Happy New Year! I know I am a month late whisking you all a happy 2022 but I unexpectedly ended up having a a slow start to the year. No, not covid related thankfully. I simply had finished a big project, which had get me busy most of the previous year, and I was a little burnt out, I needed a break. What pulled me back to the kitchen was however something simple, a petit little choux bun. Scrolling through instagram I stumbled across someone enjoying a week in Paris, and of course I was following along wishing I could be there too. They had posted a picture of a choux bun, topped with craquelin and a simple disc of chocolate for decoration. It was incredibly simple but beautiful and it reminded me just how much I love this type of choux pastry. So here we are.
Choux is the only twice cooked pastry, cooked first on the hob and then baked in the oven. Depending on how it’s cooked it can be soft or crisp and it can be used in both sweet and savoury applications. In my mind it is the easiest pastry to make but a tricky one to perfect, there are a lot of key little details which are key to a successful bake. If you’ve ever tried to make a picture perfect eclair that is straight and without cracks you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Thankfully, so long as you don’t burn the choux pastry, it will always taste the same no matter how ill-shaped it may be. To get a perfectly formed choux bun there are a number of tips and tricks that can be employed, the one I want to talk about today is craquelin, a crumble like dough that is rolled out thin and frozen before cutting into discs and placing atop the choux. As the pastry bakes the craquelin melts and covers the pastry. This does three things. Firstly it adds an additional crisp texture to the buns, like a thin crisp cookie coating the pastry, secondly it allows the pastry to expand as much as it possibly can, resulting in hollow choux ready to be filled. Finally, the craquelin helps the pastry keeps it shape. If you bake a choux bun or eclair with craquelin on top the pastry you will keep them neat and evenly shaped. It’s a little bit of a miracle worker. Thankfully it is also super easy to make.
These choux buns are simple but I cant tell you how much I love them. The pastry is light and crisp but the filling, oh the filling! An easy whipped cream flavoured strongly with coffee and sweetened with condensed milk. The resulting flavour is like the best coffee ice cream you’ve ever had.
If you like the look of this recipe and want to take it to the next level, over on my Patreon this week there is a fabulous rhubarb and custard choux bun that I am in love with.
Coffee Choux Buns
Makes 12-14
Coffee Cream Filling
300ml double cream
2 tbsp ground coffee
100ml condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Craquelin
50g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature
50g caster sugar
50g plain flour
Choux Pastry
70ml water
70ml whole milk
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp sugar
70g unsalted butter, diced
70ml plain flour
2 large eggs
To make the coffee cream filling place the cream and ground coffee into a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer then remove from the heat, cover with a lid and set aside for an hour. Pour the cream into a sealable container and refrigerate overnight. This long infusion helps to draw out a lot of flavour, resulting in a very strong coffee flavour.
To make the craquelin beat the butter in a bowl until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until smooth and combined. Add the flour and mix to form a crumble-esque dough. Use your hands to press together into a dough and press flat. Place the dough between two sheets of parchment and roll out until about a couple mm thick, it wants to be nice and thin. Place onto a baking tray and freeze while you make the pastry.
Preheat the oven to 190º (170ºC Fan).
For the choux pastry place the water and milk into a saucepan and mix in the salt and sugar. Place over low/medium heat and cook until the butter has melted. Turn up the heat and bring the liquid to a rolling boil. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the flour in one go, mixing immediately forming a soft dough. Place the pan back on the heat and cook for 1-2 minutes more until the dough leaves a fine film on the base of the pan. A tip I learnt from pastry chef Francisco Migoya is that you can also check the pastry is ready by checking its temperature. The point of cooking the choux pastry in this manner is to gelatinise the flour. This happens to the flour when the dough hits between 74-79ºC. At this point scrape the dough into a bowl and beat for a few minutes to cool enough that the dough wont cook the eggs.
Add the eggs to a small bowl and whisk together to combine. Pour a little of the eggs into the pastry and beat together until fully combined. It may look a little separated or like cottage cheese but keep beating, it will eventually come together. Repeat adding more of the egg until the dough has a sheen is smooth. When lifted from the bowl using a wooden spoon or spatula the dough should easily fall from the spoon forming a v-shape when it does. You can also draw your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon through dough, it should leave a channel that stays put for at least 5 seconds.
Scrape the pastry into a piping bag fitted with a plain round piping tip.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper and on the back of the paper use a 5cm round cookie cutter to draw circles to use as a template. The choux buns will expand so leave plenty of space between each ring. Turn the paper over so the templates are on the back of the paper (if you forget to do this the ink/pencil can transfer onto the choux, trust me I have done this far too may times to count). Pipe rounds of the pastry onto the baking tray, piping to edges of the templates you have drawn.
Remove the craquelin from the freezer and peel of the top layer of parchment paper. Use the same cookie cutter to cut out discs of the topping. Place the discs onto the choux pastry, pressing very lightly to secure it in place.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the craquelin is golden brown. Turn off the oven and allow the choux to sit in the cooling over for half an hour. This helps ensure the pastry remains crisp.
After 30 minutes remove the buns from the oven and allow to cool fully. To assemble, pierce a small hole in the base of each bun with a pairing knife. Remove the cream mixture from the fridge and pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove the coffee grounds (some very fine grains of coffee will remain in the cream). Pour in the condensed milk and vanilla and whisk until the cream holds soft peaks. Scrape the filling into a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip and use to fill each choux bun. Dust the finished buns with a little icing sugar.
Once assembled the buns are best on the day made when the pastry will remain crisp. You can serve them up to three days later, keeping them refrigerated. As they sit the pastry will lose its crisp texture and become soft.