Maple Cream Puffs

Ingredients: Cream Puff

1 cup boiling water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

4 eggs

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 F. In a 2 quart saucepan, boil water. Add butter to the boiling water. Bring back to boil and stir in flour thoroughly. Will resemble a nice, squishy dough. Remove from heat, and let cool about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each one.

On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Turn off oven, and open oven door and let puffs sit for about 20 minutes. This prevent the puffs from collapsing due to change of temperature. Transfer sheet to cooling rack after cooling time in oven.

Ingredients: Maple Custard Filling

1 egg

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon hot water

1 tablespoon Vermont maple syrup

2 tablespoon heavy cream, whipped

Directions: In a large bowl, beat egg with flour, sugar, and cornstarch until well blended. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add milk and bring almost to a boil. Remove from heat and slowly whisk hot milk into the egg mixture. Return all the ingredients to the saucepan, cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened and comes to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat.

Add vanilla extract, hot water, and maple syrup to the thickened mixture, stirring to combine. Set aside to cool completely for 30 - 45 minutes. Fold in the whipped cream. Refrigerate for an hour. When ready to serve, horizontally slice the top of the cream puff to create two pieces (a top and bottom). Fill each cream puff bottom with a spoonful of Maple Custard filling. Close with the top section.  Adapted from "Betty Crocker" with changes from the Hescock family. Makes about 12 puffs.