I have always considered cream puffs to be the province of the French, until I discovered the Japanese version last month in San Francisco.

While visiting the city, I saw more Beard Papa stores than McDonald's. The name caught my eye first. When I saw that the specialty was cream puffs, I had to try one, and then another, and so on.

Beard Papa is a Japanese-based cream puff franchise whose logo features what one food blogger described as "a guy who looks like the love child of Ernest Hemingway and the Gorton's fisherman."

The Osaka-based parent company, Muginoho, introduced its cream puff in 1999, and it has stores on the West and East coasts and, just recently, one in Chicago.

Cream puffs are made from a classic dough called pate a choux. "Choux" (pronounced "shoo") is a French word for cabbages, which is what the puffs resemble. The dough requires just four main ingredients: water, butter, flour and eggs.

Heat is the key to successful puffs, so the process moves quite quickly, mixing together warm ingredients that go into a hot oven, where the steam puffs up the dough and makes a hollow center. When the choux is done, the puffs are injected with a rich, creamy filling. Sometimes the cream puffs are glazed with chocolate or dusted with powdered sugar.

Beard Papa combines a traditional choux and a pie crust-type dough that produces both softness and a degree of crunch. The French version is smaller than Beard Papa's and is called profiteroles.

Because there are no Beard Papa stores closer than Chicago, we are going to have to make our own. I think they make a perfect spring dessert.

Recipes are easy to find, but there are some tricks you'll need to know before heading to the kitchen. These tips are from Food Network, Cook's Illustrated and the San Francisco Examiner.

• Warming the eggs in a bowl of hot water from the tap makes them easier to stir into the dough and keeps the dough as warm as possible. Using a pizza stone beneath your baking sheet also boosts the heat under the pastries, helping them to puff.

• For such a delicate result, cream puffs require strong biceps. Once you add the flour to the boiling water and butter, you need to stir vigorously to quickly incorporate the flour and avoid lumps. Stir fast and constantly for one to two minutes.

• Using an electric mixer not only cools the dough but prevents crusty bits from forming. Some recipes recommend using a mixer or a food processor.

• The dough needs to dry as much as possible so it will absorb as much egg as possible. Eggs are the only leavening ingredient in cream puffs, so the more egg, the more puff. One recipe calls for eight eggs.

• Some recipes call for adding one egg at a time. As you add each egg, the dough ball will break into pieces and then gradually pull back together, at which point you add the next egg.

• Add as much egg as possible, without adding so much that the dough gets soft. Do this test: Place a small spoonful on a plate. The dough should be supple enough to hold its shape but not be "pasty." If it still seems stiff, add an extra egg white; if it seems quite soft, move on to shaping the puffs.

• The dough recipe can be increased or decreased proportionately for any number of servings.

• The technique is to press the batter against the sides, then stir into a ball, over and over until it feels drier and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pan. Keep the dough moving in the pan so it doesn't scorch. A thin film of cooked dough will form on the bottom of the pot when it is ready. This can take 3 to 6 minutes.

• On the baking sheet, make sure to leave at least 2 inches between the dollops of dough to allow for expansion.

• Just before you place the pan in the oven, spritz each puff with water. (A plant spritzer works well.) This will keep them moist longer, so they will puff as much as possible before beginning to firm up.

• Before baking, smoothing the tops with a finger or spoon dipped in cold water evens out peaks that could burn in the oven.

• Once they're in the oven, don't open the oven door to peek. A rush of cold air might make them collapse. The puffs can be made several hours in advance of being served; store them in an airtight container.

• Piercing the finished cream puffs and leaving them in the turned-off oven allows steam to escape, making them crisper.

• Don't fill the puffs until you're ready to serve them.