Strawberry Choux au Craquelin
Serves 18
90 mins prep
30 mins cook
120 mins total
Crunchy strawberry craquelin over choux pastry puffs filled with a strawberry crème légère and salted strawberry jam.
2 servings
Strawberry crème légère
Strawberry craquelin
Choux pastry
Salted strawberry jam
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Do ahead
This is a labor intensive recipe. It can be done all in one day, but feel free to make the strawberry crème légère, craquelin and jam a day ahead of time. The assembled choux au craquelin needs to be served the same day they are made, so wait to make the choux pastry until the day of serving.
Make the strawberry crème légère
Place the prepared strawberries in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Strain the strawberry juice mixture through a fine mesh sieve and discard the pulp bits that do not pass through the sieve.
Combine the strawberry juice, milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat.
Combine the granulated sugar and egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk by hand or with beaters until light yellow and fluffy.
Add flour and cornstarch and whisk until thoroughly combined and lightened even further.
Slowly stream in warmed strawberry milk with a ladle while whisking vigorously to prevent cooking the eggs. Continue slowly adding in the milk mixture until it is all combined.
Return the entire mixture to the medium saucepan and place over low heat. Whisk constantly until the pastry cream has thickened to a pudding consistency. This can take 5+ minutes. Remove from the heat promptly and transfer to a heatproof bowl.
Cover with plastic and press down to touch the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 1 hour or place over a bowl of ice to chill it faster. While waiting on this to chill, feel free to move on to next steps and come back to finish this when you are ready to fill the choux.
When the pastry cream is completely chilled, whip the ¾ cup heavy cream and freeze-dried strawberry powder until stiff peaks form. Reserve a bit for decorating, if desired. Gently fold the remaining whipped cream into the completely chilled strawberry pastry cream. Transfer to a large piping bag and set aside until ready to fill the choux.
Make the strawberry craquelin
Prepare a sheet pan and two large rectangles of parchment paper. Combine the brown sugar and softened butter either by hand or with beaters until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add the flour, strawberry powder and kosher salt. Mix to combine. Add food coloring, if desired, and beat to combine.
Knead the dough with your hands* a bit and form it into a rectangle. Place it on top of one of the sheets of parchment paper. Cover with the second parchment paper sheet.
Roll the dough between the parchment with a rolling pin until ⅛-inch thick. Place the dough between the sheets of parchment on the baking sheet and transfer to the freezer to freeze solid, about 5-10 minutes.
Working quickly, remove the top piece of parchment and place it back on the sheet pan. Punch out circles of the frozen dough with a 2-inch round cutter. Transfer these circles back to the sheet pan lined with parchment. Freeze until ready to use.
Make the choux pastry
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare two sheet pans with parchment paper. On the backsides of the parchment paper sheets use a 2-inch cutter and pencil to mark 9 circles (in 3 rows of 3).
Make the choux pastry according to Serious Eats’ instructions. Transfer to a piping bag, optionally fitted with a piping tip**.
Hold the piping bag straight up and down, apply medium pressure and pipe dollops of choux batter in the middle of the 2-inch circles until just about reaching the border of the circles on one of the prepared pans. Reserve the rest of the batter for the next pan after baking the first.
Top with craquelin and bake
Place one circle of frozen craquelin on top of each unbaked choux dollop before baking. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the bottom edges of the choux are golden brown. Turn off the oven.
Working quickly, remove the tray from the oven briefly to poke holes in the bottom of the still hot choux with a paring knife to allow the steam inside to escape.
Return the choux to the tray and return the tray to the oven. Use a wooden spoon to crack the door of the oven with the choux inside. Let the choux sit in there for 30 minutes before removing and allowing the choux to cool on a wire rack completely.
Make the salted strawberry jam
Combine the strawberry jam and salt in a small bowl. Transfer to a small piping bag.
Assemble
Snip a small bit off of the end of the piping bags full of strawberry creme legere and the salted jam. You want a small enough opening so that you can insert the bag into the hole you created in the bottom of each choux.
Fill each choux au craquelin first with crème légère and then with a bit of the salted jam. Some may spill out of the bottom hole, just swipe this away with a clean finger or paring knife.
Garnish with reserved whipped cream, if desired, and a fresh or freeze dried strawberry slice. Serve immediately.
