Classic Choux Au Craquelin – Cream Puff Recipe

The first time I ever tried baking this delicate French pastry was back in 2015. I had just eaten them in one of the cafés in New York (want to know the best place for Cream Puffs in NYC? Ask Me 🙂 ) and oh, I found them to be so addictive. Then one fine day, I suddenly thought of baking them, thinking – “Hey how hard could it be?” So, I simply searched on the internet, picked up the first recipe I could find and started with the steps. I basically did no research about how delicate and yet crispy this pastry is and how precise you need to be with every step.

And to my surprise, I was able to get decent looking choux pastries, which did not deflate, were decently crispy on the outside and airy on the inside; I was happy. You see, at that time, I didn’t have this obsession to bake everything just simply perfectly, which I do now and I know it’s a problem, but hey, it pushes me to create these foolproof recipes for you, so it’s actually good, right? Anyway, so I thought that I had mastered the art of making Choux Pastry – “Well, that was simple!” But little did I know.

Fast forward to 2020, we were all in quarantine mode and I was craving some delicious cream puffs. So I found the recipe I used in 2015 and started making them. I was so confident about this being a success! Yes, I was about to eat something delicious, I was happy! But to my surprise (rather shock), it was an absolute failure. They tasted like an omelette (omelette!) and no airiness on the inside. I thought, how could that be possible, it was a tried and tested recipe – But, I guess it was just beginner’s luck. And wasn’t actually a foolproof recipe.

And now I was in beast mode! I had to develop a foolproof recipe that anyone could follow and make these little delicious notorious pastries perfectly (Haha)! So I researched every possible thing on the internet, found out what these pastries were all about, tried over 15 recipes, tweaked them based on my understanding and finally got what I needed – The perfect Choux Au Craquelin!


So let’s get started!

What does Choux Au Craquelin mean?


Choux is a light pastry which is twice cooked and is made only with butter, flour, eggs, and water. Yes, it doesn’t use any raising agent like baking powder. Instead, the high moisture content helps to create steam during the cooking process, which puffs up these pastries.

Craquelin – Well, the literal meaning of craquelin is cracker, but when referring to french pastry, Craquelin is a sweet and crunchy cookie topping that is added on top of choux pastries to give it a distinct sweet and crunchy texture. 

Important Tips to Make Choux Pastry Successfully

1. Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature

Like all the other French pastries, this is also one temperamental pastry! This means that following the recipe to a T is important. It is important to have your eggs at room temperature because if they’re cold, they will not incorporate well in the dough mixture, thus creating an omelette like texture. It’s also extremely important to have your butter at room temperature, why? Let’s see in the next tip.

2. Don’t over boil your water/butter mixture


Remember we want all that water for steam so don’t let the water boil for too long else it will evaporate, hence leading to flat choux pastry, which isn’t very appetizing. The trick to save as much water as possible is always using butter at room temperature, so that it dissolves very quickly in water, thus causing no evaporation!

3. Dump all the flour at once


When it’s time to dump flour in the hot water-butter mixture, do it quickly – all at once. The reason for this is that we want the flour to cook as evenly as possible.

4. Stir the flour vigorously

Once the flour is in the saucepan, make sure you keep stirring it vigorously until all the flour is completely incorporated and the mixture starts to leave some butter on the pan. Another way to check the doneness of your mixture is when you start seeing a film form on the surface of your saucepan, this means your mixture is ready!


5. Cool down flour mixture before adding eggs

Remember this as a rule of thumb for baking – whenever you’re adding eggs to something, make sure that your “something” mixture is always at room temperature. If the mixture is too hot, the eggs will curdle, thus creating scrambled eggs and not the pastry you were working for, in this case – choux pastry.

6. Add eggs little by little


The intention here is that we want a very homogenous mixture for a proper bake, so incorporating one egg completely into the mixture before adding the next one is very important! What you’re looking for in the end is a dough that is glossy but still thick enough, holds its shape and is pipeable.

7. Check if the dough is ready


Once you’re done incorporating all the eggs, keep checking if your dough is ready. I like to do what I call a “triangle spatula test” – Lift some dough using your spatula and hold it upside down, if a triangle forms, then voila! Another way to check is by passing a spoon through the dough, if the sides do not fall too quickly, this also means that your dough is ready.


8. Oven temperature and cook time are the most important

I have seen recipes that use a higher oven temperature and cook these pastries only for 20-30 minutes. No! Using a higher over temperature will cause your choux pastry to rise very fast and the moment you take them out of the oven, they will deflate. Having a moderate oven temperature and cooking them for longer ensures that your pastries rise slowly and evenly and will not deflate when you take them out.


9. Leave them to cool in the oven

This is another crucial step that most of you might think of skipping. Let me tell you – Don’t! Just as rapid rise isn’t good for these pastries, rapid cooling also isn’t good. If you just take them out of the oven after the bake time is over, chances are your choux pastry will still deflate. So to avoid that, after the cook time is finished, let your pastries sit in the oven for additional 25-30 minutes, leaving the oven door slightly ajar. This ensures that the pastries cool slowly and maintain their structure.

Choux Pastry Troubleshooting

I feel that I have faced almost all possible problems when trying to perfect this recipe. So let me tell you one by one –

1. Why are my pastry shells flat, soft, and soggy?

There are multiple reasons for that, so let’s understand them:

  • Your bake time was too less – Removing choux pastry from the oven too early is one of the main reasons for them to deflate. Because they deflate, this means that there was still too much moisture left in your choux and hence it will be soft and soggy too.
  • Your pastry batter was too runny – If your ratios are not right, what you’ll end up with is a runny batter that has too much moisture. This will also result in a flat choux.

2. Why does my choux pastry have too many cracks?

  • One of the reasons for this is that all the ingredients in your dough weren’t properly mixed. You might have skipped sifting the flour, and as a result might have some bigger flour particles in your dough that weren’t thoroughly mixed. Sifting the flour and then mixing all the ingredients thoroughly is key.
  • Another thing to check is your oven temperature. If your oven temperature is too high, it will cause a rapid rise and hence resulting in cracked choux pastry. Try to place an oven thermometer inside while baking to make sure your oven temperature is actually what it says it is.

3. Why does my pastry taste so eggy?

You added too much flour or eggs in the dough. Make sure your measurements are correct. Having incorrect ratios can make your choux pastry dense and eggy.

FAQS

1. Can I make choux pastry dough in advance?

Yes! Uncooked pastry dough can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

2. Can I freeze baked choux pastry shells?

Yes, absolutely! Baked pastry shells without any filling can be freezed by placing them in a freezer ziplock bag in the freezer. When ready to use, thaw them first in the fridge and then bake at 300 F for 8-10 minutes before filling them.

3. Can I use bread flour or pastry flour instead of all purpose flour?

Bread flour has more protein than all purpose flour, so this will result in a choux pastry that will rise less but will be sturdier in structure and will hold its shape.

Pastry flour has less protein and gluten than all purpose flour, so this will result in a more delicate pastry shell that will rise more. My personal preference is to use all purpose flour for making choux pastry.

Watch Step by Step How to Make Classic Cream Puffs

Sometimes simply reading through the recipe is not enough. You need to visualize the recipe, you need those exact hand movements and ways to achieve the proper end results. Therefore, I’ve created a recipe video as well to help you.

You can follow along my recipe video and try making some crispy cream puffs for yourself too!

If you follow this recipe precisely then I’m sure you will be successful in making Choux Au Craquelin in the first time itself.

Classic Choux Pastry with Craqueline Recipe

  • Servings: 8 1.5 inch pastry shells
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print

Ingredients


Choux Pastry

  • 4 tbsp butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature

Pastry Cream Filling

  • 167 ml or 11 tbsp milk
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 34 g or 3 tbsp sugar
  • 17 g or 2 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 135 ml or 10 tbsp heavy whipping cream
  • 1.5 tbsp sugar

  • Craquelin

  • 57 g or 4 tbsp butter, softened
  • 60 g or 5 tbsp sugar
  • 60 g or 7 tbsp all purpose flour
  • Directions

      Choux Pastry

    1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
    2. In a saucepan, add water, softened butter, and salt. Turn on heat to medium and let all the butter melt. Keep in mind to not boil the water too much, we want to save as much moisture as we can.
    3. Turn off heat. Add sifted flour, all at once, and stir vigorously until all the flour is completely combined.
    4. Turn on heat to medium-low and keep stirring till dough starts to leave some butter droplets and a thin shiny film starts forming on the surface of the pan.
    5. Move dough to a bowl and let it cool to room temperature for 10 minutes.
    6. Meanwhile, whisk eggs in another bowl.
    7. When the dough is cool enough, add eggs little by little. Every time you add some egg, make sure you mix it completely before adding some more again.
    8. Keep checking the consistency of the dough by doing the “triangle spatula test”. Take some dough in a spatula and hold it upside down, if a triangle forms from the dough, then the dough is ready.
    9. The dough should have a glossy finish.
    10. Transfer to a piping bag.
    11. Line baking tray with parchment paper and pipe them either 2 inch in diameter (if you want big choux) or 1.5 inch in diameter (for a regular sized choux).
    12. Gently touch the tops of the piped choux using a wet finger to flatten any peaks.
    13. If making craquelin (recipe below), then place the craquelin disks on top of the choux pastry and press gently.
    14. Turn down oven temperature to 360 F.
    15. Bake them for 50 minutes, if making 2 inch sized choux or 45 minutes, if making 1.5 inch sized choux.
    16. After the above bake time, prick a little hole on the base of the choux. This allows them to dry out properly and prevents them from deflating.
    17. Turn off the oven and let them sit in the oven with door slightly ajar for another 25-30 minutes.
    18. When you take them out, place them in an airtight container till you’re ready to fill them.
    19. To fill the choux pastry – Place the pastry cream filling (recipe below) in a piping bag. Make a hole at the bottom of the choux pastry and fill it with cream until you feel it getting heavy due to the filling and puffing up even more.

    Craquelin

    1. In a bowl, add softened butter and sugar.
    2. Mix the mixture using a spatula until light and smooth.
    3. Add sifted flour and mix using cut and fold technique (check out the video above to learn the technique).
    4. Place this dough between two wax papers and roll it into 3 mm thick slab.
    5. Place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
    6. When choux pastry has been piped onto the tray, cut out circular disks from the craquelin slab, same size as your choux pastry.
    7. Place the disks on top of the piped choux and gently press them.

    Pastry Cream Filling

    1. In a bowl, add egg yolks and sugar. Whisk until light yellow in color.
    2. Sift flour into the above mixture and mix until smooth.
    3. (Optional – I made Earl Grey Tea flavored pastry cream but you can add any flavoring you like or if you simply want to make vanilla pastry cream, then you can skip this step and add 1 tsp vanilla extract to the milk.) In a saucepan, add milk and 2 Earl Grey tea bags and boil the milk. Turn off the heat and let the tea steep for 5-10 minutes. Throw the tea bags and let the mixture cool completely.
    4. Add this milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture and mix fast as we don’t want the eggs to curdle. (If you skipped above step, then simply add cold milk to the yolk mixture.)
    5. When the mixture is mixed completely, transfer to a saucepan. Turn on heat to medium low and keep stirring continuously until it thickens.
    6. Pass it through a sieve to make it smooth.
    7. Let it chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. I usually prepare my pastry cream as the first step, before making craquelin and choux because this lets the pastry cream to chill for longer.
    8. Once the choux pastry is baked, whip heavy cream and sugar till soft peaks.
    9. Add the cold pastry cream to the whipped cream and whisk until fully incorporated.
    10. Fill pastry cream filling inside choux pastry until they turn heavy.
    11. Enjoy!

    Nutrition


    Serving: 1 Cream Puff; 70 calories; 5 g fat; 5 g carbohydrates; 2 g protein;50 mg cholesterol; 40 mg sodium; 5 g sugar.

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    57 thoughts on “Classic Choux Au Craquelin – Cream Puff Recipe

    1. This one great mouth watering recipe. Very easy to make. I wish for a bite…..

    2. The recipe sounds really great and truly it is worth a try. And I will give it a try.

    3. I love learning about new recipes as a food blogger this is right down my alley!! Looks delicious!!!

    4. I cannot wait to do this at home in my kitchen! Thank you for this post and for the detailed step by step guide! This will definitely help a lot to create this masterpiece 🤩🙌🏼

    5. Wow, looks very easy to do that. Let me try to do choux au craquelin cream puff!

    6. I’ve never had cream puffs before, but this definitely makes me want to try your recipe! Looks very tasty!

    7. it sounds much easy to make and looks so delicious and tasty..i haven’t ever tried cream puffs before but it makes me feel to have once..am glad you shared the recipe Thanks indeed…

    8. I’m taking notes, paying attention to the details because I want to get it right.

    9. i love how you included tiny details to make sure we had all the necessary tools to make the cream puffs right.

    10. My goodness, this looks so good. I wish I wasn’t scared of choux, I have messed it up so many times.

    11. Looks so yummy! I must give a try for this recipe as soon as possible.

    12. Your recipe looks delicious! I’ll share this to my boyfriend, he is good in baking.

    13. I used to make these all the time for company but with a chocolate ganache on the top–eclairs! Thank you for sharing. I would love to make some this week!

    14. I would love to try this cream puff recipe. It looks really delicious. My son would love this for sure. Gonna try this one.

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