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choux au craquelin with diplomat cream up close.
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5 from 9 votes

Craquelin

With only 3 ingredients and 5 minute prep time, craquelin is a common patisserie secret of adding a crunchy cookie topping to choux pastry cream puffs! 
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Freeze Time20 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Servings: 36
Calories: 38kcal

Ingredients

  • 6 tbsp unsalted butter softened
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • Choux Pastry

Tools:

  • Mixer
  • Parchment or slipmat
  • Rolling pin
  • Circle cookie cutters

Instructions

  • Fit a standing mixer with a paddle attachment.
  • Add softened butter and mix until flight and fluffy.
  • Add brown sugar and flour and cream together until combined. It will ball in the middle of bowl.
  • Place the mix onto a large piece of parchment that has been sprinkled with flour.
  • Roll until about ¼ inch thick
  • Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes
  • Once you're ready to cook your cream puffs, use the circle cookie cutter to cut circles and place them on top of the pate a choux.  If too hard to cut, let defrost for a minute or two.
  • Cook pate a choux as normally instructed.
  • Violla! Cream puffs with a crunchy cookie top.

Notes

  • The size of the cookie cutter circle will determine how much of the cream puff is covered with topping.  The bigger the craquelin circle the more the cream puff that will be covered in craquelin.  If you want just the top of the cream puff covered, use a smaller cookie cutter. If you want the whole cream puff covered with craquelin, make sure the craquelin disk is about as big as the piped cream puff itself. 
  • Make sure roll the dough to about ¼ in thick and freeze it for at least 30 minutes.
  • Rolling the dough out on parchment or wax paper allows you to easily transfer the rolled dough to a pan to place in the freezer.
  • The dough softens pretty quickly so if the dough gets too soft while cutting the circles, put it back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm up. 
  • If making ahead of time, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil to keep from taking on any flavors from the freezer or fridge.
  • Recipe altered from David Lebovitz

Nutrition

Serving: 1craquelin disk | Calories: 38kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 6mg | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 60IU | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.1mg