Giant praline chou

It's chou time!

Today, I'm sharing a recipe for foodies and chou lovers. You've probably noticed by now that I absolutely love chou pastry. With its golden color and crispy top, the chou is both a visual gem and a true delight.

As the dedicated baker I am, I made my homemade craquelin which is a coating to cover the chou and make it crispy. This word may seem technical but it actually is a very easy dough made with brown sugar, flour and butter.

The secret of the crquelin is that it must be very cold before placing it on top of the chou and it must not be larger than the chou otherwise it will prevent it from developing properly. So, to avoid any accidents in the oven, you should use a cookie cutter with a diameter smaller than that of the chou. For example, here I made a 7 cm chou and I cut the craquelin using a cookie cutter 6.5 cm in diameter.

To garnish the chou, I chose the balanced flavour of praline. For this recipe you can use store bought praline to make the cream. You can also make your own praline if you do not wish to buy it.

Are you interested in the praline recipe ? Let me know in the comments ! Let's start the recipe, and here are the necessary tools.

Tools

• A pan and a spatula

• A pastry piping bag and a tip 16 mm in diameter

• A baking tray

• An electric mixer or a stand mixer

Ingredients

Craquelin

• 50 g butter

• 60 g brown sugar

• 60 g flour

Chou pastry

• 90 g water

• 90 g milk

• 4 g sugar

• 4 g salt

• 80 g butter

• 100 g flour

• 180 g beaten whole eggs

Praline cream

• 220 g milk

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 50 g egg yolk

• 35 g sugar

• 25 g corn starch

• 200 g praline

• 150 g butter (at room temperature)

How To

Craquelin

• Mix the sugar and butter. Add the flour and make a dough.

• Spread the dough between two baking sheets until it is 1 mm thick.

• Put the dough in the freezer while preparing the chou pastry.

Chou pastry

• Put the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

• Remove from the heat and add the flour. Then, over medium heat, stir until the dough is well incorporated.

• Stir for a few minutes so that the steam escapes.

• Remove from heat and place in a bowl.

• Add the eggs one by one and stir each time until the dough absorbs all the eggs. The dough should be smooth and shiny.

• Put the dough in a piping bag and pipe 7 cm chou pastries on a buttered baking tray.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 45 minutes.

• Remove from the oven and let cool.

Praline cream

• Put the milk in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.

• In the meantime, mix the egg yolks and sugar and whisk together. Add cornstarch and whisk.

• Pour one third of the milk over the egg-sugar-starch mixture and whisk together. Add to the rest of the milk and whisk vigorously until the cream thickens.

• Place in a dish and cover with wrapping paper. Then, cool for at least 30 minutes.

• Take the cream out of the fridge and whisk it slightly until smooth.

• Gradually add the butter while whisking with an electric mixer or stand mixer.

• Once the butter is fully incorporated, add the praline and mix with a spatula.

Assembling

• Cut off a small part of the top of the chou and garnish the inside generously with praline cream.

• Garnish the top of the chou with circular movements.

• Decorate with a few hazelnuts and put the previously removed part of the chou back on top.