Pumpkin Choux au craquelin

5 from 9 votes

This is the ultimate Pumpkin Choux au Craquelin for the Fall! Cream puff topped with crispy craquelin and filled with silky pumpkin ganache!

Prep Time1

Cook Time1

Waiting time4

Total Time6

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings:

Calories: 291kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

For the choux bun

30 g Unsalted butter
30 g Water
30 g Whole milk
⅛ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Granulated sugar
35 g Bread flour high protein content flour eg. 13% protein
55 g Egg quantity might differ depending on flour, pls check tips

For the craquelin

For the caramelized white chocolate whipped ganache

100 g Caramelized white chocolate eg. Valrhona Dulcey
400 g Heavy Cream fat content 36%
4 Gelatine sheet

For the pumpkin ganache

85 g Pumpkin puree Home made pumpkin puree recipe
15 g Heavy Cream fat content 36%
50 g Caramelized white chocolate eg. Valrhona Dulcey

Instructions

Start with making the Caramelized white chocolate whipped ganache

Chop chocolate into small pieces and place them into a bowl
Soak gelatin into cold water
Heat 150g cream until simmering, mix gelatin sheet in and pour it over the chocolate
Let the chocolate cream mixture set for a minute until chocolate gently melts then stir together or hand blend
Once mixture slightly cools to room temp, stir in rest of the cream, cover the top of the ganache with plastic wrap and refrigerate for minimum 4 hours
The mixture should slightly thicken after 4 hours and can be whipped into a pipeable consistency with an electric hand mixer or standmixer in a few minutes. Once it is reached a fluffy consistency, make sure you do not over whip the ganache as it can break
Whipped ganache should be stored in the fridge before using it

Continue with making the craquelin

Cream room temp butter and sugar together then add the flour. Add orange food colouring once mixture smooth. If the mixture is too soft or runny, place it into the freezer for a minute or two for the butter to harden a bit. If at any point the dough gets too sticky while handling it, place it into the freezer for a minute then continue according to the recipe
When the craquelin dough is firm enough but not too firm, roll it out into 2 mm thick in between two Silicone baking mats then place the rolled out sheet into the freezer with the Silicone baking mats on it for minimum an hour

Making the Choux buns

Continue with the choux buns by sifting flour then measure it and set aside
Place butter, water, milk, salt and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat
As soon as the mixture starts simmering remove from heat, add the flour in one go and whisk vigorously with a Rubber spatula until it forms one smooth ball and flour bits are not visible
Place the saucepan back to the stove and cook the dough for approx 3 min over medium heat mixing constantly. There should be a thin skin formed on the bottom up the saucepan by then
Transfer the dough into a bowl and let it rest for a minute or two before mixing the egg in. Only add a small amount of egg at a time, consistently whisking after each addition. The exact quantity of the egg will need your judgement, you should reach a consistency which is not too runny, not too firm but just fine to pipe
Pipe 9 equal sized buns on a Perforated "air" baking mat leaving enough space in between them as they will puff during baking
Take the craquelin sheet out of the freezer and with the help of a cookie cutter cut out 8 circles, approx. 1 cm larger in diameter than the choux buns you just piped
Place one craquelin disk on each of the choux buns. The craquelin disk should be frozen and very firm at this point, that makes the process of cutting as well as placing them on top of the choux buns easy
Place the tray with the choux buns and craquelins on them into the freezer ideally for 2 hours or 30 minutes as a minimum
Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 392 F
Lower oven temperature to 170 C / 338 F and bake the choux au craquelin for 25-30 min. Do not open the oven door until baking time ends. If you are baking it the first time it is a good idea to take one choux bun out of the oven at 25 min and check its consistency. If it is nicely puffed up, does not deflate on room temperature and the middle of the ball is not raw (it is ok if it's a bit wet, it will dry while cooling down) then it is considered to be done
Cool either on the Perforated "air" baking mat or if baked on parchment then cool them on cooling rack

Pumpkin ganache

Chop chocolate into small pieces and place them into a bowl
Heat cream and pumpkin puree in a saucepan over medium heat just until simmering
Pour warm cream pumpkin mixture over chocolate, let it set for a minute until chocolate gently melts then stir together
Let the ganache cool to room temperature before using it

Assembling

Cut the top off the buns when both creams and choux buns completely cooled down
Pipe whipped ganache into the choux bun then pumpkin ganache into the whipped ganache
Pipe some more whipped ganache on top of the bun and then make a small "hole" with a measuring spoon on top of the ganache, then pipe some more pumpkin ganache into the "hole"

Notes

Make sure you fill choux buns straight before serving

Nutrition