Julie Clark
Updated:
Lemon Cream Puffs
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Light and delicious these Lemon Cream Puffs are baked until puffy and filled with a light lemon cream filling! A perfect addition to your dessert line!
Lemon Cream Puffs Recipe
Lemon is one of my favorite flavors to bake with! I have a friend who literally rolls her eyes every time she hears that I’m baking with lemon. Why you may ask? Well 1. She hates lemon (seriously?!?! who hates lemon) and 2. I obviously make too many things with that flavor….whoops, sorry not sorry.
Also, cream puffs are a staple. I mean who doesn’t love themselves a delicious fluffy cream puff? I know that I definitely do. I actually made my first cream puff in high school, we had a class kinda like Home Ec. but entirely about food. I was hooked!
So it is only in my nature to give things a little spin right? I mean I adore taking classic desserts and giving them a little twist and that’s exactly what I decided to do with these seriously tasty Lemon Cream Puffs!
Are cream puffs hard to make?
People thing that cream puffs are these absolutely hard thing to make…well that’s not entirely true. The actual making of the pastry dough is easy, its the fact about OMG are my cream puffs going to deflate is the real nightmare.
The secret is to start baking these lemon cream puffs on a high heat and reduce your baking temp without opening the oven at all, do not even touch it! Just observe from the little window…I mean that’s what it’s there for right? I mean seriously whoever decided to place a window in an oven is genius!
What are cream puffs filled with?
The filling in these Lemon Cream Puffs are a mixture of heavy cream, cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon, and milk. So not quite the traditional filling, but these aren’t the traditional dessert anyways…amiright? Lol!
So if you want a fun, seasonal twist on a classic treat then these Lemon Cream Puffs are great option for any breakfast, brunch or dessert that you are planning!
Do you need to refrigerate cream puffs?
I would refrigerate cream puffs because of the milk-based filling. They’d be ok to sit out at room temperature for a party or gathering, but store them long-term in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Other Lemon Recipes
Tools to Make This Recipe
- Hand mixer: A hand mixer works best for the cream puff part of this recipe.
- Disposable Piping Bags for easy cleanup!
- Silpat: For all of your non-stick, cream puff-making needs. This is in the top 3 must-have kitchen tools. I don’t know what I’d do without them!
- Baking Sheet: I like to use flat baking sheets for easy removing baked goods easily.
- KitchenAid Stand Mixer: The best mixer for cakes, cookies and frostings!
Lemon Cream Puffs
Light and delicious these Lemon Cream Puffs are baked until puffy and filled with a light lemon cream filling! A perfect addition to your dessert line!
Servings 12
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Ingredients
Cream Puffs:
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted
- 1 cup water
- 1 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- Powdered sugar
Filling:
- 1 cup heavy cream whipped to stiff peaks
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- In a sauce pan over medium-high head add your butter, water and sugar and stir until melted and bring to boil.
- Add in your flour and stirring quick and continue to stir to cook away your moisture a little until the dough pulls away and starts forming a ball.
- Remove from heat and place in bowl to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Mix in your eggs one at a time making sure to fully combine each egg after each addition.
- Add your dough to a piping bag and pipe out about 2″ mounds on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. {You can flatten out peaks with a little water by dabbing them with finger so you don’t get any peaks on finished puffs).
- Bake in oven for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350 (do not open oven) and bake for about 15-20 minutes longer or until golden.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
To make your filling:
- In bowl whip your heavy cream until stiff peaks form, set aside.
- In another bowl beat your cream cheese until smooth.
- Add in your powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice and continue to beat until combined.
- Fold in your whipped cream until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Cut your cooled cream puffs in half and using piping bag fill your cream puffs with your lemon cream filling.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 12 cream puffs, with 1 serving being 1 filled cream puff. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.
Nutrition
Calories: 210kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 103mg | Sodium: 93mg | Potassium: 81mg | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 635IU | Vitamin C: 1.1mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 0.8mg
Mine turned out flat like they didnt puff up should i gave made them bigger in size ? First time making them kinda a fail ugh
My cream puffs deflated right after I removed them from the oven. What happened?
These are delicious, specifically the pastry dough. I would say the filling could defs have used more powdered sugar, as is it is very cream cheesy and not very sweet. I wish I would have read the comments before making bc I see several others already made the adjustment. But overall very tasty thank you for the recipe!
First time using this recipe…
As a baker I found it very easy to follow and they turned out beautiful and delicious…
Could you make these smaller so you could get more out of a batch. If so what would the time be and would I still use the same temperature? Thanks
Definitely doubled lemon juice and powdered sugar in the filling. It starts out very cream cheese tasting, but after a day or two in the fridge the filling had a great lemony, not cream cheesy flavor
Gluten and Dairy Free:
First, we only made the pastries. We just made a simple lemon filling rather than the one here.
I’ve been wanting to try to make Gluten-free puff pastries for some time now and finally decided to do it. We followed your directions. The only things different were we used organic unrefined sugar, King Arthur Gluten-free Measure for Measure flour and dairy-free Earth Balance butter. They came out great so I thank you very much!!!
My cream puffs deflated and I followed the recipe exactly including not opening the oven door .. do you have any idea why? I’m just going to use them as top and bottoms instead of cutting them but do you know why it would have happened?
Could this be done Gluten Free? And if so with putt without Xanthan Gum?
Very excited to make these, would you mind sharing with me what size piping tips you used for the puffs and for the cream
Do these store well overnight or frozen
Hi when you say a stick of butter what amount would this be as the lemon puffs is quite important to get amounts rite thank u
I LOVE cream puffs! I’ve only ever made the little ones, but your big lemon ones are calling my name!
As much as I like this recipe there were several issues I encountered. First, baking time is not enough for them to be done inside, I had to add 5 more lines after they’ve been in the oven for 10+20. Second, 1/4 of granulated sugar is not even close to make that cream sweet! Heavy cream is not sweet, plus lemon juice. I had to triple sugar to taste some sweetness.
In other aspects, this is a great recipe!