Pastries in a typical French patisserie, where one can find cream puffs.
Cream puffs are part of the repertoire of many pastry traditions around the world. What they all share in common is a flaky pastry exterior and a sweet, creamy substance inside. Far and away, the creme de la creme, if you will, of cream puffs are those produced in the patisseries of France, but the Dutch and Americans give the French versions a run for the money to be sure.
Basic French Profiterole
France is widely regarded as one of the centers, if not the center, of fine pastry making. The French profiterole, which has come to be known as a cream puff in the U.S. consists of a bite-size, round pastry which has been sliced in two with thick cream or ice cream applied generously between the two slices. This creamy sandwich is then often topped with a chocolate or caramel sauce.
Choux a la Creme
French patisseries offer a second treat they call choux a la creme. This pastry keeps the same cream/ice cream sandwich form factor as the profiterole, but is usually larger, and the pastry is more complex, with a spiraled, many-layered structure reminiscent of a dollop of cream squeezed through a pastry bag. One other difference is that these delicacies are topped with powdered sugar instead of sauce.
Dutch Moorkop
The proximity of the Netherlands to the northeast of France has meant that much French culture can be found there in a slightly modified form. Dutch pastry shops offer an item called moorkop, which is similar to the French profiterole. However, the Dutch version is more likely to have the cream directly inserted into the pastry instead of it being a sandwich. In addition, moorkops are garnished with a small dollop of whipped cream over the chocolate coating.
American Cream Puff
One can find almost every variation of cream puff in the U.S. -- with or without chocolate topping, smooth or ridged pastry, and made with any flavor of cream inside. However, it's most common to find a variation similar to the choux a la creme (multilayered pastry, powdered sugar on top) but with the Dutch adaptation of inserting the cream directly into the pastry instead of presenting it as a sandwich.
Tags: cream cream, cream directly, French profiterole, into pastry, into pastry instead, pastry instead, powdered sugar
