Level Up: Kitsby's Cookie and Cream Puff Kit Review

Baking has always been a form stress relief for me and living through this pandemic it's escalated to making something at least once a week. From cookies to madeleines to melon pan to swiss rolls. Put all the restless energy you would expend by going outside and socializing has been put into making something that could be delicious to share (contactless, of course) and eat.

Kitsby is a small Williamsburg cafe bakery that creates unique sweets with bar style setup and course style menu. They have also been currently selling DIY kits  and mixes for savvy bakers, and Dessert Boxes for savvy eaters that are available for delivery or pickup in NYC.  The Dessert Boxes have enough sweets to theoretically last a week.

I decided on the Cookies and Cream Puff kit. The suggested level was Advanced but I felt I was ready! 

Experience:

The nice thing about this kit it gives you all the ingredients and most of the supplies (pastry bag, parchment paper) you need along with a recipe booklet with instructions.  It even comes with a 20% coupon on your next Kitsby purchase. 

All the parts (choux pastry, cream filling, craquelin) are packaged separately with their own ingredients and labeled. No need to measure anything or realize you forgot to add something.  It does tell you what you need like butter, water, and general baking supplies (bowls, hand mixer).  All you needed to do was follow the instructions and open said ingredient.  

In addition you should have filling leftover to try again yourself or for another baking adventure! Or just eat it out of the bowl; I won't judge.

Troubleshooting my own fail:

What got vs What I needed

There were only three issues.

The instructions for the cream puff shell was not clear when creating the last part of the dough.  I wasn't sure what was the right texture and it didn't specify. The piped dough was too runny and as a result the cream puffs were flat. Only after looking online at other recipes did I realize I should've mixed the batter longer after the cooking step and to really wait after adding each egg to thicken for the ribbon texture you need.  So I quickly made a second batch to get the result I needed.

The second problem was with the cream.  The cookies will need to be crushed more because if it's too chunky they will get stuck as you try to pipe it into the puff shell. 

The third was when pouring the craquelin mixture onto the parchment the cookie it did not mix with the butter evenly. When it came time to cut out circles I was searching for solid areas. Next time I would pile the mixture onto the paper as close as possible and flatten out so the butter absorbed the cocoa power and sugar better. 

However these were more my mistakes than Kitsby's. 

Overall A- :

I really liked the experience of Kitsby's kit and the ease it gives for a "baked by from scratch" feeling.  It does suggest an Advanced level but it felt more like an Advanced Intermediate because everything was measured out for you and it only required you to have eggs and butter. 

The instructions would need to be a little clear so you know you've achieved the right texture and look at the end of each step.  However if you know how to fix your mistake, kudos on you.  But when in doubt start again (if you can).

You will need some prior experience for baking. I would definitely NOT choose this as a first kit if you've never baked anything before. However if you're willing to give it a shot I definitely would go for it!