Craquelin is a simple dough of 3 ingredients that gets rolled out, frozen, cut out and placed onto the Choux Pastry (Pâte à choux) before baking, and Voilà! An impressive result with very little effort!
Craquelin adds another layer of texture. It gives a nice crunchy edge to any kind of choux preparation independent of its filling. Biting into a choux topped with Craquelin tastes like crumbles have been mixed into the filling.
Other than the texture, Craquelin also gives the Choux Pastry a very beautiful finish. Choux buns, for example, bake into a perfectly round surface which looks very neat, and the Craquelin gives the choux bun a professional touch. It also works for other shapes, like a ring in a Paris-Brest or an Éclair.
It is also very easy to make. In the following recipe, the basic recipe for Choux Pastry is also listed to give a better idea of the quantities Choux Pastry to Craquelin.
Craquelin for Choux Pastry
Equipment
- Piping bag
- Round piping tip 10mm
- Cookie Cutter Round
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
- 68 g water
- 1.1 g salt
- 27 g butter (cut into small cubes)
- 40 g all purpose flour
- 77 g eggs
- additional butter for greasing the baking sheet
Craquelin
- 15 g butter softened
- 15 g light brown sugar
- 15 g all purpose flour
Instructions
Craquelin
1. Soften the butter to a pliable consistency.2. Add brown sugar and flour and mix until homogenous.3. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 2mm.4. Place on a baking sheet and freeze.
Choux Pastry
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional oven). Grease a non-stick baking tray with butter and remove excess butter with a paper towel so that there is only a very thin layer of butter coating the baking sheet.2. Combine water, salt, and butter in a pot.3. Weigh eggs and flour separately and leave aside.4. Gently bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat and add the flour in one addition.It is important to heat the water gently when the butter is melting, to prevent losing too much water to evaporation. 5. Stir the mixture with a heat-resistant spatula or a wooden spoon until homogenous.6. Transfer the pot back onto the heat. Stir and cook until a thin layer of batter sticks to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and continue stirring until the dough is no longer steaming hot.7. Add the eggs in small amounts, and mix until the dough is homogenous and shiny.8. Fill the pastry bag with the round 10mm piping tip and pipe about 24 choux with an approximate diameter of 3cm on to the prepared baking sheet.
Assembly
1. Remove the Craquelin from the freezer and release the baking paper from the dough pulling it horizontally from the dough on both sides.
2. Cut out disks in the diameter of the piped choux.Leaving the the dough on the frozen baking sheet while cutting out the disks will keep it frozen for longer and makes the process easier. 
3. Place one disk on each piped choux.
4. Bake for approximately 25 minutes.- 5. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before filling.
