I love choux buns, I find them very cute because they are round, small and they have a smooth and tasty cream inside. Here I give you the recipe to make pistachio and chocolate choux buns. You can either make individual choux buns or a wreath of choux buns. You can also make some eclairs with this recipe, you'll just have to pipe them in a different shape.
They are made of a choux pastry topped by a cocoa craquelin (this brown thin and layer on top of the choux buns), and they're filled with a light pistachio diplomate cream and a creamy milk chocolate ganache at the centre. It's the first time I added craquelin on top of my choux buns, and I love it. It's easy to make, and it gives the choux buns this perfect round shape. Moreover, you can add some food colouring inside the craquelin to give some colour to your choux buns. It was also the first time I was making a diplomate cream. It's basically a pastry cream that contains gelatin and in which you add whipped cream. I love the texture of this cream, it's lighter, smoother and creamier than the traditional pastry cream. I'll make some more for sure!
I made the craquelin, the ganache, the choux and the pastry cream the day before. On the day, I finished the diplomate cream by adding the whipped cream in the cold pastry cream and I assembled the choux buns. However I would recommend you make the choux buns on the day because the craquelin wasn't crunchy anymore the following day. With the quantities indicated here you can make about 4 choux wreaths or about 30 to 40 choux buns.
Here is the recipe in pictures:
Cocoa craquelin:
(recipe from Les délices de Marina)
1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Rub the butter and the powders between your fingers to combine them until you obtain a sandy mixture (bottom left picture below).
3. Then form a ball of dough.
4. Roll it between 2 sheets of baking paper so that it's a few millimetres thick. Then use a round cookie cutter the size of the choux you want to make and cut small circles. Leave them on the baking paper and put everything in the freezer so that they harden.
5. Leave the craquelin in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. The circles of craquelin will then be easy to detach from the baking paper and will keep their perfect round shape.
Pistachio diplomate cream:
(recipe from Cake beauty)
The recipe I used to make the diplomate cream recommended to use 9g of gelatin but to my taste it was a bit too much. Next time I’ll try with only 6g. You can find the recipe for the pistachio paste here.
1. Leave the gelatin to soak in cold water for at least 5 minutes.
2. Whisk the egg yolks with half of the sugar (75g). Add the cornflour and mix again.
3. Put the milk and the rest of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
4. Pour the boiling milk on the egg yolks very slowly while mixing.
5. Pour the mixture back in the saucepan on medium heat and stir continuously with a whisk. Once the cream has thickened and starts boiling, keep on cooking for 2 to 3 minutes while stirring.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the pistachio paste and the gelatin inside the hot pastry cream and mix well. You can also add some food colouring to intensify the green colour of the cream.
7. Cover this pistachio cream with cling film and leave it in the fridge for at least 3h so that it cools down and the gelatin sets.
8. Whip the cream. Put your bowl and whisk in the fridge/freezer beforehand. The cream also needs to be cold so that you can whip it easily. You want to obtain a foamy texture like on the last picture below.
9. Take the pistachio pastry cream out of the fridge and mix it vigorously with a whisk to make it softer.
10. Fold in several steps the whipped cream inside the pistachio cream. Use a spatula to fold the whipped cream carefully as if you were doing a chocolate mousse. You want to obtain a soft and smooth cream.
11. Put you cream in a piping bag with a star tip and keep it in the fridge until you assemble the choux buns.
Milk chocolate ganache:
1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave by 30 seconds increments, stirring in between each.
2. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan.
3. Pour it in 2-3 stages on the melted chocolate and stir vigorously with a spatula after each addition. After all the cream has been added and stirred well, you’ll obtain a smooth ganache.
4. Place it in the fridge for at least 4h so that it thickens. Once cold, put it in a piping bag.
Choux pastry:
1. Preheat the oven at 250°C.
2. Put the butter, the milk, the water, the sugar and the salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
3. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Stir well with a wooden spoon.
4. Put the saucepan back on the heat and keep stirring for about 2 minutes so that the pastry becomes drier. It will become smoother and form a ball of dough as in the last picture below.
5. Put the dough in a bowl and leave it to cool down for 5 minutes.
6. Add the eggs one after the other and stir vigorously between each addition. Make sure each egg is combined well with the dough before adding the next one. The dough will become softer and smoother. You want to obtain a texture like on the 2 last pictures below. Put the choux pastry in a piping bag.
7. Pipe choux buns or a choux wreath on a sheet of baking paper.
8. Take the craquelin out of the freezer. Detach the circles of craquelin from the baking paper and put them on top of each choux bun. Press slightly.
9. Lower the temperature of the oven to 160°C and cook the choux buns for 20 to 25 minutes. Don’t open the door of the oven while they are cooking to check or they may not grow. You want to obtain golden and puffy choux buns. Once they are cooked, let them cool down completely.
Assembling:
1. Once the choux buns have cooled down, cut them in half horizontally.
2. Pipe some pistachio cream on each choux.
3. Pipe a bit of chocolate ganache inside the pistachio cream.
4. Finally, cover the choux buns with the top half and press slightly.
Here is a little video of how to pipe and assemble the choux buns:
Et voilà!
Makes you want to take a bite right?
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