Cheesesteak Cream Puffs
A while back I made something similar to these cheesesteak cream puffs. I wanted to update the recipe a bit and decided it was worthy of a whole new post. These are technically Gougรจres – the dough is similar to a cream puff, starting with a pate a choux, but then you add some cheese. The dough puffs up in the oven and creates a nice hollow pocket for a filling. Instead of a sweet cream puff filling, I added a cheesesteak mixture!
Last time I made these, the filling was more steak heavy, basically what you would find in an actual sandwich. This time I was more inspired by cream puffs and used a cream cheese-cheddar mixture with some steak and onions blended in to add the cheesesteak flavor. This way I could pipe it into the bread and give them the visual feel of cream puffs. It also made it OK for these to be more of a room temperature treat. Last time they were something that had to be made quickly and served hot.
Making the gougeres
The pate a choux dough is first cooked in a pan with the butter and flour, then you remove from heat and add the eggs. Pipe the dough onto the pan and flatten down the peaks. These will puff up into perfect cream puffs to load with cheesesteak filling.
If you want more info on this process, check out this post!
After they cook and cool, you cut the top off and have this perfect cavity for the filling.
Make the cheesesteak filling
Cream cheese, cheddar, caramelized onions, steak, and a few banana peppers make the filling. Add it all to a food processor and blend until fairly smooth but still a little chunky. The key is to have a texture still, but no pieces big enough to block the hole in the piping tip when you pipe the cheesesteak mixture into the cream puffs.
Piping the cheesesteak filling into the cream puffs
Fill up the piping bag and use a large tip. Load the filling into each little puff!
Pop the tops back on and serve the cheesesteak cream puffs!
So fun! The filling in these cream puffs is super creamy but because of the onions and steak it definitely has a strong cheesesteak flavor. the steak being blended up into small pieces gives you a nice meaty texture but not enough that you are sitting there trying to chew through pieces of meat. I used the Gougere recipes from Serious Eats and Recipe Tin Eats as a baseline for writing this recipe.
Twists on cheesesteak cream puffs
These cream puffs would be good with other sandwiches besides cheesesteak as the filling. you could start with the same cheese mixture and then put in a bunch of italian meats. You could also do some pork, ham, pickles and mustard for a Cubano filling, or a pastrami and sauerkraut version for a Reuben!
For more cheesesteak awesomeness check out my lobster cheesesteak, or this mortadella cheesesteak,
Cheesesteak Cream Puffs
Equipment
Ingredients
Gougeres
- 1 cup milk
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup flour sifted and leveled
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- black pepper
Filling
- 2 large yellow onions diced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 pound shaved ribeye
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 oz cheddar
- 5 banana pepper rounds
- 1 tablespoon banana pepper juice
Instructions
Onions and Steak
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring often and adjusting the heat as needed, until deeply brown. About 40 minutes.
- Remove the onions from the pan and turn up the heat. Add the steak with a little oil and cook to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes. Allow the onions and steak to cool in the fridge.
Gougeres
- Gougere recipe adapted from serious eats, link above
- preheat oven to 400
- Add the milk, butter, and salt to a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the flour then switch to a wooden spoon and beat the dough over medium heat for 3 minutes until it is combined and a sheen coats the surface. If you have a thermometer, you are looking for an internal temp of 175f.preheat oven to 400
- Remove from heat and continue to stir as it cools. Cool for 5 minutes or until the temp is below 145.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined after each addition.
- Finally stir in the cheese and some black pepper. Stir until combined. Add to a piping bag.
- line a baking sheet with parchment and pipe about 20 small gougeres onto the sheet. Lightly oil your finger and flatten the pointy tops. Bake at 400 until puffed up, slightly browning on the bottom, and cooked through, about 20 minutes. after they are done, turn off the oven and crack the door, but leave them in the oven for 30 more minutes, otherwise the change in temp might cause them to flatten.
Filling and finish
- In the food processor, add in the cream cheese and cheddar. Blend until mostly smooth, scraping the sides a few times to incorporate the cheddar.
- Add in the cooked onions and steak, as well as the banana peppers and juice. Blend again until the steak is in very small pieces. Add this mixture to a piping bag.
- Cut off the tops of the gougeres and pipe the filling into them. Add the tops back onto the filling. Serve at room temp.