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Cream Horns are the flaky, bakery case puff pastry spirals filled with clouds of vanilla and chocolate cream, and the first time we made a batch on a snowy Saturday Maddie claimed the piping bag and Lizzie claimed quality control, and not a single horn survived to Sunday. If you love a showstopper dessert with shortcut pastry, our spinach puffs with puff pastry prove the same magic works for dinner too.
Store bought puff pastry wrapped around metal molds bakes into crisp golden spirals ready for a two tone cream cheese filling.
Cream Horns Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 30 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 16 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 46 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 32 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 132kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Buttery flaky pastry with sweet vanilla and chocolate cream
- ✋ Difficulty: Intermediate, easier than it looks, like our grandmas caramel pecan logs
Quick Answer
To make cream horns, cut thawed puff pastry into 1 inch strips and wrap each strip around a greased cream horn mold, overlapping slightly. Brush with egg wash and bake at 400 degrees F for 14 to 16 minutes until golden. Cool, slide off the molds, then pipe in a whipped filling of cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream, flavoring half with cocoa powder for chocolate horns.
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Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Store bought puff pastry is the smart shortcut. Laminated dough takes a full day to make from scratch, but frozen sheets bake up just as shatteringly flaky wrapped around a mold.
- Overlapping the spiral seals the horn. Each wrap overlaps the previous strip slightly, so the pastry fuses as it puffs and holds its cone shape once the mold slides out.
- Egg wash equals bakery shine. A quick egg and water brush gives the horns that glossy, deep golden bakery finish and helps any sugar topping stick.
- Cream cheese stabilizes the filling. Whipping the heavy cream into sweetened cream cheese creates a filling that pipes cleanly and holds its swirl for hours without weeping.
- One batch, two flavors. Splitting the filling and folding cocoa powder into half gives you vanilla and chocolate horns from a single bowl of filling.
- Cooling on the molds prevents collapse. Letting the baked horns rest before sliding off the molds gives the layers time to set so the spiral keeps its crisp structure.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They look like they came from a European bakery case, but store bought puff pastry does most of the work.
- One batch makes 32 horns, which makes them the perfect holiday tray and potluck dessert.
- The two tone vanilla and chocolate filling has the same crowd appeal as our no bake cannoli pie.
Key Ingredients
Eight simple ingredients build both the flaky shells and the billowy two tone filling.
- Puff Pastry: Two thawed sheets become all 32 horns. Keep them cold but pliable, and work with one sheet at a time.
- Cream Cheese: Eight ounces, whipped smooth first, gives the filling body and a gentle tang that keeps it from being too sweet.
- Heavy Cream: Two cups whipped into the base turn it light and cloud like while still holding a piped swirl.
- Powdered Sugar and Vanilla: They sweeten and perfume the filling without any grittiness.
- Cocoa Powder: Folded into half the filling for the chocolate horns, the same unsweetened cocoa we use in our chocolate Italian love cake.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
Once you own a set of horn molds, the flavor combinations are endless.
- Berries and cream: Tuck a fresh raspberry into each horn before piping, or fold seedless jam through the vanilla filling.
- Cannoli style: Add orange zest and mini chocolate chips to the filling and dust with extra powdered sugar.
- Espresso cream: Dissolve a teaspoon of instant espresso into the cream before whipping for coffee horns.
- Dipped ends: Dip the open ends of the baked horns in melted chocolate and let them set before filling.
- Lemon twist: Swap the vanilla for lemon extract and zest, a bright spin like our meltaway lemon cookies.
How to Make Cream Horns
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Spray the cream horn molds with nonstick spray, whisk the egg with a splash of water, and unfold one puff pastry sheet, flattening it with a rolling pin.
- Cut the pastry into 8 strips about 1 inch wide, discarding any scraps.
- Starting at the tip of a mold, wrap a pastry strip around it in a spiral, gently pressing so each wrap overlaps the one before.
- Place the wrapped molds on the baking sheet and brush the exposed pastry all over with the egg wash.
- Bake for 14 to 16 minutes until puffed and golden brown, working in batches and wrapping more molds while each batch bakes. Cool on the sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and slide the horns off the molds once cooled.
- For the filling, whip the cream cheese in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until completely smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until combined, scraping down the sides, then mix in the vanilla extract.
- Slowly stream in the heavy cream, scrape down the bowl, then whip on medium high until the filling is thick and holds stiff peaks.
- Move half the cream to a bowl, then mix the cocoa powder into the remaining half for the chocolate filling.
- Dust the horns with powdered sugar if desired, then pipe the fillings into the cooled horns using a pastry bag with an open star tip, filling half with vanilla and half with chocolate. Serve immediately.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Keep the pastry cold. If the strips get soft and sticky while you work, slide the sheet back in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Do not stretch the strips. Stretched pastry shrinks back in the oven and can slide down the mold.
- Leave the mold tip exposed. Starting the wrap just below the very tip makes the baked horns much easier to slide off.
- Cool before unmolding. Warm pastry tears, fully cooled horns release with a gentle twist.
- Whip the cream cheese alone first. Starting smooth prevents lumps that no amount of whipping will fix later.
- Fill right before serving. Filled horns are best within a few hours, while the shells are still crisp.
- No molds? Make your own. Shape heavy duty foil into cone shapes and spray them well, they work in a pinch.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
These are made for a dessert tray. Stack them next to grandmas caramel pecan logs and almond cookies for a holiday spread that looks straight out of a bakery.
For a coffee date at home, serve a vanilla and a chocolate horn beside a white chocolate mocha frappuccino.
A light dusting of powdered sugar right before serving makes them look extra special with zero effort.
For parties, pipe the filling no more than 2 hours ahead and keep the tray cool so every horn stays crisp and the cream holds its swirl.
Cream Horns FAQs
Store bought frozen puff pastry is perfect. Thaw it in the fridge, keep it cold, and cut each sheet into 8 strips. The laminated layers bake into the signature flaky spiral without any from scratch dough work.
Let the baked horns cool completely on the baking sheet first, then hold the pastry gently and twist the mold free. Greasing the molds before wrapping and leaving the very tip of the mold exposed makes release easy.
This filling is whipped cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream, beaten to stiff peaks. Half gets cocoa powder folded in for chocolate horns. It is sturdier than plain whipped cream, so it holds its piped shape beautifully.
Yes, in stages. Bake the shells up to 2 days ahead and store them airtight at room temperature, and make the filling a day ahead in the fridge. Pipe the filling within a few hours of serving so the pastry stays crisp.
Filled cream horns keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days, though the pastry softens over time. Unfilled shells freeze beautifully for up to a month, then recrisp in a 350 degree F oven for 3 to 4 minutes.
The wraps were not overlapping enough or the pastry was stretched too thin. Overlap each spiral by about a third of the strip width and press gently as you wrap so the layers fuse while they puff.
Want another bakery style win? Our golden Oreo strawberry cheesecake bars deliver the same wow with half the effort.
Got ripe bananas? Turn them into a batch of crispy banana fritters.
Cream Horns
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- Splash of water
- 2 sheets puff pastry thawed
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ¾ cup powdered sugar plus more for dusting
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking with parchment paper and set aside.
- Lightly spray the cream horn molds with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.
- Whisk together the egg and water in a small bowl, set aside.1 large egg, Splash of water
- Doing one at a time, unfold one of the puff pastry sheets. Using a rolling pin, flatten it out.2 sheets puff pastry
- Cut the pastry into 8 1-inch sections, discarding any scraps. Starting at the tip of one of the molds, begin to wrap a pastry strip around the mold. Gently pressing together to seal. Then, place the molds seam side down onto a prepared baking sheet.
- Next, using your egg wash, brush the exposed pastry until coated.
- Place in the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes until puffed and slightly golden brown. Once done, remove from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet while still in the mold.
- These will need to be baked in batches, so continue to wrap your molds while your batches are baking.
- Once all of the horns are baked, transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.
- While the horns cool, make the filling. In the body of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the cream cheese and whip until smooth.8 ounces cream cheese
- Next, a little at a time add in the powdered sugar until fully combined, making sure to scrape down sides if needed. Then stir in the vanilla extract.¾ cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Slowly stream in the heavy cream until it is completely mixed in. Scrape down the sides of the mixer, then place the mixer speed on medium-high and whip until stiff peaks form, this will take roughly about 1 minute.2 cups heavy cream
- Remove half of the cream and place into a bowl, then add the cocoa powder to the remaining cream in stand mixer and mix it in until combined.1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- If desired you can lightly dust your horns with powdered sugar.
- Using a pastry bag with an open star tip (or any tip or even a plastic bag with the corner cut off) fill the cream horns with the cream. Filling half of the cream horns with the vanilla cream and the other half with the chocolate cream.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- You can use both chocolate and vanilla or one or the other, or see some other filling suggestions above.
- Top or dip these in other things, see above for ideas.
- You can flavor your cream filling with other extracts such as orange, almond, peppermint, or strawberry.
- These can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
- Make sure that you use puff pastry and that it is thawed.
- This makes a large batch, but you can double it to serve a crowd.
Nutrition
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