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If you are trying to stay away from gluten you already know how hard it is to find good-tasting bread and desserts. Too many times I have purchased pre-made bread and desserts only to take one bite and toss the rest away.

Why do gluten free store bought products taste so bad?

Desserts are a rare treat in this house, but I do like to make him cream puffs for Valentine’s day every year.  It’s one of his favorite desserts.

This year was a challenge, it’s my husband’s first year being gluten-free and I didn’t quite know if I was going to be able to pull off his favorite dessert without regular flour.

What I came up with is slightly denser than if I had used regular flour, but it has a good taste and is so much better than anything you can find on a store shelf or in the frozen section.

[recipe title=”Gluten-Free Cream Puffs” servings=”12″ prep time=”20 mins” cook time=”35 mins” difficulty=”easy”]

Gluten-Free Cream Puff Shells 

• 1 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Butter (1 stick) + extra for greasing the pan
• 1/2 cup Arrow Root Flour
• 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 4 Eggs

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with butter. A cookie sheet may be used if you prefer flatter cream puffs.

Beat eggs in a separate bowl and set aside.

In a 2 quart (or more) saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add the arrowroot flour and brown rice flour. Stir until the mixture forms a ball and is smooth.

Slowly add about 1 egg at a time to the flour mixture in the pan (heat is still off). Once the mixture starts to absorb the liquid add in another egg and repeat until all of the eggs are absorbed into the cream puff mixture.

Divide all the cream puff mixture into the 12 muffin tin cups.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Cream puff shells should be golden brown and dry. If you remove them from the oven too soon the shells will collapse.

When the shells are done remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack or a clean cotton towel. When cooled, slice, fill with whipped cream or your favorite filling and eat.

Whipped Cream

• 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 tablespoon Powdered Sugar

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, the whipped cream will then become lumpy turn to a texture similar to butter if you beat it too long.

Notes: Feel free to double this recipe if you like extra whipped cream. You may also use different extracts besides the vanilla extract.
[/recipe]

For those of you who aren’t all that domestic, and cream puff shells were already a stretch for your culinary skills, feel free to use canned whipped cream from the dairy section at your local grocery store. It’s not the same as homemade, but sometimes you have to cut corners for the sake of time.