{"id":1692149,"date":"2021-09-25T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=1692149"},"modified":"2023-12-08T06:07:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T12:07:09","slug":"choux-au-craquelin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/choux-au-craquelin\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Choux au Craquelin (Vanilla Cream Puffs) at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"A slice of chocolate cake<\/a> makes for a fine dessert, but sometimes you really want to impress. Whether you're baking sweets for a special occasion or looking for an elevated treat to share with friends, choux au craquelin<\/em> are the perfect fit.\r\n\r\nChoux au craquelin (pronounced shoo-o-krat-ker-lan) is a striking dessert made from choux pastry with a crunchy sweet topping and a vanilla pastry cream filling. These remarkable cream-filled buns require a few steps to make, creating three different elements that will all be combined to form the final choux au craquelin, but it's absolutely worth it. There are no special tools or ingredients required, so you just need a bit of patience. You can certainly pull these off at home! And trust us, once you take that first bite, you'll want to make them on repeat.\r\n

What Is Choux Pastry?<\/h2>\r\nChoux pastry, or p\u00e2te \u00e0 choux<\/em>, is a cross between a batter and a dough. It's made with plenty of eggs and relies on those eggs as the leavening agent to puff it up while baking. Choux pastry is most often used as the base for cream puffs<\/a> and eclairs<\/a>, resulting in a sturdy yet delicate pastry to fill with whipped cream, pastry cream or even ice cream.\r\n

What Is Craquelin?<\/h2>\r\nThe craquelin is the crunchy topping on the choux pastry. It adds additional texture and flavor and helps choux pastry bake evenly to form hollow rounds. It's made up of a mixture of flour, brown sugar and butter, which forms a dough similar to a streusel<\/a>. The difference here is that the craquelin dough is rolled out, chilled and then cut into small circles to place on top of the piped choux pastry. While baking, it turns into a slightly crunchy, sweet layer to make a cream puff look (and taste!) that much more impressive.\r\n

Choux au Craquelin vs. Cream Puffs<\/h2>\r\nCream puffs are definitely the more common dessert. Made with choux as the base, they're piped into tall mounds and, when baked, become a hollow pastry. Most often, cream puffs are sliced in half horizontally and filled with a whipped cream center, like in this recipe for State Fair Cream Puffs<\/a>.\r\n\r\nChoux au craquelin relies on the craquelin to help maintain a more circular shape while baking. It results in a hollow round with a crunchy topping that's the perfect vessel for filling with pastry cream.\r\n

The Best Choux au Craquelin Recipe<\/h2>\r\nBecause choux au craquelin comes together with three components, it's important to make them in a particular order. By tackling the pastry cream first, you'll give it plenty of time to chill and set. Prep your craquelin topping and leave it in the freezer until your choux pastry is ready for baking.\r\n

Ingredients<\/h3>\r\nFor the pastry cream:<\/strong>\r\n