Today we're making Choux Au Craquelin that is good enough for any pastry shop window. Golden Crispy pastry! Melt in the mouth Mocha Cream filling. In my opinion this is the Gold Standard of French Pastry.

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Choux Au Craquelin Recipe

Craquelin
100g plain white flour
100g light brown sugar
100g unsalted butter, softened

Place all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth.

Place the craquelin mixture onto a piece of silicone paper and cover with a second sheet and roll the dough to approximately 23mm thick.

Place onto a baking sheet and freeze until required.


Choux Pastry
150ml water
25g butter
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
1/2tsp vanilla extract
50g flour
1 egg yolk
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 190ºC. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with silicone paper.

Put the butter and water in a medium sized saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.

Bring to the boil, shoot all the flour in at once and beat quickly off the heat until smooth and glossy – return to the heat for 23 minutes and cook over a gentle heat until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan and looks like waxy mashed potato.

Remove the pan from the heat and gradually add the beaten egg, beating continuously between additions. The mixture should be thick, shiny and piping consistency.

Put the choux pastry into a piping bag and pipe 8 10 rounds about 1 & 1/2 inch in diameter. Top each round with a frozen craquelin disc.

Bake for 30 minutes, until well risen, rich golden brown. Remove from the oven and make holes in the side of the choux, with a skewer, to allow the steam to escape.

Return to the oven at 140ºC for approx. 20 minutes to dry out. Once dry, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.


Mocha Cream Filling
300ml whole milk
2tsp instant coffee
2 large egg
50g caster sugar
30g flour
80g dark chocolate
2 leaf gelatine
100g unsalted butter

Put the milk and instant coffee into a heavy based saucepan over a low heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the coffee When the milk is steaming remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs, sugar and flour together in a bowl until smooth. Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time. Strain the custard back into a clean pan and return to the heat. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time the mixture will go lumpy, keep stirring and allow to simmer for approximately 5 minutes or until thick, glossy and lump free. Taste to ensure the starch has been cooked out sufficiently.

Remove from the heat. Soak the gelatine in cold water. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze out the excess moisture, add to the custard along with the chocolate and stir until melted. Finally add the butter and beat until smooth. Pour the custard onto a plate, cover and leave to cool.

Once cool, beat with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Then place the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a rosette nozzle.

To serve;
Using a serrated pastry knife, cut the tops off of the choux balls, pipe the filling into the pastry, drizzle over a little melted chocolate, then replace the pastry top and serve.


CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:10 Making the Craquelin
0:38 Choux Pastry
1:47 Piping & Baking the Choux Pastry
2:26 Mocha Cream Filling
3:45 Assembling the Choux Au Craquelin
4:04 Finished Pastries

#chouxpastry #chouxaucraquelin #chocolate