I present to you a classic pastry, the choux au craquelin! It’s similar to the well known cream puff (aka Profiterole) but it’s topped with a crunchy cookie crust. It sounds fancy but it’s actually very simple to make. I’ll admit it’s a bit time consuming, but the actual active time is pretty short. This recipe uses a diplomat filling but it can be made even easier (and faster) by filling the inside with whipped cream.
Ingredients:
Cookie Crust:
- 30g brown sugar
- 30g granulated sugar
- 63g unsalted butter, softened
- 63g all purpose flour
Choux:
- 130g water
- 50g unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 70g all purpose flour
- 2 eggs, room temp
Diplomat cream (pastry cream + whipped cream):
Pastry Cream:
- 3 egg yolks
- 90g granulated sugar
- 37g cornstarch
- 360ml milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Whipped Cream:
- 270ml heavy cream (35%)
- 24g powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Steps:
This recipe makes 17 choux au craquelin. The recommended order of preparation is:
- Diplomat cream
- Cookie crust
- Choux
Diplomat Cream:
The diplomat cream takes the longest to make. The steps are simple but there’s a lot of wait time since it needs time to chill.
Pastry cream:
- Mix egg yolks with sugar until combined.
- Add corn starch and mix. Set the bowl aside. This is the egg yolk mixture.
- Add milk and vanilla extract to a pot. Heat the milk on medium heat until it bubbles. Once it bubbles, remove it from the heat.
- Slowly pour half the milk into the egg yolk mixture while mixing. There will be a bit of resistance from the corn starch at first but i’ll go away. Add in the rest of the milk and mix until it’s well combined.
- Pour everything back into the pot then cook on medium heat until it thickens into a smooth paste, stirring often. It will start out lumpy but it’ll eventually come together.
- Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place the plastic wrap directly on the surface on the cream to prevent a film from forming.
- Refrigerate the cream for 2-3 hours.
Whipped Cream:
- Once the pastry cream has had 2-3 hours in the fridge, grab a large bowl and combine cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
- Mix until soft peaks form.
Putting it together:
- Take the pastry cream out of the fridge. It will have firmed up. Mix the cream with the hand mixer to break it apart and continue to mix until it’s smooth. Don’t skip this step or your cream will end up lumpy.
- Add the whipped cream to the pastry cream and mix until it’s combined.
- Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour then it’s ready to be used.
Cookie crust:
- Mix butter with the brown butter and granulated sugar until it’s smooth (yet somewhat grainy).
- Add flour and salt. Mix until it forms a dough.
- Transfer the dough onto a flat surface and roll out to 0.3cm thick.
- Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour. This will make it much easier to manage when we cut the dough into circles.
- Once an hour has passed, cut out circles using a 5cm ring. Work fast since the dough becomes harder to handle once it softens. If it becomes too soft, simply place the dough in the fridge or freezer to harden then continue to cut circles. This recipe makes 17 choux au craquelin, cut out 17 circles.
- Place the cookies back until the fridge until it’s ready to be used. Now you can get started on the choux.
Choux:
(Use a spatula to mix)
- Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).
- Add the butter and water to a pot. Heat it over the stovetop until it simmers then remove it from the heat.
- Immediately add the flour and salt then mix until it’s smooth. (fun fact: this is called the panade).
- Bring the pot back to the stove and heat it for 2 mins on medium heat to dry it out. You will see a film form at the bottom of your pot at this stage. Don’t skip this step as it’ll help the eggs absorb later.
- It will be hot at this point. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before the next step so the eggs don’t get cooked.
- Add the eggs in one by one. Mix until the egg is fully incorporated before adding the second egg.
Note: once the egg is added, it’ll initially look like it has separated/curdled but don’t worry! That’s how it looks! Keep mixing and it’ll come together. Trust the process. - Once the second egg is added and fully incorporated, continue to mix until you can lift the batter and have it drop down in a “V” shape on the spatula.
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag.
- Pipe out 4cm large mounds on a baking sheet. Space each one at least 4 cm apart to give it room to grow. They puff up a lot when baked!
- Once all the batter is piped, bring out the cookies. Place one cookie on top of each ball of dough.
- Transfer the tray to the oven and bake at 375F (190C) for 26 minutes. They should be a nice golden colour. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR WHEN THEY’RE BAKING.
- Transfer the choux au craquelin to a wire rack to cool.
Assembly time!
- Grab a small knife and poke a hole at the bottom of each choux au craquelin.
- Take the diplomat cream out of the fridge and transfer it to a piping bag. Fill each with cream. You should feel it get heavier as it gets filled.
- ENJOY!
These are best consumed the day it’s made but they can also be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Tips:
- When piping the choux, hold the bag up vertically and don’t move. Simply squeeze the bag until you get the right size.
- To create evenly sized choux, you can create templates on a piece of parchment. Take a 4cm large ring and trace circles on parchment paper then flip it over so the ink/marker side is facing down. You can also use a ruler to mark out 4cm if you don’t have a ring.
Products Used:
KitchenAid Hand Mixer: https://amzn.to/42fzOVC
Nordic Ware Baking Sheet: https://amzn.to/3LOHIQh
Piping Bags: https://amzn.to/3vr8IzV
Digital Food Scale: https://amzn.to/3Ln0fT1
note: the links above are affiliated
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