Steps for preparing craquelin choux with diplomat cream

• To make the craquelin choux, you must first prepare the craquelin in advance. Pour the butter, sugar, and flour into a bowl and knead by hand until a homogeneous dough is obtained. With the heat of your hands, the butter will become soft. Compact it well and roll it out with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of 0.04 inches and place in the fridge to firm up for about 20 minutes. Retrieve the dough and cut out discs using a round cutter about 2.5 inches in diameter. If you want to make smaller craquelin choux, you can use a 1.2-inch cutter. Place all the discs on a tray covered with parchment paper and put them in the fridge.

  

• I anticipate that in this case, I wanted to use a food processor to make the dough, but below I will provide the classic recipe using a stand mixer. In a saucepan, pour the water, butter, salt, and sugar and let it simmer. As soon as it boils, pour in the flour all at once and stir quickly, cooking the roux until a white film begins to form on the bottom of the saucepan. It will take a few minutes. Pour the dough into the bowl of the stand mixer, equip with a flat beater (K) and let the dough cool, stirring occasionally at speed 2-3. When the mixture has reached a temperature of 122°F, incorporate the eggs, adding them one at a time. Do not add another egg until the previous one is completely absorbed. The choux dough is ready when it is smooth and elastic and placing the spatula or wooden spoon in the dough will stand upright forming a sort of triangle or ribbon. If you do not use a stand mixer, you can perform this last operation, i.e., the insertion of the eggs, by hand, stirring with a wooden spoon or electric beaters until the dough is thick and creamy. Now place the obtained mixture in a piping bag with a smooth tip of 0.8 inches. Squeeze the mixture onto a perforated mat or a simple tray lined with parchment paper, creating choux about 1.8-2 inches in size. If you wish, you can also make them smaller. Position the craquelin disc on each choux and bake in a preheated static oven at 374°F for about 35-40 minutes or until the craquelin is golden. Convection oven baking at 356°F for the same minutes. I recommend baking them on the second rack of the oven from the bottom. Of course, every oven is different from one another, so pay close attention to the baking because if the choux does not dry perfectly inside, it may collapse when removing them from the oven. If you wish, you can bake the choux with the door slightly open using a wooden spoon, or when they are cooked, let them dry further in the oven. In short, use whatever method you prefer. These choux being much larger than traditional ones take much longer to bake, so don’t worry about baking times. When the choux are ready, let them cool completely at room temperature.

  

• To make the diplomat cream, we start first with the preparation of the pastry cream. Pour the milk into a saucepan and place it on the heat to warm up. Separately, in a bowl with a hand whisk, beat the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla essence. Then add the cornstarch, salt, and mix well. Pour the egg mixture into the milk and bring to a boil, stirring continuously with the whisk to prevent lumps from forming and let it thicken completely. Remove from the heat and place a piece of cling film in contact and let cool at room temperature for a few hours. When the cream is cold, separately whip the fresh cream in a bowl until stiff peaks form. Add it in two parts to the pastry cream, using a spatula. Stir gently to avoid deflating the mixture until you obtain a smooth and well-blended cream. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

  

• After the resting hour, place the diplomat cream in a piping bag with a smooth nozzle. Take the choux and pierce them at the base with the back of a pastry nozzle, or with a teaspoon, then place the piping bag nozzle on the hole and fill them well.

  

• Place them on a tray and dust the surface with vanilla powdered sugar and serve them.

  

• I hope you like my latest recipe, see you next time, friends.