x
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • About
  • Let’s talk!
Instagram Pinterest BlogLovin
Home › recipes › Kabocha Cheesecake Cream Puffs

Facebook0Tweet0Pin0

link to follow on instagram  link to follow on Pinterest  Follow on Bloglovin

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Constellation Inspiration

Constellation Inspiration

A Dessert Blog

  • Cookbook
  • Tutorials
  • About
    • Press
  • Contact
  • Recipes:
  • cake
  • cookies
  • cream puffs
  • tarts
  • bars
  • candy
  • Asian-inspired
  • seasonal
    • Valentines
    • halloween
    • christmas
Jump to Recipe
recipes

Kabocha Cheesecake Cream Puffs

by: Amy on: Nov 18, 2021

Kabocha squash is one of my favourite things to eat, whether it's in a sweet or savoury preparation. These pumpkin-shaped cream puffs feature a light choux pastry with a crispy craquelin top filled with a subtly sweet whipped kabocha cheesecake filling. I used some extra whipped cream for garnish to really make it look like a little pumpkin.

Review  or  Print Recipe

I feel like I’m stuck in this weird phase in between two major themed baking holidays — Halloween and Christmas. Is it too late to still share pumpkin recipes? Are we still into fall baking while slowly listening to more Christmas music everyday? Or is it okay as long as I do it before December 1? I’m going to leave you with the recipe for these kabocha cheesecake cream puffs and you can take what you need.

Kabocha squash is one of my favourite things to eat, whether it’s in a sweet or savoury preparation. I had a phase in my life where I would eat the squash everyday and part of almost every meal — it was a wild time. I don’t eat it nearly as much now but still really enjoy a kabocha filled chewy rice cake from one of my go-to bakeries in Chinatown, in the form a pumpkin croquette at Japanese restaurants, and my mom’s kabocha cream soup whenever I go home for dinner. I also love using kabocha in a few of my recipes including kabocha salted egg yolk mooncakes during Mid-Autumn Festival, taro coconut sago dessert soup (I add cubes of kabocha!), as well as subbing kabocha for yam in these dessert cups with grassy jelly. If you have a recipe you love making that features kabocha squash, please share it with me! In the meantime, I hope you love these pumpkin-shaped kabocha cheesecake cream puffs.

Kabocha Cheesecake Cream Puff

Kabocha squash is one of my favourite things to eat, whether it's in a sweet or savoury preparation. These pumpkin-shaped cream puffs feature a light choux pastry with a crispy craquelin top filled with a subtly sweet whipped  kabocha cheesecake filling. I used some extra whipped cream for garnish to really make it look like a little pumpkin.
Makes 10 cream puffs
By Amy

Ingredients

Craquelin

  • 25 g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
  • 25 g (2 tbsp) brown sugar
  • 25 g (4 tbsp) all-purpose flour
  • A few drops of orange food colouring, optional

Pâte à Choux

  • 57 mL (1/4 cup) water
  • 57 mL (1/4 cup) whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 57 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
  • 70 g 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 110 g (~2 1/2) large eggs, lightly beaten

Kabocha Cheesecake Filling

  • 210 g (1 cup) kabocha squash, steamed and mashed
  • 226 g (1 block) cream cheese, room temperature
  • 240 g (1 cup) heavy whipping cream
  • 60 g (1/2 cup) confectioner's sugar

Instructions

Craquelin

  • In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with rubber spatula until smooth.
  • Roll out the craquelin dough to 1/8-inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter and cut out 10 2-inch circles. Set aside.

Pâte à Choux

  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • In a saucepan, combine the water, milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Bring to a light boil, remove from heat, and immediately add in all the flour. Quickly stir in the flour, using a rubber spatula, and return saucepan back over medium-high heat.
  • Continue to stir the mixture, without stopping, until the paste is smooth, about 1-2 minutes. It will pull away from the sides of the pan and leave a thin coating of cooked paste on the bottom when ready. The texture should resemble dry mashed potatoes.
  • Transfer the paste to a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for the choux to cool down.
  • While the mixer is running on medium, gradually stream in the lightly beaten eggs. Mix until well combined.
  • Transfer the pâte à choux to the prepared piping bag with a round tip. Pipe out 10 choux mounds onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving roughly 2 inches between each puff. If you are making choux with a craquelin top, this is when you want to add the craquelin to the choux mounds.
  • Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately bake choux puffs for 35 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and turn down the oven to 325F, then bake for 10 minutes more until choux are deeply golden. Remove from oven and set on cooling rack to cool.

Kabocha Cheesecake Filling

  • Steam kabocha squash until fork tender. Remove the skin before mashing with a fork. Allow mashed kabocha to cool completely before using for the filling.
  • In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whisk heavy whipping cream until medium peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to another bowl. (If decorating cream puffs to look like a pumpkin, reserve 3 tablespoons of whipped cream to use at garnish)
  • In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add confectioner's sugar and beat until combined.
  • With a rubber spatula fold in whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
  • Fold in cooled and mashed kabocha with a spatula into fully incorporated.
  • Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitting with an open star tip.

Assembly

  • Cut off the top of the choux with a serrated knife.
  • Pipe the choux cavity with kabocha cheesecake filling.
  • Top cream puff with other choux half like a hat.
  • Optional: pipe a few squiggles of green whipped cream for the vine.
  • Serve immediately.

Notes

I used 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar for the filling but you can add more if you prefer the filling to be a bit sweeter. My kabocha squash was pretty sweet already so I found 1/2 cup to be perfect.

more like this:

Nian Gao Cookies (年糕曲奇餅)

Gingerbread Snoopy’s Skating Rink

Crispy Pumpkin Mochi Cakes (3-Ingredients)

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

a sweet hello.

Welcome to Constellation Inspiration, a buttercream-coated journal of recipes, stories, and love letters that are sweet to read, and even sweeter to eat. These love letters are dedicated to you.

sneak peaks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

featured

never not making @eatchofood’s (veg!) hot dog fl never not making @eatchofood’s (veg!) hot dog flower buns 🌼

#bakefromscratch #milkbread #breadbaking #breadmaking
tanghulu strawberries (冰糖葫蘆) 🍓✨ tang tanghulu strawberries (冰糖葫蘆) 🍓✨

tanghulu is sometimes called bingtanghulu, with the word ‘bing’ meaning ‘ice’ and describing the candy coating of this treat

16 strawberries
250 g (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
125 g (1/2 cup) water
red food colouring, optional

wash strawberries and dry them completely. moisture will prevent the sugar coating from fully adhering. once dried, skewer strawberries on bamboo or lollipop sticks

line a large plate or baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside

in a small pot over medium heat, combine sugar and water. allow the sugar to melt without stirring the mixture

as the syrup boils and it starts to turn a very light golden colour (it should read 150c on a candy thermometer, about 8 – 10 min over medium heat), turn off the heat. if you are not using a candy thermometer, please use the ‘cold water test.’ when you drizzle some of the hot sugar into a bowl of cold water, the sugar should harden into sugar ribbons that you can break with a ‘snap.’ if the sugar in the cold water is still flexible or does not create the ‘snap,’ the sugar is not ready yet

stir in a few drops of red food colouring now if using

tilt the pot slightly, so more syrup pools on one side of the pot. dip a strawberry into the syrup and turn the stick gently to cover the strawberry completely. allow excess syrup to drip off and place sugared strawberry on the baking sheet

allow the sugar coating to harden completely before removing from the baking sheet, about 10 min. serve immediately

#tanghulu #strawberries #bakefromscratch #thebakefeed #bombesquad
lunar new year is my favourite time of year to vis lunar new year is my favourite time of year to visit chinatown because of all the festive decor and treats. whenever i visit chinatown, i never leave empty-handed (or with an empty stomach) because there are so many chinese bakeries to choose from

if you aren’t too familiar with chinese bakeries, especially the ones in vancouver’s chinatown, i have a short and sweet guide on the blog to help you savour and enjoy all the treats chinatown has to offer. i ate many coconut cream buns and egg tarts in one day for *scientific purposes* and i cant think of a better way to spend a weekend

📍 treats from all the bakeries below
📍 sun fresh bakery (245 keefer st)
📍 new town bakery & restaurant (148 e pender st.)
📍 zhao mah bakery (280 e pender st.)
📍 maxim’s bakery & restaurant (256 keefer st.)
📍 the boss bakery (532 main st.)

#chinesebakeries #bakefromscratch #yvreats #vancouverfood
Ginger milk custard (薑汁撞奶) is a classic ca Ginger milk custard (薑汁撞奶) is a classic cantonese style dessert and I grew up eating this dessert after large family dinners at chinese restaurants. The literal meaning of its chinese name is “ginger juice bumping into milk,” which describes the entire process of making the custard. The silky dessert only requires 3 ingredients: milk, ginger, and sugar. Because the ingredient list is so short, you can really taste each component. For my ginger milk custard, I’m using Dairyland Microfiltered Milk, which is a 100% canadian milk. (PS. Microfiltered Milk stays fresher longer than regular milk!)

Here is how you make it:
1 tbsp fresh ginger juice (from ~30g grated ginger) 200 ml dairyland microfiltered milk
2 tsp granulated sugar

Using the back of a spoon, peel ginger root. Then grate the ginger using a microplane or grater.
Extract the juice from the grated ginger by pressing it against a fine-mesh sieve. Transferthe juice to a bowl.

In a small pot over medium, heat up milk to 70c. It is important that the milk reaches 70c because this will cause the milk and ginger juice to congeal to form the pudding. Add sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

When the milk is warm enough, pour the milk into the bowl with ginger juice. Do not stir it and let it set for at least 15 min.

Put a small spoon on top of the pudding — if the spoon is able to rest on top of the pudding, the ginger milk curd is successful and ready to be enjoyed.

#startwithfresh @ingredients_by_saputo #chinesecooking #dessertrecipe #chinesedessert #homecafe
☁️ fluffy mango pancakes ☁️ (full recipe i ☁️ fluffy mango pancakes ☁️
(full recipe is on the blog)

#bakefromscratch #mangopancake #pancake #thebakefeed

Footer

Recipe Index
About
Press
Contact
Legal

sneak peeks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

© 2023 Constellation Inspiration · Site by Meyne