Ah, Choux.

Lewisburg.

Cream puffs? I suppose I'm rather ambivalent. If they're fresh and not too sweet - the downfall of many a dessert - they can be good, but they really seem to scream for something interesting. Something more than ice cream.¹

So I go for savory. With a stack of various winter squash lying around, it only seems like the appropriate thing to do. Sure, you could make bite-size pumpkin pies - I could go for that - but I'd rather make it more of a surprise. There's a potluck later today, and I see no reason to play it low-key.



And thus we have: curried squash cream puffs. Crispy on the outside, creamy in the middle, with a chilli warmth that appears at the tail end and lingers a moment. I swiped one for a taste, and now I half-wish I'd made an attempt to write down the recipe.

It's not as though I don't know what I did, because it's all straightforward, if rather time-consuming. Roasted squash went into the food processor with well-drained, homemade ricotta cheese to make a smooth puree. Then I adjusted the filling to taste with a curry of shallots, coriander, black pepper, cumin and a whole mess of chillis: sanaam, ancho and chipotle.

The puffs were remarkably easy, too. It's a basic pâte à choux - flour, milk, water, butter, salt and eggs - spiked with just enough paprika² and ground mustard to give it some flavor of its own. And since I don't have a set or large pastry bag tips, I used a cookie scoop to dollop out even-sized mounds of pastry, then smoothed them over with a finger dipped in cold water. Slide 'em into the oven, and what look like little mounds of dumpling batter burst into delicate, crispy, air-filled puffs.

Slice the tops and pipe in the filling. You could also puncture the bottoms and pipe it in that way, but I found that I could fill all of the air chambers by lifting the lid. Besides, then it's a bright orange warning on the potluck table. Cream puffs? In a sense.

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¹Though everyone's gotta love that scene in Down By Law. "I scream-a. You scream-a. We all scream-a for ice cream-a."

²Yes. More chilli.