’t express how glad I am to not only find a recipe that is gluten free and works for high altitude, but is also delicious! Thanks a bunch! 🙂
Jeanine says
March 6, 2013 at 8:10 amThat is so great of you for baking so that your teacher & classmate can both partake too. Glad that the recipe worked well for you! 🙂
Tiily says
April 26, 2013 at 12:26 pmI decided to whip up these goodies yesterday to accommodate diabetic and gluten-free. I subbed part of the brown rice flour with oat flour and found them to be wet on the inside although they puffed and looked amazing. Would baking them longer be helpful or do I have to use the brown rice flour? I added unsweetened Greek yogurt, mixed berry yogurt and chopped fresh strawberries to slightly sweetened whipped cream. The taste was fabulous.
Jeanine Friesen says
April 26, 2013 at 12:32 pmHi Tilly! It could be the difference – the original recipe calls for white rice and sweet rice, so it could be that the oat flour was a little too heavy. But if they still puffed well, a few more minutes of baking may have helped them too. Did you pierce the cream puffs after baking, and leave them in the oven with the door cracked open? That step should usually help the trapped steam to escape. The filling sounds amazing!! Perfect dessert for those gluten and sugar free!
Sue Hare says
April 18, 2014 at 10:06 amMy sister and I used to make a cream puff dessert in a glass cake pan and we loved it – but now miss it terribly. The recipe called for spreading the dough on the bottom of the pan. It would puff up all over, but especially rise on the sides. Then the filling was made and spread over the center part of the baked dough. It was similar to cream puffs, but a fraction of the hassle! Would this gluten free dough behave in the same way? What modifications would you recommend ( I imagine baking time would be affected – but by how much)? Would appreciate any comments!
Jeanine Friesen says
April 18, 2014 at 10:08 amYes, it does work! I think this recipe would be enough for a 9×13 pan, do 1/2 if you’re doing a pie pan. Bake the same way you would the other recipe, it should work the same way. 🙂
Louie says
May 28, 2014 at 8:17 pmamazing insight. Really enjoyed browsing this blog.
Keep up the good work and to everyone keep on tweeting!
Jessie says
April 1, 2015 at 10:20 pmjust wondering if this would work with 100% brown rice flour instead of white rice flour/sweet rice flour? just want to save going out to buy 2x more ingredients 🙂
Jeanine says
April 9, 2015 at 2:59 pmI haven’t tried it using only brown rice, Jessie. That would require some testing to see if it would work the same way. I think you could sub brown rice for the white, but the sweet rice flour is completely different than those two, so you may have to only buy one? You can get sweet rice flour, also called glutinous rice flour, at Asian stores for cheap. Hope this helps!
Lacey says
December 6, 2016 at 9:11 pmI have a vitamix. Can I make the flour myself? I have tons of rice lol yellow, black, white long grain, sweet rice …. now I’m wheat free. So looking to make different things gluten free but not wanting to buy a lot of flours
Jeanine says
December 12, 2016 at 3:36 pmI’ve heard of others that make flours using the vitamix, but have no experience with that myself.
Jill says
February 26, 2016 at 12:20 pmSo Jeanine, this makes 18 puffs? Can you link me or give me recipe for the creamy filling? Thanks
Jeanine says
February 29, 2016 at 7:33 pmHi Jill! Brand new recipe for peanut butter pastry cream: http://www.faithfullyglutenfree.com/2016/02/peanut-butter-pastry-cream.html or an older recipe for a vanilla bean pastry cream: http://www.faithfullyglutenfree.com/2008/06/gluten-free-pastry-creamvanilla-pudding.html Both are yummy though!
Kelly says
March 3, 2016 at 12:19 pmThis looks amazing… I miss cream puffs. But I cant have dairy either. Do you think I could sub out the butter with margine? or butter floured Crisco?
Jeanine says
March 3, 2016 at 12:20 pmKelly, I would sub with these sticks, I think they’d work best. http://earthbalancenatural.com/product/vegan-buttery-sticks/
Jenna says
March 20, 2016 at 1:32 pmWhen you say to stab it with a knife, do I stab it on the top or the side?
Celeste says
May 6, 2016 at 3:46 pmWow these look AMAZING Jeanine!
Ann says
January 27, 2017 at 1:28 amOh my,I miss these so much.Reminds me of my childhood back in Europe when my mom was making these every weekend.I do have a question though,is it possible to leave out the xanthan gum,as my son is allergic to it?I see another recipe from King arthur site where there is no xanthan gum,and their flour blend doesn’t have either.
Ann says
January 27, 2017 at 1:35 amAlso,can duck eggs be used and how many?They are quite huge.My son can’t have chicken eggs.
Thank you.
Tina says
July 13, 2017 at 5:22 pmDo you think it’d be possible to substitute all purpose gf flour for this?
Fara says
July 16, 2017 at 1:23 amHi
I can’t find sweet rice flour. They are all regular rice flour. Do you have any soloution?
Thanks
Ann says
December 24, 2017 at 11:14 amWow – I just finished making eclairs with this batter. Excellent result! I used a star tip to pipe them out. You cannot tell they are gluten free. They rose perfectly!
A Magical Life says
June 29, 2018 at 9:29 amI made these last night for my family, and filled them with whipped cream and elderflower-rhubarb jam. They tasted wonderful but didn’t rise as high as yours. The batter was a bit too runny to mound up properly, even though I cooked the flour mixture till it was playdough consistency. I’ll try them again with a touch less liquid. Great recipe, though. Thanks!
Jeanine says
July 20, 2018 at 11:29 amCream puffs can be so finicky. If the eggs are a little too large, that can throw it off too. Definitely give them a try again, they are really good!
Kelly Thomas says
January 12, 2019 at 11:58 amI’m over the moon with how these turned out! I didn’t that’s any sweet rice flour so I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour since the first ingredient was sweet rice flour. I did omit the xantham gym. They taste just like my grandma used to make. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Mary says
April 21, 2019 at 7:34 amThis is Easter Sunday, and we have enjoyed this recipe for four years at all of the holiday dinners.
Will be enjoying it again today. we switch off an on the fillings from regular heavy whipped cream, sometimes sweetened with honey and strawberries, other times we have flavored the whipped cream with other fruits. my grandmas Italian cream filling is excellent in this also. we have enjoyed them filled with chicken salad for showers and once for a tea party. They are excellent and we have never ever had trouble with this recipe Thanks bunches.
Jeanine says
June 8, 2019 at 8:51 amSo glad to hear that, Mary! I love this recipe too, and it’s so versatile too. That Italian Cream Filling sounds delicious!