This Choux au Craquelin with Salted Caramel Cream features buttery choux pastry topped with a sweet, crunchy cookie crust and filled with a melt-in-your-mouth light, creamy and airy salted caramel filling! This is one of my favorite classic French pastries and it’s as delicious and fancy as it sounds!
All my tips and detailed instructions will help you make the BEST airy, creamy, crisp Choux au Craquelin with Salted Caramel Cream!
Now that I’ve shared with you how to make choux pastry for perfect profiteroles as well as perfect classic eclairs, let’s take it up another notch!
Craquelin topped Salted Caramel Choux Pastry (or Choux au Craquelin with Salted Caramel Filling) is as delicious and fancy as it sounds! It’s only a little step up from classic profiteroles.
But my goal with my series of detailed choux pastry, cream puffs, profiteroles and classic eclair posts is to help you perfect these impressive and decadent French desserts! 🙂
If you’re brand new to choux pastry, then I’d suggest the following in terms of experience level. This is just a suggestion however, and these are all really easy to make once you get the hang of it. I’m hoping my foolproof recipes will help you master each of these with ease!
All levels – Basic guide for making choux pastry + troubleshooting tips.
For beginners – How to make perfect profiteroles and cream puffs.
Intermediate – How to make perfect classic eclairs.
Advanced – How to make choux au craquelin (this post).
The first time I made choux au craquelin was several years ago. I ate them a few years before, and found them to be so thoroughly addictive, so, I wanted to make my own.
That lovely, crackly top takes these cream puffs to a whole new level. And to make these delicious, crunchy choux buns even more luxurious, I filled them with a light and creamy salted caramel filling!
What is choux au craquelin?
Choux au craquelin is a dessert made with choux pastry, and topped with a thin cookie disc called craquelin. The craquelin is made with a mix of butter, sugar and flour – just like a pie crust recipe or sweet shortcrust pastry. In contrast to regular choux pastry buns, craquelin adds a layer of sweetness and makes the cream puff delightfully crunchy.
As the choux pastry bakes and expands, the cookie disc (craquelin) bakes and forms a sweet, crisp, crackly crust on top, enveloping the top of the cream puff.
Can I use different craquelin variations?
While classic craquelin is made with butter, sugar and flour, there are plenty of different variations that you can experiment with. For this choux au craquelin with salted caramel recipe, I used brown sugar for its molassy flavor, and also because the light brown color stands out more on the choux pastry shell. You can use plain white sugar, if you don’t have brown sugar if you want.
Plus, the craquelin helps keep the cream puff crisp for longer, even when it’s filled with a filling.
How to make the craquelin
It’s super simple to make the craquelin. The craquelin is like a delicious, crispy cookie on top of the choux pastry buns, and a fantastic way to decorate the cream puffs.
The dough for this craquelin only has 3 ingredients. First of all, mix the ingredients to form a dough. Secondly, just roll out the dough till it’s nice and thin. Here’s my secret trick to rolling out the dough – I use a ziploc bag and roll out the dough inside it. Less messy, and keeps the dough from sticking everywhere. Plus, it’s easy to store it in the freezer for later too.
If you don’t have ziploc bags, you can roll them out in between two parchment papers to avoid the craquelin from sticking to your rolling pin.
Once the dough frozen, you’re finally ready for the final step. Smaller pastry discs need to be cut out from the frozen dough. Because the dough is frozen, it’s easier to cut out discs from it to top the choux pastry. You can store the craquelin cookie discs in the freezer for later use.
Choux pastry basics
Please read my detailed perfect choux pastry recipe to understand the basics of choux pastry, as well as to troubleshoot any pitfalls.
For this craquelin choux recipe, you need to pipe out choux pastry that’s about 2 inches in diameter, to match the craquelin disc that’s also about 2 inches in diameter.
And be extra mindful when you’re piping the choux, as the pastry bag and tip need to be held upright. This is because if you pipe it at an angle, the choux will rise at an angle as well.
This will make the craquelin on top lopsided. Also, you don’t have to flatten the tip of your piped choux pastry, because you’ll be placing the craquelin on top instead (as shown below).
Two inch choux pastries will give you choux au craquelin that’s about 2.5 – 3 inches in diameter.
If you want smaller craquelin choux pastries, then pipe smaller pastry mounds (about 1.5 inches in diameter), and top them with 1.5 inch craquelin discs. These pastries will end up baking into cases that are between 2 – 2.5 inches in width.
Salted caramel diplomat cream filling
I find this salted caramel diplomat cream absolutely addictive! It’s probably my favorite flavor variation of a classic diplomat cream.
First, I make a dry caramel and dissolve the caramelized sugar in a little liquid. Next, I mix this with more milk, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla and sea salt to make luscious, creamy salted caramel filling.
Once the pastry cream is completely cooled down, it’s mixed with stabilized chantilly cream. Stabilized chantilly cream is simply cream that’s whipped to soft peaks, with a little sugar, vanilla and gelatin.
The chantilly cream lightens the salted caramel pastry cream, and makes for an amazingly melt-in-your-mouth, light filling.
Can I fill these craquelin choux pastries with pastry cream instead?
While you can fill these craquelin choux pastries with salted caramel pastry cream, the pastries are quite large (about 2.5 inches in width). This means filling them all the way with pastry cream would make the cream puffs quite heavy.
This diplomat cream on the other hand is lightened with whipped cream, resulting in a light, fluffy salted caramel filling that is less sweet and has a better mouthfeel. And overall it works better in these pastries.
Why add gelatin to the chantilly cream?
The gelatin acts as a stabilizer for the whipped cream, and in turn acts as a stabilizer for the diplomat cream as well. The filling stays fluffy and creamy, and doesn’t weep or split into liquid. This is really important to keep the choux au craquelin nice and crisp.
Can I make this salted caramel choux pastry ahead of time?
You can make choux pastry cases ahead of time easily. However, keep them unfilled and freeze the unfilled cases in an air-tight container for later. Then allow the pastries to thaw to room temperature before using.
I do prefer to reheat thawed pastry cases slightly in the oven before filling them, to make them crisp again, because freezing can make the craquelin choux cases a little stale. This step is optional however.
You can make the salted caramel diplomat cream up to 4 days ahead of time, so long as you keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge (not freezer).
If you have leftover choux au craquelin with salted caramel cream, you can freeze them for a day or two as well. And when you’re ready to eat them again, just make sure to thaw them out at room temp. for about 30-60 minutes.
Buttery choux pastry topped with a sweet, crunchy, crackly topping and filled with a not too sweet, melt-in-your-mouth light, creamy, airy salted caramel filling. These craquelin choux pastries are absolutely addictive and look really impressive too!
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Other recipes you may like to check out
- Perfect profiteroles
- Chocolate eclairs
- Vanilla pastry cream
- Chocolate pastry cream
- Perfect cream puffs
- Chocolate cream puffs
- Best Paris Brest recipe
- Strawberry cream puffs
- Chouquettes recipe
- Chicken puffs (chicken bouchees)
EQUIPMENT I USED FOR THIS RECIPE
Circle cutters for the cookie discs on top
Piping bags – 16 inch piping bags for the choux pastry dough
Large round pastry tip – to pipe the pastry cases. Wilton 1A is about 1/2 inch wide. OR you can get Ateco #Plain 809 which is a little larger than 1/2 inch.
Whisks – A good set of whisks is a must for all of your baking needs.
Hand mixer or Stand Mixer – I currently use KitchenAid
2 x Silpat baking mats (optional) – You can use parchment paper instead too.
2 x Half Sheet pans – Having two makes it easier to bake the craquelin choux pastry. While one is baking, the other tray can cool down and be ready to pipe dough on, and then bake as soon as the other tray is out.
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Craquelin Choux Pastry with Salted Caramel Cream
What You Need:
- See post for detailed list of equipment needed.
Ingredients:
Craquelin (makes enough for 1 ½ batches, so you can freeze the extra for later)
- 4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick)
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 4.5 oz light brown sugar about 2/3 cup
- 4.5 oz AP flour about 1 cup + 1 tbsp
Salted Caramel Diplomat Cream
Salted Caramel Pastry Cream
- 150 g white sugar ¾ cup
- ½ tsp kosher salt or sea salt
- ½ cup warm cream see notes
- 2 cups of milk
- 3 tbsp cornstarch cornflour
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg please see recipe notes
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter softened
Stabilized Chantilly Cream
- 1 tsp gelatin powder
- 2 tbsp water at room temperature
- 1 cup of whipping cream chilled
- ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Choux Pastry
- 1 batch Choux pastry baking directions below.
Instructions:
Craquelin (makes enough for 1 ½ batches, so you can freeze the extra for later)
- Place the butter, salt and sugar in a bowl and cream the ingredients together until creamy and fluffy.
- Add the flour and mix until the mixture looks crumbly. Using your hands, bring the crumbly bits of dough together to form a dough.
- Split the dough into two equal sized portions, and place each portion inside a 12 x 12 inch ziploc bag. Roll out each piece inside the ziploc bag until it’s about 2 – 3 mm thick. Remove excess air in the ziploc bag and close it. Place both ziploc bags on a flat tray and keep them in the freezer overnight (OR until completely frozen).
Salted Caramel Diplomat Cream
Salted Caramel Pastry Cream (Custard)
- MAKING THE CARAMEL – Sprinkle the sugar over the surface of a stainless steel pan or non-stick pan. Make sure the sugar is sprinkled in a thin layer so that it's easier for it to caramelize, and also make sure there's no water in the pan and on utensils.
- Heat over medium heat, taking care not to introduce water into the sugar. Stir the sugar as it melts with a heat-proof spatula. The sugar will stick to the spatula, but because it’s non-stick, it’ll come off easily too.
- Continue heating the sugar, while stirring frequently, until the sugar turns into caramel (a golden to amber color) (Please be careful NOT to touch the sugar or the pan as they will be very hot at this point!).
- When the color is amber, add the ½ cup of warm cream into the pan. PLEASE STAND BACK AS YOU ADD THE CREAM AT THIS STAGE, because the pan is extremely hot and you don't want splash back. Stir soon after adding the cream, to dissolve the sugar. This will take a few minutes.
- When the caramel has mostly dissolved in the cream, add the rest of the milk, salt, and vanilla into the pan. Heat the milk until it’s nearly boiling, while stirring, to dissolve the rest of the sugar. Now you have a caramel flavored milk base for the custard.
- While the caramel milk is heating (to dissolve all the caramel), in a separate bowl or small jug, add the eggs and cornstarch (cornflour), and whisk until you have a smooth mixture.
- Temper the egg mixture by adding a little of the hot caramel milk in a slow and steady stream, while whisking the eggs constantly. After adding enough caramel milk to warm up the mixture, pour the egg-milk mixture back into the pan with the rest of the caramel milk.
- Heat the egg-caramel milk mixture while whisking/stirring constantly, until the milk starts to thicken. Stir well to make sure the eggs don’t curdle and stick to the bottom of the pan as the custard heats and thickens. I like to switch between a whisk and a spatula to make sure the custard stays smooth while it’s thickening.
- Stir the custard until it comes to a boil (the first big bubble to breakthrough the surface from the custard). When the custard starts to boil, remove it from the heat. If there are clumps, pass the custard through a fine sieve to remove them.
- Add the butter to the hot custard and mix until the butter has incorporated into it. Pour the custard into a bowl, and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface of the custard.
- Allow the custard to cool down to room temperature, then store it in the fridge for a few hours until chilled, and it’s ready to be mixed with the cream.
Stabilized Chantilly Cream
- Place the water in a small microwave-proof bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water. Allow the gelatin to bloom for about 10 minutes.
- After the gelatin has bloomed, microwave the gelatin for about 10 – 20 seconds to dissolve the gelatin.
- Place the chilled cream in a clean bowl and add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla extract. Start whisking the cream with a hand mixer at medium-high speed. Pour in the dissolved gelatin while whisking the cream to ensure the gelatin gets mixed in well. Continue whisking until the cream forms soft peaks. Keep in the fridge, covered, until ready to use.
Salted Caramel Diplomat Cream
- Place about 2 cups of the salted caramel pastry cream in a large bowl. Add the chantilly cream and fold it into the pastry cream.
- If you’d like more salted caramel flavor, then fold in the rest of the pastry cream as well. Keep covered in the fridge until you’re ready to fill the choux pastries. When you’re ready to fill the cream puffs, transfer the diplomat cream into a pastry bag, that’s attached with a small round tip.
Choux Pastry
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking trays with parchment paper or silpat.
- Take out the craquelin discs and place them on a smooth cutting board. Using a two inch cookie cutter, cut out 2 inch circles from the craquelin (about 22- 24 circles). Keep them on a non-stick surface (parchment paper or silpat), and in the freezer until needed.
- Make 1 batch of choux pastry dough according to the linked recipe, and place the dough in a pastry bag, which is attached with either a ½ inch round tip or ½ inch French star tip.
- Pipe choux pastry mounds on the silpat (about 2 inches in diameter). Keep the tip upright and pipe out smooth mounds (piping tip touching the dough surface while you pipe). Gently twist and remove the tip when you’re done.
- Carefully place a disc of craquelin on top and gently press it into the choux to make sure it sticks and is stable. (I piped about 12 choux buns on one half sheet pan).
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Do not open the door before the 30 minutes, to prevent the pastries from collapsing.
- After 30 minutes, open the oven door and partially pull out the baking tray. Quickly (but gently), prick each pastry with a sharp toothpick to release any steam inside the pastries. Return the tray back to the oven and bake for a further 5 – 10 minutes, until the pastries are a little darker in color.
- Remove the choux pastries from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes in a draft-free place.
Salted caramel craquelin choux pastry
- Using a round or star tip, cut out a hole in the bottom of each of the cooled choux pastry cases.
- Fill the choux pastries with the salted caramel diplomat cream. Optional step – lightly dust the choux au craquelin with confectioner’s sugar. Serve immediately.
Video:
Tips & Tricks
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
Didi says
It is hard to fins gelatin powder where I’m from. Any substitutes? Or can I don’t make the Stabilized Chantilly Cream altogether. Will the Pastry cream be enough?
Dini says
Hi Didi
You can use agar powder as well, but make sure the agar reaches a boiling point before adding it because boiling activates its gelling properties.
You can also use whipped cream without gelatin, but make sure you whisk it at a lower speed (which will take longer). But the cream may split the longer it’s kept.
The pastry cream alone may not be enough to fill all the choux pastry that you make here. However it can be used as a filling on it’s own, though it will be heavier and richer than diplomat cream.
I hope that helps!
hibah says
hi! how many cups of creme diplomat does this make? and do the cream puffs use up all of it? im trying to figure out how much filling id need (in cups) if im making about 160 cream puffs!
Dini says
Hi Hibah
I can’t recall how many cups of creme diplomat this recipe made, but I did use almost all of it for the choux pastries.
How much creme diplomat you will use depends on the size of the pastries as well. So, if I’m making smaller pastries I like to err on the side of caution and prefer to make extra filling (better than running out).
For 160, you will have to at least multiply this recipe by 7.3
I hope that helps
Lou says
Hi. When I combined the whipped cream and custard together, they look curdled. The custard was smooth before I add the whipped cream and whipped cream was beat till soft peak. Is there a reason why the final product would curdle?
Dini says
Hi Lou
This can happen if the whipped cream was overworked when it was being folded into the pastry cream. When whipped cream is overworked, it splits, and looks curdled.
You can try to add a little chilled whipping cream and fold that in gently to see if it can fix it. It usually does when I add whipping cream to overworked whipped cream.
I hope that helps
Lou says
Oooh that means I was past the soft peaks already then. Ok thanks so much!
Louise says
Hello Dini,
I made these again, and the consistency of the dough is correct. However, upon placing the cookie dough, the choux pastry got a bit flat. Is there such a thing that the cookie dough can be too heavy for the choux pastry?
Dini says
Hi Louise
The same choux pastry baked with the cookie dough is slightly rounder and flatter than the one without (which is taller). But yes. If the cookie is too thick or too large for the choux dough, it can weigh the pastry down and make it even flatter, as the pastry wouldn’t be able to puff up during baking.
Huza says
Awesome! #achievementunlocked
Thanks to your sharing!
Mahima says
Thank you for the incredibly detailed write up on choux buns! I’m a reasonably experienced home baker, but hadn’t tried choux buns before. After reading your notes, I jumped straight to making the choux buns with craquelin and diplomat cream. My first time making choux buns, and they were so nice! I’m making them again tomorrow.
Thu Phan says
Some of the tips in here are really helpful, thank you so much. My choux au craquelin become less crunchy after about a day in the fridge uncovered, and I’m so happy to learn that by stablizing the whipped cream it helps prevent the filling from weeping. I will definitely try this out. Thank you again
Yumna says
This sounds amazing Can I use a tinned caramel sauce and then make the pastry Creme?
Dini says
Hi Yumna!
Thank you 🙂
You could do that. But for this recipe, unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to tell for sure how much to substitute in place of the caramel I make here.
Yumna says
Thanks so much for the quick reply would it be okay if I just add it to taste after making the pastry creme?
Dini says
Hi Yumna
I wouldn’t recommend that. After the pastry cream is cooked, anything you add to it will change the consistency of the pastry cream. The caramel sauce needs to be cooked WITH the rest of the ingredients, so that it can pastry cream can be the right consistency when you add whipped cream.
I hope that helps!
Debby says
Can I make this a hazelnut cream using hazelnut paste?
Dini says
Hi Debby
I haven’t tried to make this with hazelnut paste, but it is definitely possible. I wouldn’t know how much to add to give the pastry cream good hazelnut flavor and also maintain the consistency.
Cynthia G says
Hi Dini,
I’ve decided to dedicate my spring break to mastering choux au craquelin! So far I’ve made 2 batches and both times 50% of the puffs deflated while the other half is alright. Definitely going to try your recipe next though! I had the idea of making the whole thing speculoos flavored (a cookie (spread) popular here in Holland) and I was wondering if you had an idea whether it’s better to use the cookie or the spread and maybe the amount as well? If you dont, thats fine too: I’ll just experiment on my own 🙂 Lots of thanks in advance!
Gladys says
Can I pipe the pastry in cupcake paper cup instead?
Dini says
Hi Gladys
I have piped choux pastry in mini cupcake liners and the results were pretty good. You will have to adjust the baking time accordingly.
However, you will also be unable to fill the choux pastries from the bottom because of the presence of the liner as well.
I hope that helps
Shelby H. says
what type of cream is used in this recipe, because i dont want to make the custard to heavy bc i want to use it in my croquembouche recipe 🙂
Dini says
Hi Shelby
You have to use whipping cream for this recipe because it needs to be whipped before being mixed in with the pastry cream. All cream used in this recipe is 35% cream. The initial cream added to make the caramel base (caramel sauce) needs to be a high fat cream to prevent splitting. But the actual custard uses milk.
Hope that helps!
Janet says
My son requested cream puffs for his birthday. I had never heard of craquelin before finding your recipe. When I opened the oven door I literally squealed, it was so beautiful. One question–do you have a tip on reheating leftover unfilled shells to crisp them back up?
Dini says
Hi Janet
I’m so glad that they came out well! 🙂
Yes you can reheat unfilled pastry shells too. I like to preheat the oven to about 275 – 300°F. Then place the shells on a baking tray, and in the oven, to reheat for 10 – 15 minutes. Then they should crisp up. But keep an eye on them, because you don’t want them to get darker/burn on top.
I hope that helps! 🙂
Grandma Youngblood says
This recipe was so awesome and helpful but could you please include this information in the section in which you discuss reheating empty shells? It took me too long to find this comment–which was frustrating–and I think other readers would appreciate that information within the recipe or in “tips & tricks”. Thanks for the recipe, again, it is brilliant!
Dini says
Thank you!
I’m so glad that you were happy with this recipe! 🙂
And yes! Thank you for suggestion. I will add that information to the recipe as well 🙂
Stephanie says
Hi Dini,
This looks amazing! tried making the salted caramel custard yesterday but it turned out grainy – wasn’t as luscious as I imagine this to be when reading your recipe. Could I have overheated the custard? The second I saw a bubble after adding the egg mixture into the milk moisture I turned the stove off. I’m trying to work out where it went wrong.
Thanks.
Dini says
Hi Stephanie
The grainy texture can happen;
If the caramel seized (which won’t happen if warm cream was added to the caramelized sugar), and if the the eggs over-cooked and curdled in the custard.
The cornstarch helps prevent this, IF you stir the custard while it’s cooking. I’ve even let the custard boil for a few seconds, provided I still keep stirring and mixing the custard well. If it’s not mixed/whisked well while cooking, the custard at the bottom (or bottom edges) of the pan will set and scramble. This can result in a grainy texture as well.
This can also happen if you add the eggs into the hot milk mixture WITHOUT tempering the eggs. As soon as the eggs hit the hot milk, they will start cooking creating a grainy, scrambled texture. So it MUST be tempered with the hot milk slowly.
You can try blending the custard with an immersion blender (just pulse it) and passing the mixture through a sieve. But if that still doesn’t fix the issue, you may have to make it again. Temper the eggs before adding all the milk. And stir and whisk the mixture constantly until it thickens and comes to a boil.
I hope that helps!
Dina sadek says
Hi can I just ask is 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract / vanilla bean paste for the pastry cream correct ? Seems like it’s too much for a salted caramel flavoured pastry cream I found the vanilla overpowered the caramel flavour
Dini says
Hi Dina
I like to use 1 tbsp because I personally really love the taste of vanilla.
Also the pastry cream will be mixed with whipped cream, and dilute the vanilla flavor further. If you prefer not to use as much vanilla you can reduce it though.
Sophea says
Hi Dini,
Is it possible to freeze salted caramel filling?
Thanks
Dini says
Hi Sophea
I have frozen this filling AFTER I filled the choux pastries (leftovers), and they were fine when thawed out. However the texture does change slightly.
Saria says
I always thought that cornstarch made pastry cream collapse if frozen, why is that not the case here? Is it the added gelatin?
Dini says
Hi Saria
Freezing cornstarch thickened liquids does have an impact and it loses it’s thickening property as it thaws out.
However, as you have mentioned, the gelatin in this mixture is what keeps the filling stable. It is still better eaten fresh, as filled pastries will lose it’s crispiness.
Zeesha Currimbhoy says
The salted caramel cream filling was absolutely amazing! I love your recipes