Let's make light, crunchy French chouquettes! These pastries are so easy and moreish with tips, a cream filled version and a 2 minute pearl sugar hack! They make a great edible Christmas gift or pot luck dessert.
About These Chouquettes
If you love French pastries then you will adore chouquettes. These are just about my favourite pastry made with choux pastry. Chouquettes are like profiteroles but sprinkled with pearl sugar that makes each bite super crunchy and moreish. The name chouquette is French for "Cute" which fits these dainty litle bites.
What is a Chouquette? It is made from choux pastry piped into a bite sized round. It is covered with pearl sugar to give it crunch. Chouquettes are sometimes filled with a chantilly or mascarpone cream where they are called Dune Blanche (white dune).
I'm going to show you how to make chouquettes and the version called Dune Blanc. I'll also include an extra trick to make them extra delicious! Plus if you don't have pearl sugar, I'll also how to make your own in about 2 minutes.
A warning Dear Reader though: Chouquettes are highly addictive!
Video How To Make Chouquettes
Video: How to Make Chouquettes
Ingredients For Chouquettes
Milk - Use full cream milk.
Water - I use filtered water.
Butter - Use salted butter, cut into cubes.
Sugar - White, caster or superfine sugar
Salt - Use fine salt so that it can melt easily.
Flour - Use plain all purpose flour. If you have a high protein flour you can also use this.
Eggs - Use large eggs as this is the rising agent and you want them to puff up as much as possible.
Cream cheese or mascarpone - Use full fat cream cheese or mascarpone as a stabilising agent for chantilly cream. I prefer to use it over gelatine as it melds in easier than gelatine (this can be a bit lumpy).
Cream - Use pure or thickened cream. Low fat cream will not whip up properly.
Vanilla - Use vanilla bean paste so you can see flecks of vanilla bean.
Tips For Making Chouquettes
1 - The secret to making these chouquettes so incredibly good is the addition of the sugar glaze on top of the choux before baking it. Just this little glaze adds to the crunchy texture and perfects the level of sweetness. This is the same choux recipe as in my Chocolate dipped mascarpone filled profiteroles.
Video How To Make Pearl Sugar Using Sugar Cubes
Video: How to Make Pearl Sugar
2 - No pearl sugar? No problem! Just crush up some white sugar cubes with the end of a rolling pin in a ziplock bag. Then sift the sugar where the tiny grains will separate from the pearl sugar pieces. Et voila - pearl sugar in 2 minutes! You'll need double the amount of sugar cubes as about half will crumble into regular white sugar once you pound the cubes.
3 - Be generous with the glaze and pearl sugar. You want to get as much pearl sugar on top of these chouquettes as possible as they will rise and spread out.
4 - These chouquettes are really best when they are caramelised so don't be afraid to take these a bit darker than you would profiteroles. My favourite ones were the ones with the extra syrup pools and sugar around them. Droooool...
5 - The cream filling is basically my stabilised cream filling. I always use stabilised cream in hotter months as unstabilised cream can flop and melt. Otherwise you can just whip cream with sugar and vanilla.
Chouquettes Recipe
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Step 1 GLAZE - Make sugar glaze first. Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes. Cool.
Step 2 CHOUX - Preheat oven to 200C/400F conventional or 180C/350F fan forced. Line 2 baking trays with parchment. Place the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to almost a boil. Remove from the heat and quickly mix in the flour with a flat bottomed wooden spoon or spatula. Place saucepan back on low heat and keep stirring until the dough pulls away from the edges and becomes one cohesive piece - it should take around 2 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes.
Dough ready for beating
Step 3 BEAT - Fit a mixer with a beater attachment and add the dough. Start to beat and allow the heat to escape. Once the steam stops rising, gradually pour in the beaten egg and keep beating until smooth and glossy. You can refrigerate this dough overnight or use straight away. By the time it is glossy and smooth it should cool enough to place in a piping bag.
Smooth, glossy dough
Step 4 PIPE - Fit a piping bag with a 1A or plain tip. Pipe rounds around 1 inch spacing them 1 inch apart as they will expand a little. Wet the tips of your fingers and gently press down the tops so that they are smooth. Brush generously with sugar glaze and sprinkle generously with pearl sugar. Shake the pan a little to make sure any stray bits of pearl sugar attach to a chouquette.
Smoothing over tops with wet fingers
Step 5 BAKE - Bake one tray at a time. Bake for 10 minutes then turn the tray around for even baking and bake for 5 additional minutes. Then remove the tray from the oven and prick a small hole in each choux to allow the steam to be released and return to the oven for 2 minutes. They should be golden brown and not too pale. Cool completely. These can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
1 inch size puffs
Golden and crisp
Step 6 CREAM (optional) - To make the cream, beat the mascarpone and sugar together. Then switch to a whisk attachment and add the cream and vanilla, whisking until you get a thick Chantilly cream (you should be able to run a knife through it and the cut will hold). Using a small plain tip, pipe into the bottoms of the puffs until they swell. Store in the fridge - these are best eaten within the hour.
Personal Note
I made some of these chouquettes with cream and some without. I gave some cream chouquettes to my neighbours that I knew were home but the rest were unfilled. I personally prefer them unfilled because I like the caramelised crunch in each bite.
I gave some to Laura as I was having dinner with her that evening. Laura has been together with LimaLimaDelta or LLD for a few years now but this year is the first time they've moved in together. Prior to that he was deployed or lived in Canberra as he is in the Australian Navy and they get moved around a bit. They have moved into a new place in Sydney with his dog Archie and this is the longest the two have physically been together.
Because Laura is so independent she is not used to having his physical presence around so much it can be a challenge that Adrian is trying to not take so personally. Laura is more a Second Wife. When we were in Dubai they explained to us that when some men have multiple wives, the second wife sometimes prefers this position because while they get the same financial support the men are not around as much so they are left alone.
"Don't take it personally she prefers being second wife," I explained to him and Laura nodded. For her, it's great to have a partner and someone to travel with but their constant presence is not essential.
As for me personally, I like having someone around so I don't think I'd like being a second wife, it's first wife for me!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever eaten chouquettes?
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