Lemon Cream Puffs

1. In a saucepan, combine butter, water and salt and bring to a boil. Add flour, stirring rigorously until the mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add mixture to a mixer, and beat eggs in one at a time until smooth. If you don’t have a mixer, mix with a wooden spoon. On a cookie sheet, drop batter by teaspoons about 4 inches apart. (I used my cookie scoop to drop the batter. I got 29 puffs.) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. DO NOT open the oven to check until 25 minutes of bake time is over; the puffs will collapse if the oven is opened too early. Cool on a wire rack.

3. To make the filling: beat heavy cream with a mixer until whipped, and set aside in a bowl in the refrigerator. Then start blending the cream cheese with powdered sugar, adding a little sugar at a time until combined. Add the lemon zest. Fold in 1/3 of whipped cream by hand until well blended with cream cheese. This will help lighten the cream cheese, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

4. Carefully cut the tops off the puffs and add a spoonful of cream cheese filling to each. Dust with powdered sugar, serve and enjoy!

If you are serving these at a later time, keep the puffs and the filling separate in the refrigerator until you’re ready to combine them. That way, they won’t get soggy. If serving in the distant future, the puffs can filled with filling then frozen in Ziploc bags (for up to 2 months), then defrosted at room temperature.