White Chocolate Cream Puffs – Light and airy puffs are filled with homemade white chocolate pastry cream and finished with a dip in melted white chocolate. 

And just like that, Christmas is over. It’s so sad to see my favorite time of year pass us by. But fear not!! We still have New Year’s Eve to look forward to!!

With that in mind, I’ve got a yummy dessert that is elegant enough to serve at any New Year’s Eve party, but much easier to make than you’d think. But before I get to that, let me list out some yummy appetizers that you can also throw together for your party this year. Because as much as I love going straight for the dessert first, you can’t have a party without something savory too!

When planning out appetizers, you want to make sure to include something that’s easy to eat and also filling enough to keep people energized all night. Here are a few ideas for your menu:

1. Mini Pesto Grilled Cheese – mini treats are always a hit at parties. And you can’t go wrong with cheese and pesto!
2. Goat Cheese Stuffed Sweet Peppers – goat cheese never disappoints!!
3. Tomato & Whipped Feta Crostini – this hearty crostini is so refreshing and so easy to make
4. Pigs in Blanket Wreath – and finally, don’t forget to include some options with protein to keep bellies full!

Alright, now that you have your appetizers all planned out, let’s get to the dessert!

My mom always loved to serve mini desserts during the holidays – mini cheesecake bites, mini eclairs, and mini cream puffs. They came frozen from the grocery store so they were super easy for her to thaw and serve.

Those memories from my childhood inspired me to make my own mini desserts. Say hello to my White Chocolate Cream Puffs!

I know cream puffs sound intimidating to make. But trust me, if you’ve tackled recipes like these macarons or these doughnuts, these cream puffs will be a piece of cake!

To make the cream puffs, there are two major steps: make the puffs and make the pastry cream. I recommend making the pastry cream first because it needs to be chilled for a few hours to help it thicken.

The pastry cream is basically a homemade pudding made with milk and egg yolks. It’s finished off with white chocolate to give it extra depth of flavor.

For the puffs, it’s much easier than any dough you’ve made in the past because…wait for it…there’s no yeast! The puffs get their height from lots of eggs.

Once you make the dough, you put it in a piping bag to help form perfect circles and then just bake until golden brown. See, how easy is that?!

After the puffs are made, they’re ready for filling and then a finish in some melted white chocolate.

To give you a little more confidence when making these cream puffs, here are some tips:

1. When making the pastry cream, make sure you keep an eye on it – it will thicken pretty quickly so you’ll want to remove it from heat as soon at it does.
2. The dough is made by adding eggs to a hot dough one at a time. Make sure to stir each egg vigorously into the dough to keep it from scrambling in the hot dough.
3. To make the puffs easier to fill, I always punch an X into the bottom with a pairing knife. Then, I simply insert the piping bag into the X and fill the puff until full.

There you have it – the perfect dessert to serve at your New Year’s Eve Party next week. In fact, it’s great for any party you have in the New Year!

Here are all the kitchen tools and serveware that I used in today’s recipe. For each item sold below, I make a small commission. I only recommend items that I own and love so you can trust that each recommendation is tried and true. Thank you for supporting CPA!

 

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Other treats you might like:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites with Fudge Frosting

Nutella Macarons

Churro Marshmallow Bites

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Pops