Irresistible Pastries for Your Halloween Party

Get ready to elevate your Halloween treats with these striking Brimstone cream puffs, featuring a fiery red exterior and a dark black craquelin that evokes the essence of the season. Each delightful bite reveals a delicately spiced pumpkin cream filling, blending eerie aesthetics with irresistible flavor for a spooky celebration!

pro tips

mise en place: weigh and prepare your ingredients and supplies before starting. The purpose is to streamline the cooking process, ensuring efficiency, and reducing stress. Minimize the risk of errors and allow for better focus on technique and timing.
equipment varies: ovens vary, purchase an oven thermometer to ensure the oven is at the correct temperature. Each oven will have different hot spots and some use convection to heat. If your oven has convection, I recommend lowering the temperature by 25°. Place your baking pans in the center of the oven on the middle rack for even baking.
read the recipe: be sure to read the entire recipe before starting. This way you can see if any of your ingredients need to be room temperature or cold, or if any of the ingredients need to be processed before adding to the other ingredients.
template: make a template for the cream puffs by tracing 6 cm circles onto a sheet of parchment paper. Leave enough space between each circle to allow for expansion during baking. Flip the parchment over before piping so the sharpie doesn’t transfer onto the dough.

equipment and supplies

stand mixer with paddle attachment
bowls, various sizes
rolling pin
parchment paper
1/2 inch round piping tip and 1/4 inch round piping tip
pastry bags
4 cm round cutter-you can buy a pack of Ateco round cutters here
sharpie
rubber spatula
medium pot
sheet pans
mesh strainer

pumpkin pastry cream ingredients — pumpkin pastry cream

ingredient notes

bread flour: as always, I recommend King Arthur flour because of their consistency in quality. You can use All-Purpose flour for this recipe but bread flour has a higher protein content which provides stronger gluten development and stability.
brown sugar: the craquelin recipe calls for brown sugar but you can substitute regular sugar.
butter: most professionals will recommend unsalted butter but I use salted butter because I prefer the flavor. If you notice that your final product tastes saltier than you like, switch to unsalted butter and see if that is the cause. If not, then reduce the amount of added salt in the recipe.
food coloring: I prefer gel colors because they don’t add more liquid than regular food coloring. In doughs like pate a choux, the extra liquid could cause a problem in the texture. Add the coloring before adding the eggs.
eggs: for the choux, lightly scramble the eggs and add them in multiple stages, checking the consistency of the dough before adding more. You don’t want the dough to be super runny or else the dough will spread too much and they won’t expand as much as they should.
vanilla bean paste: you can substitute vanilla extract. For the pastry cream, I like to use vanilla bean paste because of the bean speckles.

brimstone cream puffs recipe instructions

Pumpkin Pastry Cream

The pastry cream can be made a day ahead or the day of, just be sure that it is cold before filling the cream puffs.

step one: Combine the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in a small pot over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil. Because the mixture is thick, you should stop stirring every once in a while to look for large bubbles. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.

step two: In a medium pot over medium heat, combine the milk, heavy cream, and 98 grams of sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk the sugar and cornstarch together then add the egg yolks. Keep an eye on the milk mixture. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light in color. Once the milk mixture reaches a simmer, remove from the heat and add a little to the yolk mixture. Whisk together, adding in a little more of the milk. Once tempered, add the yolk mixture to the pot of milk and place back on the heat. Over medium heat, continue whisking the mixture and add the pumpkin puree. Bring the pumpkin pastry cream to a boil and let it boil for one minute while whisking so the bottom doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat.

step three: In a medium bowl, add the butter and vanilla bean paste. Place a mesh strainer over the bowl and pour the pumpkin pastry cream into the strainer. Strain the mixture to remove any large clumps. Using a rubber spatula, stir the pastry cream until all of the butter is completely mixed in. Cover the cream with plastic wrap, making sure it touches the cream, to prevent a crust from forming. Place in the refrigerator to cool.

Craquelin

step one: In the bowl of the stand mixer, beat the sugar, salt, black food coloring, and butter until smooth. Add the flour and mix on speed 1 until combined.

step two: Deposit the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and top with another sheet of parchment. Roll the dough out to about 1/8-inch thick. Freeze.

step three: Once frozen, use a 6 cm round cutter and cut out 8 circles. These can be kept in the freezer until ready to use.

Pate a choux

step one: Add the milk, water, sugar, and salt to a medium pot. Bring to a boil. *make sure the butter has completely melted* Remove the pot from the heat and add the flour. Return the pot to medium heat and stir continuously until the dough has stopped sticking to the bottom and sides of the pan. Remove the pot from the heat.

step two: Place the dough in the bowl of the stand mixer and begin mixing on speed one with the paddle attachment. Once the dough cools down to about 110°F, start adding the eggs, a little bit at a time. After the first addition of eggs, add the red food coloring and one drop of black food coloring. Make sure each addition is completely mixed in before adding more. Before adding the remaining eggs, check the consistency of the dough. The dough should be smooth and shiny, and when you run a finger through the dough, it should hold its shape with the edges falling in on itself only a little. If the dough is still too stiff, add the rest of the eggs.

step three: Pour the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round piping tip. *use a pint glass to hold the pastry bag while pouring the dough in.* Place your circle template onto a sheet pan and pipe mounds of dough into each circle.

step four: Place the frozen rounds of craquelin on top of each mound of choux. Bake at 385 for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue to bake another 15 minutes. Only open the oven if necessary. The sudden loss of heat can cause the puffs to deflate. Once baked, remove the puffs from the oven and let cool completely. You can take a small knife and pierce the bottoms to let the steam escape to ensure a crisp choux.

Assembly:

Once the pumpkin pastry cream is cold, stir it up to create a smooth cream. Whip the heavy cream to a stiff peak and fold it into the cold pastry cream. Pour the pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip or filling tip, and begin to fill each puff. You will know the puff is full when you feel a slight pressure resistance and the cream will ooze out a bit. Don’t overfill the cream puffs or they will crack or explode.

Enjoy!

Brimstone Cream Puffs

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 1

Course Dessert

Servings 8 large puffs

Equipment

1 Stand mixer