Cream Puff Cups

Hello all!  Recently I have been in the competitive spirit.  As you may or may not know, I "heart" Paula Deen!  I think her cooking is real American and I love that she loves butter just like me!  In fact I think using olive oil in place of it can be horrendous and I'd rather have nothing at all...  Just my thought :)

I frequent Paula's website and have been noticing the ad from Philadelphia Cream Cheese about a contest for recipes.  Since I was young, haven't entered a contest, mainly because I am afraid of losing, silly I know.  So I decided to make a leap for it.

This happens to be the last week for this competition and each week has a specific theme.  This week's theme is Desserts - Make To Impress.  I thought that maybe I could do this but wasn't sure what to enter.  I decided to review the other entries, my competition, and see if it was even worth it.  You can view the other entries here.

Many of you may think I entered a cake, but no I didn't :)  It is a make to impress and I can only use ten ingredients or less.  You would be surprised at how hard that can be.  My entry was at exactly ten ingredients and I could of had more but I adjusted.  This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, The Girl Who Ate Everything and her Strawberry Cream Puff Cake, however, mine is definitely different.

Cream Puff Cup

6 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp grated orange zest
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg
1 tbsp water
16 strawberries
8 sprigs of mint for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Lay out puff pastry sheets and cut into four six-inch squares, it doesn’t have to be exact.

3. Lay each square over cup in muffin tin and work into the cup. There will be about one to two inches of edging.

4. Combine egg and water and whisk until combined to make egg wash.

5. Brush pastry top with egg wash.

6. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges are a deep golden brown and puffed up.

7. Remove from muffin tin and let cool.

8. Combine Philadelphia Cream Cheese, sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth in appearance.

9. Add whipping cream and beat until stiff peaks form.

10. Fold in the orange zest until combined, don’t over mix, and set aside.

11. Slice strawberries in four and reserve the middle two slices for garnish.

12. Wash and dry mint sprigs, clip off the end bunch of about four or six leaves, whichever you prefer for decoration.

13. Fill a pastry bag or Ziploc bag with the cream cheese mixture and pipe into the cooled pastry cups.

14. Garnish with the strawberries and mint bunches.

Note: The parts of this can be prepared in advance but do not fill the pastry cups until a couple hours prior serving; otherwise the pastry won’t be as crisp.

Live, Laugh, Love & Enjoy! (And wish me luck!)