Croquant Choux

Course: Pastry

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 50

Servings: servings

Calories: 339kcal

Author: Marvellina

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US Customary - Metric

Ingredients

Choux pastry:

70 gr unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
57 g butter
120 g water
110 gr eggs room temperature (about 2 - 2 1/4 eggs)

Croquant:

30 g egg white 1 egg white
50 g powdered sugar
⅛ tsp salt
40 g cake flour
50 g almonds finely chopped, or use nuts of your choice

Pastry cream: (you may have some leftovers)

3 egg yolks
30 g cake flour
70 g sugar
Pinch of salt
270 g whole milk divided
20 g unsalted butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
120 g heavy cream

Instructions

Prepare pastry cream: (can be made 3 days in advanced)

Whisk cake flour and egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Add half of the milk and whisk until all are well combined.
In a saucepan, add the other half of the milk, sugar, and salt. Put this on the stove over medium heat and bring the mixture to a full boil while keep stirring. Remove from the stove
Add about 2 tablespoon of the hot milk into the egg mixture while keep whisking. We are tempering the eggs. Then gradually add the rest of the milk mixture while keep whisking rapidly until combined
Put this back on the stove over medium-low heat and keep whisking rapidly. Make sure you get to the edge of the pan. The pastry cream will start to bubble and thicken. Cook for another minute over medium-low heat
Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in butter and vanilla extract and continue to whisk until the butter melts and all are well combined. I added matcha powder in this photo
Pour the mixture into a bowl and place a piece of cling wrap that has been sprayed with some non-stick spray, directly touching the surface of the cream. This is to prevent the skin from forming
Let the cream cool to room temperature, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, then keep in the fridge until cold, about 4-5 hours or overnight
30 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat oven to 425 F (220 C) for conventional oven. For convection oven, lower the temperature by about 20 F / 15 C
Line one 12 x 15-inch cookie sheet or an inverted half-sheet pan ( 17 1/4 x 12 1/4 inch) with parchment. We invert the pan because the rim of the pan won't block the air flow during baking they bake evenly.
If you don't have large pan I mentioned above, you can use 2-3 smaller pans

Prepare croquant:

Combine all the ingredients and set aside. The consistency is medium thick but spreadable. If you put it in the fridge, it hardens. Simply leave them at room temperature for a few minutes and it softens again

Making the dough:

Beat the eggs in a bowl with a whisk. It is very important that the eggs are not cold from the fridge. They need to be at room temperature
In a medium saucepan, add water and butter. Bring to a boil to melt the butter
Lower the heat to the lowest and add flour and salt all at once
Continue to stir vigorously until the mixture is well blended.
Then increase the heat back up to medium and keep stirring for another 3 minutes to cook the flour.
The dough should be smooth and shiny and you can see a layer of dough that coat the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat.
Without scraping the bottom of the pan, transfer the dough to a mixing bowl. Use a spatula to smear the dough a few times to release some heat. Let it cool down for about 3 minutes so it is just warm without cooking the eggs that we are going to add later
Add 1/4 of the egg and keep mixing. They will appear separate and look like big blob of mess. Just keep stirring and add another 1/4 and continue to gradually add as you stir until you get a paste consistency.
They will appear separate and look like big blobs of mess. Just keep stirring and add another 1/4 and continue to gradually add as you stir until you get a paste consistency.

The dough consistency you are looking for:

The dough should be smooth and shiny.
If you lift the dough with a spatula, it should be too soft to hold peaks. If it is too stiff, add a tiny bit of water and mix again and check the consistency again.

Piping:

You can use 3/4-inch (#7) round pastry tube or 3/4-inch French star nozzle tip.
I have tried both tips. Using the French star tip helps to prevent the choux from cracking
Pipe eight 8 inches long and about 1 inch wide, about 3 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Use a spoon to distribute the croquant evenly on top of each eclair. It can be a bit messy but just use the spoon to tidy up the croquant that runs down
If you are not ready to bake the next batch within one hour, coat them lightly with a non-stick cooking spray and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Keep them in the refrigerator. Spread the croquant later when you are ready to bake

Baking:

Bake for 15 minutes. You will see the choux balloon up. DO NOT open the oven door at any point. Then lower the temperature to 325 F (160 C) for conventional oven. Lower temperature by 20 F/15 C for convection oven, and continue baking for 40 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Release the steam from the choux: (to prevent them from deflating)

Quickly open the oven door and use a small knife to poke the side of each of the eclair to release steam. This is very important to prevent the choux from deflating

Return back to the oven for baking:

Close the oven door and and lower the oven temperature and bake at 275 F (135 C) for conventional oven and bake for another 20 minutes.
Turn off the oven, use a wooden spatula to crack the oven door slightly to release pressure and let the pastry dry in the oven for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour if you want them to be really dry and stay crispy longer
All these steps are necessary to prevent the choux from deflating and to make sure the inside is really dry and the choux stays crispy. If they are wet, they tend to deflate. You can see here that the choux pastries did not deflate at all because they were bake long enough and the inside were dry

Cool completely:

Then remove from the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack

Finish preparing the pastry cream : (only when you are ready to fill the pastry)

One hour before you plan to fill the eclair, we need to finish up making the pastry cream. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge. It has hardened now. Use a whisk to whip the cream again to a creamy consistency
Whip the cold heavy cream over medium speed until a soft peak forms. When you raise your beater up, you see a soft peak that bents
Fold the soft whipped cream into the pastry cream using a spatula until they are well combined

To fill the choux:

Transfer the cream into a piping bag fitted with a long tip nozzle if you have one. Poke the top of the choux with the long tip and gently squeeze in the cream.
Alternatively, you can cut the choux in half horizontally and use a spoon to spread the cream on the choux. It's going to be messier, but it can be done
Serve immediately or try to serve within 1 hour. The pastries start to soften once filled but they are still delicious

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