the.com/cream puff
A hollow dough orb that exists purely to deliver its filling like a sugary ambush.
means A light, hollow pastry shell of choux dough filled with whipped cream or custard — and, by extension, a person or thing that looks impressive but is soft, weak, or easily beaten.
from From English 'cream' plus 'puff,' the latter naming how the choux dough swells and puffs into a hollow shell when baked. The pastry itself descends from French pâte à choux ('cabbage paste,' so called because the little baked rounds resemble cabbages). The sense of a 'cream puff' as someone soft or feeble is an American figurative twist, leaning on the obvious: something this airy and delicate couldn't possibly put up a fight.
- steam trick
- Eggs and water steam-blast the dough hollow
- french name
- Called profiterole or chou, meaning cabbage
- tower form
- Stacked into croquembouche, a glued dessert mountain
- slang insult
- Means a soft, weak person since 1800s
- royal roots
- A queen's chef perfected it in 1500s France
paris brest — french choux pastry ring filled with praline cream, created in 1910 for the paris-brest-paris bicycle race
profiterole — small choux bun filled with ice cream or pastry cream, served with chocolate sauce, popular in french and italian cuisine
religieuse — french pastry made of two stacked cream puffs with chocolate icing, named for its resemblance to a nun's habit