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Ingredients:
 First, this started off as kind of a disaster. I found a recipe online for a cantaloupe cream... I was going to make tarts... that did not set up like it was supposed to and turned out like a soup. Not only that, but it was very strongly cantaloupe flavored, almost overwhelmingly so. Therefore, I scrapped the idea of the cantaloupe tart, decided to make cream puffs instead. So here’s what I did.
For the cantaloupe cream you’ll need:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup cantaloupe, pureed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
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Step 1:
 Chop up 1/4-1/2 a cantaloupe and puree in a food processor. 1/2 a smallish cantaloupe will make around 1.5-2 cups. You want a nice ripe one.
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Step 2:
 Combine the sugar and flour in a saucepan; add eggs, mixing well. Stir in the cantaloupe puree. Turn heat on to medium and cook, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter. Set aside to cool, and chill once cooled. This never got thicker than applesauce. I was not happy. This is not tart filling! So I decided to make cream puffs.
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Step 3:
 For choux pastry you’ll need:
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut up
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour, sifted
4 eggs
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Step 4:
 Bring milk, water and butter to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When boiling, dump in flour all at once. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides, then cook, still stirring, for one minute more. Turn off heat and turn out dough into a large bowl and let rest for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sorry, no pics, can’t do this and take pics at the same time. Here is the dough resting. Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees right about now.
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Step 5:
 After the 5 minutes, beat in the eggs one at a time. Make sure egg is incorporated and dough is smooth before adding the next egg. After the 4 eggs, beat vigorously until dough is smooth and shiny.
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Step 6:
 Put dough into a pastry bag with a 1/2 round tip – or put in a Ziploc bag and snip off the corner to open about a 1/2” hole. Pipe out onto a silpat on a cookie sheet, and pipe out 2.5” rounds, 1” high, about 2 inches apart. Use a damp finger to smooth out any high points.
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Step 7:
 Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350, and then bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Not all my choux rose as much as I’d like.
Turn off the oven. Poke holes in the bottom (I used the sharp end of a chopstick), put upside down and stick back in the off-oven for another 10 minutes to dry out. Cover up til you need it.
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Step 8:
 So now I had worthless cantaloupe cream, but I did have a half-pint of whipping cream. So I whipped up about 1/2 cup of whipping cream, added about 3 TB of the cantaloupe puree, 1 TB at a time, folding each TB in and then re-whipping the cream with an electric mixer until done.
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Step 9:
 Cut each cream puff in half, layer in the cantaloupe cream, and replace the top.
DELICIOUS! Airy, delicious whipped cantaloupe cream with the light, melt-in-your-mouth pastry. Another surprise hit.
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