Espresso Custard Filled Cream Puffs

For the Cream Puff

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Place the butter and the water into a small sauce pan on the stove top and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, sift the flour into a bowl to ensure that there are no lumps and the flour is super fine. Once the butter and water has come to a boil – remove from the heat, add the flour and mix well. Return to the heat and heat for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and place in the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. You may run the whisk attachment to help the mixture to cool. Do not add the eggs while it is still very hot or the eggs will cook and this won’t turn out right.
2. Once the mixture has cooled, add the eggs by a small drizzle while whisking on a medium speed. Allow mixture to continue whisking at a medium high speed for about 5 minutes. The idea being to whip a lot of air into the batter.
3. While the mixture is whipping, prepare a half sheet rimmed baking dish with a sheet of parchment paper. Once the batter is done whisking, transfer to a piping bag fitted with a ½ inch plain tip. Pipe into circles the size of a quarter on the parchment paper. Leave some space between for rising. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven (this is a VERY important part) and pierce each cream puff with a toothpick or skewer so that the steam can escape from inside. Put the cream puffs back in the oven and allow to bake for another 4-5 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door. Allow the cream puffs to sit in the oven until cooled.

For the Espresso Cream

1. Whip together the cream, sugar, instant espresso, unsweetened cocoa, vanilla and almond until thick and creamy.
2. Using the smaller star tip, pierce the side of each cream puff and fill with cream filling. Use your own judgment concerning when each is filled.

For the Sauce

1. In a microwave safe dish and the microwave set on high, melt the chocolate and butter together by microwaving for 30 seconds at a time. Chocolate is ready when it is completely melted and combined with the butter.
2. Using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate across the top of the cream puffs and serve immediately.
3. **Refrigerate cream puffs if you are not going to eat them immediately – they will last in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.