I was honestly never that big a fan of cream puffs. I didn’t like the cream and I has always thought they were too soft and mushy in texture. This all changed though when I learned about the choux au craqueline, or cream puffs topped with a crisp cookie craqueline disk!
Cream puffs are notoriously hard to make and can take quite some time and knowledge to get right. The choux batter can be easily overworked or too wet to be piped out and puffed up properly. Fear not though because this recipe is so easy to follow and ensures a nice puffed up cream puff each and every time!
I top this cream puff with a nice craqueline disk to not only provide that nice crackled looking top to each puff, but the craqueline also helps to provide a nice texture contrast to the soft cream in the middle. The craqueline is basically a cookie topping that bakes and spreads out over the top of the puff as it inflates in the oven. It’s a pretty simple addition, but provides a great wow factor to the overall pastry. 🙂
The pastry cream is also a no fuss pastry cream recipe. You pretty much just dump everything into a pop and stir on heat until it thickens and comes together. No more worrying about curdled eggs or an unthickened cream! I love this pastry cream recipe so much because it has the great pudding like consistency that you’d want from a pastry cream, with a non overbearing amount of sweetness to it.
I’ve further upped the classic cream puff recipe but introducing one of my favorite flavors, ube! I use ube extract to get the nice purple hue and ube flavor into the craqueline and pastry cream, but you could easily blend up some fresh, steamed ube into the cream and that’ll work great as well.
Ingredients
Ube Pastry Cream
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 cups whole milk
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons ube extract
- pinch of salt
Craqueline Topping
- 3 tablespoons softened butter
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ube extract
- pinch of salt
Choux Pastry
- 1 cup water
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 3/4 cups and 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Ube Pastry Cream
- Pour the sugar, cornstarch, and salt into a medium sauce pot and whisk together
- Pour the milk and egg yolks into a bowl and whisk until all combined
- Add this liquid mixture to the sauce pot slowly and whisk together
- Put in chunks of the cubed butter into the sauce pot
- Turn on to medium heat and bring to a boil all the while whisking (it's important to keep whisking the mixture as it firms up so none of it sticks to the bottom of the sauce pot)
- Whisking while the mixture is boiling for 1 minute before removing from heat and then mix in the ube extract
- Transfer the pastry cream to a separate container (optional: first strain it through a mesh sieve to ensure the cream has a really smooth consistency)
- Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap, ensuring that the plastic wrap touches the top of the pastry cream to discourage the formation of a skin on top of it
- Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours before using
Ube Craqueline
- Soften the butter and ensure it is nice and fluffy
- Mix in the ube extract into the softened butter mixture
- Add in the all purpose flour, brown sugar, and salt into the butter and mix together until thoroughly combined
- Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and flatten until the dough reaches about 1/4 inch thickness
- Freeze the dough until ready for use
Choux Pastry
- Pour the water, sugar, salt, and butter into a sauce pot and heat over medium heat
- Stir the mixture together until the water is boiling and the butter is melted
- Remove the sauce pot from the stove at this point and dump in all the flour in one go
- Vigorously mix the flour into the butter/water mixture so that all the water is absorbed
- Once the dough is formed, return the sauce pot to heat and continue to mix and cook down the dough until it pulls away from the sides of the pot and you're able to stick a spoon into it and have it stand straight up (about 2-5 minutes)
- Transfer the dough to a bowl and let it cool down for a couple minutes
- Crack in the eggs one at a time, ensuring the previous egg is fully incorporated into the dough before adding in the next egg
- Transfer the dough into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag with a small hole cut at the corner)
Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 375F and line a baking tray with parchment paper
- Remove the craqueline topping from the freezer and cut out disks of a desired size (about 2 inches in diameter or larger) to put on top of the choux pastry
- Pipe out mounds of choux pastry onto the prepared baking tray and top each mound with a craqueline disk
- (optional: spray the baking tray with water to help encourage the choux to puff up properly)
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the choux mounds
- DO NOT open the oven for the first 25 minutes of the baking process of the steam will release and the choux won't puff up properly
- After about 25 minutes, open the oven and prick each choux with a toothpick and then return to the oven to cook for another 5-10 minutes depending on the choux size (this helps to dry out the insides to maintain a firm choux)
- Remove from oven once the choux is nice and golden brown and prick each choux again with a toothpick to allow them to dry out even further while they rest
- Remove the pastry cream from the fridge and line a piping bag (or ziplock bag) with it
- Cut a little hole from the bottom of each choux pastry and fill the cream puffs with the ube pastry cream
4 comments
That pastry cream recipe is straight up upsetting. You should be pouring the hot milk mixture over the eggs, then incorporate it all slowly on the stove. Butter should be mixed in the thickened cream off the stove at the very end.
Yes, of course, that is the traditional way to make pastry cream, but something being the traditional way does not, like many things, mean that it is the only way. This pastry cream recipe is a no-fuss recipe for a pastry cream that, through trial and error, has been found to yield the same beautiful, thick and creamy consistency as a pastry cream, but with the minimal amount of steps needed to achieve it. This pastry cream recipe is also so much easier to execute than a traditional pastry cream recipe (since the egg tempering and temperature guessing is removed) and is a lot easier to handle for home or novice bakers.
I made this today and followed your recipe. Hoping it would taste good and it did!! I love it and so does my family! What a show stopper with that craqueline Ube on top. The pastry cream is just right and of course I grew up with Ube and just love it. People are just now finding out about Ube. Better late than never!
hi. are you able to add the craqueline topping after the choux pastry has already been baked? thanks!