Cream puffs, profiteroles, or choux, however you want to call them, are simple in their look, but require a little more skill than you’d think. These really fun and playful choux buns are topped with a craquelin that creates a really fun crispy shell. When piped full of the delicious vanilla bean diplomat cream and strawberry elder flower jam, they are sure to wow anybody who bites into one. The pink sugar dusted at the end is a beautiful way to open the eyes to the stunning colors of berries in the early summer!
Ingredients
Cream Puff
- 115g water
- 85g milk
- 75g butter
- ½ teaspoon Ballerina Farm Vanilla Bourbon French Salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 105g Ballerina Farm High Protein Farm Flour
- 180g eggs
Crème diplomat
- 750ml whole milk
- 150g sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 42g cornstarch
- 6 egg yolks
- 40g butter
- 375 ml heavy cream
Craquelin
- 110g raw cane sugar
- 110g butter, cool room temperature
- 110g Ballerina Farm High Protein Farm Flour
Strawberry elderflower jam (by weight)
- 100% strawberries
- 58% sugar
- 1-3% elder flower blossoms
- 2% lemon juice
Strawberry sugar
- ½ cup freeze dried strawberries
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Method
For the jam:
- Wash your strawberries well and remove any mold spots as well as the tops. Weigh your strawberries in grams and times that amount by 0.58 to get your sugar content. Mix with your strawberries and mash together with your hands, blend or use a smasher tool to get the consistency you want. Add in your lemon juice and bring to pot to cook.
- Cook until 210-212 F or until the jam sets when placed on a frozen plate for 1 minute in the freezer and creates a “furrowed brow” effect when pushed through in the middle with your finger. Add in your elder flowers and let infuse for 30 minute before moving to the fridge to set.
- Once cooled completely, transfer to a piping bag until ready to fill the choux buns.
For the choux:
- Heat water, milk, butter, salt and sugar until butter is melted. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the flour until smooth. Return to the heat and cook for 1-2 minutes while stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth and comes together and a dry film forms on the bottom of the pan.
- Transfer the dough to a bowl and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- Whisk together the eggs in a separate bowl. Beat a little of the eggs in at a time, you might not need it all. The batter should be glossy and dropping of the spatula in a V-shape.
- Preheat oven to 375 F
For the craquelin:
- Cream together sugar and butter until sugar is dissolved. Mix in the flour until homogenous and gather to a ball of dough. Press between to pieces of baking paper, roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Freeze for 10 minutes before cutting out 1 1/2inch discs of the dough. Freeze until ready to bake.
- Pipe the choux batter into 1 1/4 inch rounds and place a cookie disc on top of each. Bake for 30 minutes, until they are golden brown, hollowed and risen. Crack open the oven door, and leave the choux to cool for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut a small hole in the bottom to release steam and cool for another 15 minutes.
For the pastry cream:
- Add the milk and empty vanilla bean to a saucepan. Heat until steaming and then pass through a sieve and discard the vanilla bean.
- Mix together corn starch, sugar, scraped vanilla bean seeds with the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl bowl.
- With the milk at a simmer, pour 1/4 into the egg mixture while whisking. Pour in the remaining milk 1/4 at a time, then return the custard to the saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat while stirring continuously until the pastry cream thickens and begins to bubble. Cook for another 1-2 minutes to fully cook the starch, remove from heat, whisk in butter and pass through a fine meshed sieve into a clean bowl.
- Press a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper directly against the surface, then refrigerate until completely cooled. Pushing it against the surface helps to not build a thick film on the top.
- Transfer the chilled pastry cream to a mixing bowl and use a whisk or hand mixer to beat it until smooth and creamy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the cold heavy cream to medium-soft peaks and whisk 1/3 into the pastry cream to loosen. Fold in the remaining whipped cream until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag and place in the fridge until ready to use.
- To fill your choux buns, pipe a small amount of jam first and then finish with the diplomat cream until the buns have expanded slightly and the cream starts to come out. Wipe away any excess.
- To finish, dust with your strawberry sugar and top with a little dot of the diplomat cream and an elder flower blossom or a small strawberry cut in half.
Bon appétit!
