Bridgerton Betty Crocker Crème Puff Baking Kit Review: Perfect For Your Next Watch Party

I love a good period drama or romance, and I fell in love with Netflix's regency era series "Bridgerton" right away. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous costumes, instrumental contemporary music, delightful casting — it's totally in my wheelhouse. After the first season of the show came out, I plunged into the book series it is based on. I binge-read Julia Quinn's sweeping romance faster than I'd be willing to admit, often reading late into the night. Then, like the conclusion of any great series will do, I sunk deep into a reading rut for several months, waiting with bated breath for the arrival of Season 2. I downed that season about as quickly as I could before waiting, once again, for the next season. And the process began all over again.

The show follows an influential family, the Bridgertons, as they navigate the season of love, as each sibling attempts to find someone suitable enough to marry. Between the gossip and gowns, an anonymous (at least in part) character by the name of Lady Whistledown writes and publishes a paper full of the latest news and truths among the town's elite. It's a gossip column that has all the characters, including Queen Charlotte, in an absolute chokehold. Betty Crocker (a fictional, though influential, food mascot) has taken the theme of sitting room snacks, juicy tales, and beautiful staging, mixed it up, and produced a line of treats ideal for your next "Bridgerton" watch party. I got the opportunity to try my hand at making the creme puff treats to see if they bring home that "Bridgerton" feel or simply result in a box mix flop. Admittedly, having never attempted creme puff before, I was nervous as I know the illustrious creme puff is something of a recipe Achilles' heel.

The Bridgerton Crème Puff Kit is a Betty Crocker box kit that comes with a powdered crème puff mix, dry pink whipped filling mix, a piping bag, and parchment paper. Don't be fooled by the "crème" designation instead of "cream." It's the same thing, but the accent and French spelling makes it look different and more fancy, even if the show is based around a British monarch (Queen Charlotte) rather than a French one, but I digress.

The kit required that I add ½ cup of water, a half stick of butter, two eggs, and 1 cup of milk. The theming on the outside of the box was meant to look elegant, tapping into the "Bridgerton" romance and elegance at play in the show. The directions on the back began with "Dearest Baker," instead of "Dearest Reader" or "Gentle reader," as Lady Whistledown's papers often begin in the series. Further tying into the theme, while many boxed mixes have a straightforward set of directions on the back in a very clear typeface, the directions here utilized an italic font to make it look more elegant.

Out of the box, a single, unprepared, serving of the creme puffs clocked in with 8 grams of fat, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. The ingredients listed began with enriched flour bleached, moved right into vegetable oil, corn syrup solids, sugar, and other ingredients that are common in baking mixes, but not ones you likely have hanging about in your kitchen.

The most interesting part of the nutritional ingredients was the serving size. Instead of stating outright that each puff was a serving, the serving size was listed at ⅙ of the box. You might have imagined, then, that the mix would create six creme puffs. However, I actually made 10. Therefore, for my puffs, one serving is just over 1 ½ creme puffs. I tried to follow the directions to ensure that my puffs were roughly 1 ½ inches, so I would imagine most kits would produce somewhere around 10 puffs.

Though this kit was sent my way to sample, I did take a perusal as to where it could be found, and discovered that I could purchase it online through Walmart, but it wasn't available at my Publix or Target. The kit is also sold on Amazon, but you'll need to place an order containing at least $100 worth of item in order for it to be worth it, otherwise you'll be dinged with shipping costs. At both Amazon and Walmart, the kit was selling for $6.96.

These creme puff kits will be available for a limited time, and you'll only have until Mother's Day to pick up a box. This means they'll be around for Galentine's Day and for a good portion of the spring, the ideal time to plan your next watch party. Remember to bear in mind that each box makes a small number as your planning your hors d'oeuvres for party guests.

The kit included parchment paper, a piping bag, cream, puff mix, and whipped filling. I liked that the kit had parchment paper, but I opted to use my own since it had inch sized markings on it to help measure puff size. For the directions, I found the italics, likely to make the kit look fancy and curvy, was a hindrance to my baking process. When I was quickly looking at it for reference, the italics made it a little challenging to read.

Even still, the directions were mostly well detailed, except when adding the eggs. The only guidance the box gave was to mix the egg with the dough until smooth, and then the same for the next one. These instructions could definitely be improved because it takes a long time to reach a consistency that I would say is smooth. An indicator of how long the baker should stir would help here.

One of my favorite parts of the directions was the recommendation to pat down the peaks of the puff dough if they formed a peak. Since mine did, I got to gently pat down peaks, and it was super fun and not something I've had to do when cooking other items. While the puff shells were cooking, I was excited to see that they were puffing exactly the way that they should. It all felt a little bit like magic, because the puff shells didn't feel much different than other doughs I've made in process, but puffed all the same.

I'll admit, even after an enjoyable cooking process, I was a little skeptical. When I took a little taste tax of the whipped filling, it tasted so sickly sweet, nearly fake sweet. However, with the shell, the flavor balance was perfect. I really enjoyed the result of the creme puffs, and can imagine anyone who likes cream puffs enjoying them too. For what it's worth, I had my husband try one, and he didn't enjoy them as much. He said there was too much cream but also admitted to not having enjoyed cream puffs much in the past.

The pink filling color is nice, but it didn't impact the flavor at all. With the pink coloring, you may imagine that these would be strawberry flavored or perhaps some other berry, but that wasn't the case. The pink is a strictly aesthetic choice.

I noticed that there's just not a lot of product. Mine only made 10 creme puffs, and it seems like a really small sample size for the amount that could have been included. I would've expected at least a dozen creme puffs.

For the filling, I was a little thrown off by the idea that I should cut them and then spoon the whipped topping inside. It felt like something a piping bag should be included for. Initially, I followed the directions as written, but soon discovered the piping bag would just be better. So, I put a gallon ziplock bag to work as a makeshift piping bag and used it to pipe the rest of my filling (RIP to one Ziplock bag I won't be able to wash and reuse).

I also made the choice to try filling the shells without cutting them. To do this, I used a chopstick to make a hole in the top of the shell, and pushed the whipped topping in there with my ziplock piping bag. I liked this best because it made for the easiest to contain (and eat) treats.

In any case, yes, I believe this kit is worth it. I was able to make the creme puffs with little trouble and the resulting treat was quite enjoyable. Make a batch or two of these from your next "Bridgerton" watch party and watch them fly off the plate.