Light, creamy, and melt in your mouth cookie butter cream puffs topped with a sweet craquelin. These are perfect finger food for your next gathering.
Pate A Choux 101:
Pate a Choux is a super versatile dough that is the base of churros, crullers, beignets, eclairs, and in this case cream puffs. It can be a little bit tricky to make since it starts on the stove, but once you master it will become once of your most used baking skills.
To make pate a choux, heat the butter, milk (preferably whole milk), water, sugar, and salt together on the stove. Once the butter has melted and the mixture has come to a rolling boil dump in the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to form a cohesive pasty dough, you’re essentially making a roux. It is the water content in the roux that allows the choux to puff up in the oven since there are no other raising agents.
The Right Consistency:
Transfer this mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and let cool for five minutes, this ensures that the eggs won’t scramble. Then add the eggs one at a time. There is no exact right number of eggs to add in choux pastry, instead you must evaluate the consistency and add an egg or a part of the egg until you reach it. You want a shiny mixture that droops off the end of the paddle attachment into a V-shape when nudged slightly. It will also fall off the paddle attachment when hit against the bowl multiple times. It is better to add too little eggs and work up to the right consistency then add to many since you cannot “unadd” an egg.
Piping and Baking:
Place the pate a choux dough into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe 1.5 inch mounds of dough and smooth out the tops of them with your finger that has dipped in water. You can trace circles onto parchment paper, but I’ve found that the Silpat macaron mat circles are the perfect size.
Placing the choux dough into a perfectly hot oven is beyond important to ensure proper “puffing”. Start baking the dough at 400ºF to give them the blast of heat they need and bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 350ºF and let bake for another fifteen minutes. Remove from the oven and let fully cool on your baking sheet.
Creme Mousseline:
Creme mousseline is a mixture of creme patisserie (custard), and an add in such as the cookie butter in this case. Start by making a creme patisserie (custard) by heating milk and half the sugar in a saucepan on the stove. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolks, rest of sugar, and cornstarch. Temper the egg yolks by pouring 1/3 of the steaming milk into the yolks and whisking quickly until a smooth mixture forms. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan with the milk and heat on medium low until it is thick and bubbling (roughly 180ºF).
Pour the hot creme patisserie over the cookie butter and butter and let sit until the butter melts. Then whisk the three together until the cookie butter has fully incorporated (the butter will still look split). Place the creme mousseline into either a blender or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (blender is preferred) and blend/mix until glossy and smooth. Chill overnight.
Right before filling the cream puffs, rewhip the creme mousseline in the stand mixer for 2-3 minutes until stiff and glossy. Fill the choux buns with the creme and enjoy, your cookie butter cream puffs are complete!
The cookie butter I used:
Tips and Tricks:
No, I’ve found these cream puffs are much more temperamental and more likely to fail with all-purpose flour. I tested this recipe with both all purpose flour and bread flour and the ones with AP flour stayed flat as a pancake while the ones with bread flour rose perfectly.
I wouldn’t suggest baking these the day before because they tend to become a bit soggier on the second day. However you can make the pate a choux dough the day before and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container overnight to pipe and bake the next day.
Definitely! You can use any nut butter (even nutella) in the place of the cookie butter for a flavor switch.
Choux buns rise from the water in them that produces steam in the oven. This is why it is imperative to not open the oven door while they bake, opening the door would cause the steam to escape and your buns to fall flat.
Cookie Butter Cream Puffs
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Chilling Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 cream puffs 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Roux
- Cuisine: French
Description
Light, creamy, and melt in your mouth cookie butter cream puffs topped with a sweet craquelin. These are perfect finger food for your next gathering.
Ingredients
Craquelin:
- 40g flour (1/3 cup)
- 40g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 40g unsalted butter at room temp (3 tablespoons)
Creme Mousseline:
- 250 milliliters milk (preferably whole)
- 50g granulated sugar, divided (1/4 cup)
- 3 large egg yolks
- 30g cornstarch
- 80g cookie butter
- 150g softened butter (11 tablespoons)
Pate a Choux:
- 75g bread flour (2/3 cup)
- 75g whole milk (1/3 cup)
- 75g water (1/3 cup)
- 75g unsalted butter (5.5 tablespoons)
- 2–3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Craquelin:
1) Combine flour, sugar, and softened butter together in a stand mixer. Paddle together on medium for 2-3 minutes until a cohesive sticky dough/paste forms.
2) Dump dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and place another piece of parchment on top of it. Roll the craquelin out to a 1/4 thick sheet and let chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Creme Mousseline: A combination of creme patisserie, cookie butter, and butter
1) Combine butter and cookie butter in a heatproof bowl.
2) To make the creme patisserie, whisk together half of the sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks in small bowl. Then, heat the milk and rest of the sugar in a saucepan on low.
3) Once the milk is steaming, pour 1/3 of the milk over the egg yolk mixture and whisk vigorously until the two have fully combined. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and continue to whisk vigorously while heating the mixture on medium low. This is a process called tempering.
4) Once the custard has thickened and is boiling with large bubbles (180ºF), heat for another 2 minutes before taking off the stove.
5) Pour the now finished creme patisserie on top of the cookie butter and butter. Whisk together until the butter is fully melted (the mixture will look very split).
6) Pour the split mixture into a blender or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and blend/beat on high for 2-3 minutes until a smooth mixture forms.* **
7) Cover the top directly with plastic wrap and chill in the in the fridge for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight. When ready to use, whip in a stand mixer until glossy and stiff.
Pate a Choux:
1) Preheat an oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat baking mat.
1) Heat the milk, water, sugar, salt, and butter together in a saucepan. Once the butter has melted and the mixture has come to a boil, dump in the flour and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until one mass of a pasty dough has formed.
2) Transfer into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and let cool for 5 minutes.
3) Once slightly cooled, mix on medium to let any steam out of the mixture. Then pour in the first egg and let fully combine, repeat with the second egg.
4) Beat the third egg in a separate bowl and add just enough (it could be none) to reach proper consistency. You want the choux dough to form a V that only drops off the paddle of your stand mixer when hit against the side of the bowl. I explain this more above.
5) Scoop the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 1.5 inch mounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. Using a tablespoon scoop, cut 1 inch circles of the craquelin and top each mound of choux with a craquelin hat.
6) Bake at 400ºF for 15 minutes (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR). Lower the oven temperature to 350º with the choux buns still in the oven. Bake for another fifteen minutes until golden brown all the way around. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
Assembly:
1) Fill a piping bag fitted with a round top with the rewhipped creme mousseline. Insert the piping tip into the bottom of each choux bun and fill until the bun feels heavier and your piping bag is resisting you piping anymore.
2) Eat the day of and enjoy!
Notes
*If using the stand mixer, cover with a towel while beating to avoid a mess.
**The blender method is preferred though both will work.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cream puff
- Calories: 309
- Sugar: 9.7g
- Sodium: 125.6mg
- Fat: 22.7g
- Saturated Fat: 12.5g
- Carbohydrates: 22.7g
- Protein: 3.9g
- Cholesterol: 140.6mg
Keywords: cream puffs, cookie butter, pate a choux
Cookie Butter Cream Puffs Recipe Inspiration from: https://www.puffthebakery.co.uk/
More challenging recipes: https://dishingwithdelaney.com/strawberry-lemon-mini-pavlovas/
Question on the sugar in the cream filling? It says 1 c or 50g – but I got ¼ of a cup to equal 50g? Wondering which to use?
Thanks!
Hi,
Sorry for any confusion. It should be 50g/1/4 cup. I just updated the typo in the recipe card.
Thanks so much!