Cream Puff "Crack Buns" (Choux au Craquelin)

This was my first time really baking something I’d never tried before.....and they turned out amazing! I was really so proud of myself I made them again the next day. My boyfriend isn’t a big fan of sweets and he couldn’t keep his hands off them. These will be my new go to for any party I attend for sure.

these are great! I made a double recipe and must have made them a lot smaller than suggested as I got about 30 "buns". I used the recipe for the pastry cream also, which yielded a lovely, smooth textured pastry cream though I would reduce the salt if I make it again. Although there are many steps and it is mildly time consuming, these buns are so worth the time it takes to make them.

The video made this recipe a breeze! Finished my pastries off with some annin flavored cream and they were just lovely.

This is a bit time consuming but well worth it. I've made this a few times. I started adding different flavorings to the topping, chocolate powder, strawberry powder, even cinnamon. I posted a pic of my first attempt.

Not the easiest thing I’ve ever made - but one of the tastiest. If you follow the recipe and don’t cut corners, you will succeed. And it’s so tasty! Will definitely make it again.

These were delicious and fun to make!

Taste really good.

These are gorgeous. I didn't understand the recipe fully after just reading it, so it's imperative (IMO) to view the video.

I made these for a rotary event and everyone loved them! Thank you Chef John

These turned out well, but would very labor intensive for the end results. The cracklin' top made a lot more top than I actually needed, and the whole thing was dubbed, "good, but not great." I filled these with my family's favorite chocolate pudding immediately prior to serving.

Terrific

Really had fun making these , we were having friends over for dinner , so decided to add a bit of Amarula to the filling..ooooh yaaaaa...delish indeed...and fun to plate..got a little jazzy with that..

Chef John has transformed this horrible baker into a somewhat decent one. Made these yesterday and they turned out so good! I don’t have any baking equipment so used ziploc bags as my piping bag, a shot glass as my cookie cutter, a wine bottle as my rolling pin (no alcohol involved) and also used medium sized eggs—and they still came out great. They def. take a while due to all the cooling/freezing, so would suggest prepping things the day before your bake

I like this recipe better than the other ones that I had tried. It was easy to follow.

Awesome recipe. A couple comments though. At 1:15 seconds into the video you said to roll out the crack crust to a little under 1/8 inch but in recipe it says ¼ inch. 1.4 inch is correct IMHO. If you freeze the topping when it is 1/4 inch, it won't melt fast enough before it bakes into the hard crust. You want it to melt down and cover the pastry. Yum!

Made these with my 10 year old granddaughter for her international project on Belgium. Video was crucial for us since I'd never done that type of pastry before. Big job but we made the pastry cream and craquelin topping 1 day and rest on 2nd day. Since we had chocolate left over after coating the bottoms, she used it to drizzle over the tops. Beautiful! Put some extra cream on the plate as well. Only makes 8-9 buns so would double recipe next time. When filling we thought they were full but when we ate them we found out they were 1/2 empty so the cream on the plate came in handy.

1. Recipe turned out mostly as described. 2. Probably won't do it again. Regular cream puffs are great and less work. 3. With brown sugar craquelin top, it was too sweet for me. If do again, I would reduce sugar in vanilla cream. 4. Did not have vanilla beans. Substituted 1-2 t vanilla extract. Was good. 5. Chocolate tempering worked well. Bottom was hard and snappy. Actually just microwaved in glass bowl. 6. Chocolate bottom was too thick. Made hard to eat since bottom too stiff. Cream puff would disintegrate when bite into it. Next time, will add less chocolate to bottoms. 7. Note that craquelin top very crumbly and messy. 8. Using 1Q ziplock bag for piping worked well. Watch for puff just starting to swell.

Wonderful recipe! It was my first time making this kind of pastry, and Chef John’s video is a lifesaver. I’d recommend watching it for sure. I followed his suggestion and used his vanilla bean pastry cream recipe, mixed with who looked cream to lighten the mixture, but these would have been great with just the vanilla pastry cream alone. Be careful of overfilling! Mine sort of “exploded” a bit when you bit into them, but tastes great all the same. Finally, after reading the comments on Chef John’s YouTube video where he explains that filling the puff from the bottom can cause it to get soggy, I elected to use his method of filling.

Love it! And love the vanilla cream filling!

Great recipe!!!! Taste just like those you buy in store except that you can fill it with however much pastry cream you'd like. Chef John is truly amazing. I did not have the courage to try something as difficult as this cream puff until today, after I have made so many successful pastries following chef John's recipes.

It was very easy to make. I glazed the chocolate on the top instead of the bottom, and they tasted delicious! Although the pate a choux was challenging, the puffs turned out great in the end. This is a very good cream puff recipe overall

Thank you for the clear instructions! I know all about choux paste (or so I though!) but had never heard of these babies. I made 44 of these today!! and they came out PERFECT. Just like the photo! Magic :D

These taste amazing. I went with a lightly sweetened homemade whipped cream (1 TBSP sugar, and 1 TBSP vanilla, 1 cup heavy cream. )This was enough for the batch that I made. A couple tips that I learned from the first few times I've made these. #1 the batter should be sticky, very similar to mashed potatoes. #2 Don't pull these out of the oven too early. You need to wait for a moderate golden brown color otherwise they may and probably will collapse . I made 7 evenly sized puffs and pulled them exactly at 30 minutes and all but one collapsed before I got them off the tray. Give them as long as you can bear.