Coffee and Milk Chocolate Cream Puffs with Rose Icing. This recipe comes from Amy Ho's new book "Blooms and Baking". A perfect craquelin covered cream puff is filled with an easy silky milk chocolate ganache filling and topped with swirls of espresso whipped cream. The cream puffs are finished with a rose icing and topped with sprinkles.These are an easy delicious dessert, and are fun to make.

Milk Chocolate and Coffee Cream Puffs from Blooms and Baking

Happy Tuesday, and happy book birthday to my friend Amy! She runs the most beautiful Instagram account and blog called Constellation Inspiration, and today she releases her book baby into the world (why does that sound like she’s physically giving birth to it!?), called Blooms and Baking! Amy’s book is all about adding florals and their flavors to cake, cookies, candies, and all kinds of other delicious sweets - if you follow her on Instagram you will know that she manages to incorporate the most beautiful blooms into almost every recipe she makes. Amy shot the book herself and it is full of beautiful photos and step by step shots (and the most perfect manicures of all time). There are so many beautiful recipes I can’t wait to make!

I didn’t really have a hard time choosing what to make from the book - Amy and I share a huge love of cream puffs, and there’s a whole section dedicated to them, so the only decision I had to make was what puff recipe to choose! I quickly settled on this one - a choux au craquelin (craquelin is the crispy cookie stuff on the top), filled with a whipped milk chocolate ganache and a coffee whipped cream, and topped with a rose icing. The recipe in the book has a candied rose petal on top of the icing, but seeing as lots of things are shut in corona land here in NYC I wasn’t able to get my hands on some rose petals, so instead I went with sprinkles to celebrate Amy’s book birthday instead!

How to make Milk Chocolate and Coffee Cream Puffs

These cream puffs are so, so delicious - the puff itself isn’t too sweet and is nice and crispy, then the milk chocolate ganache is smooth and silky, and the coffee cream is unsweetened so provides the most perfect balance against the smooth ganache. These are so much fun to make - there are a few components but they all come together quickly. You can make the craquelin and the ganache the night before if you like (you can make the choux buns before too if you like, just freeze them in an airtight container), and then the coffee cream comes together with just a wee bit of whipping. I think they might be one of my most favourite things to make, don’t tell the others.

Why Accuracy is important when making Cream Puffs

In the ingredients, I have added in some ‘just in case’ egg. Sometimes when you are making choux dough you will need to add an extra little bit of egg (about 20 to 30g) to the mixture in order to get it to the right consistency - you want it to form a ‘v’ that eventually breaks off when you lift the paddle from the mixture. If it is not wet enough (ie you need to add more egg), you won’t get that nice v shape and the dough will be stiff and break off easily. I usually start with the 110g called for in the recipe, test it, then add in a little extra beaten egg if needed. This recipe uses 110g which is about 2 ½ eggs, so beat up 3 and measure out 110g then you have the extra as your just in case egg.

How to store Cream Puffs

Cream puffs will go soggy quickly if stored at room temperature, but keep perfectly in the freezer. Even if you are making them only a day ahead, store in the freezer overnight and defrost the next day. If you have extra cream puffs, freeze them empty in an airtight container then defrost at room temp. Store any extra components separate and assemble before eating as these are best on the day they are made.

A few wee tips for Milk Chocolate Coffee Cream Puffs

I actually had some craquelin left over from a recipe in the freezer but my recipe is the same as Amy’s, so I popped my method in the recipe.
The milk chocolate ganache needs at least four hours to chill. Make it the night before if you like - making the actual ganache only takes about 5 minutes, you just need to account for the chill time.
Amy asks you to use a stand mixer to whip the ganache, but I am #verylazy and didn’t want to wash my mixing bowl so I just whipped it with a whisk directly in the bowl that I made it in and it worked fine!
Ganache is super easy but the one thing to be careful of is that you don’t get any water in it. Because you’re putting something warm into the fridge, some condensation will gather on the plastic wrap, and you want to make sure that doesn’t drip into the ganache or it will make it split. I carefully take off the plastic wrap a few times in the cooling process and wipe it down just to make sure there are no drops forming.
There is rose water in the icing for these - leave it out if you don’t have!

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Answers to your baking questions

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Coffee and Milk Chocolate Cream Puffs with Rose Icing

Author: Erin Clarkson
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes plus chilling time
Yield: 12 Cream puffs 1x

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Description

Ingredients

Scale

Whipped Milk Chocolate Ganache

115g coarsely chopped milk chocolate
240g heavy cream
¼ tsp salt

Craquelin

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60g all-purpose flour
60g dark brown sugar

Pâte à Choux

60g water
60g whole milk
½ tsp granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
56g unsalted butter
70g all-purpose flour
110g eggs, lightly beaten (see notes)

Coffee Whipped Cream

300g heavy cream
30ml prepared espresso or 1 tsp espresso powder
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used ½ tsp vanilla bean paste

Royal Icing Glaze

90g powdered sugar
1 tbsp water or milk, plus more as needed
¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp culinary grade rose water
Small drop of pink gel food colouring (optional).

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Instructions

WHIPPED MILK CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream to a boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and let the mixture sit for 1 minute. Add the salt. Whisk the chocolate until it is thoroughly melted and combined with the cream (it will seem runny). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours.
When you are ready to assemble the puffs, whip with a whisk or a stand mixer until light and fluffy (1-2 minutes), then transfer to a piping bag with the end snipped off.

CRAQUELIN

Place all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix with a spatula until well combined. Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper, and top with a second piece.
Roll out to 2-3 mm in thickness. Place the dough, still between the parchment sheets, in the freezer for at least 20 minutes while you prepare the choux dough. (Can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer).

CHOUX AU CRAQUELIN

Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Using a cookie cutter, trace 12 2” circles on a piece of parchment paper, leaving about 2” between each one. Place the parchment on a baking sheet with the drawing side down.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the water, milk, granulated sugar, salt, and butter. Bring the mixture to a light boil, remove the saucepan from the heat, and add all the flour at once. Quickly stir in the flour using a rubber spatula, then place the saucepan over medium high heat.
Continue to stir the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, without stopping, until the paste is smooth and shiny. It will pull away from the sides of the saucepan and leave a thin coating of cooked paste on the bottom when it is ready. The texture should resemble dry mashed potatoes.
Transfer the paste to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 3-5 minutes to allow the choux to cool down. Increase the mixer’s speed to medium and gradually stream in the eggs. Mix for 2-3 minutes, until the ingredients are well combined.
Test the consistency of the batter by dipping in the beater and pulling up. If it forms a v which eventually breaks off, you are good to go. If it seems too stiff, slowly add a little more beaten egg and mix to incorporate.
Fit a piping bag with a large round piping tip. Transfer the Pâte à Choux to the prepared piping bag. Pipe out 12 mounds within the circles you drew on the parchment sheet.
Remove the craquelin from the freezer, and peel off the top piece of parchment. Using the same sized cutter you used to trace the circles on the parchment paper, cut out circles of dough. Place each carefully on top of a mound of choux, pressing lightly to adhere.
Bake the choux puffs for 35 minutes, then rotate the baking sheet and reduce the oven temperature to 325°f / 160°c, and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the buns are a deep golden colour. Remove from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack.

ASSEMBLY

Make the coffee cream - in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or with a whisk, whip the cream until medium soft peaks form (it needs to be a little softer than you think for piping).
Add the espresso and vanilla and mix to incorporate (if you are using espresso powder put it in at the start and whip in with the cream). Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a french star tip.
Cut off the top of the choux with a serrated knife. Pipe the whipped milk chocolate ganache into the cream puff until it reaches the brim. Pipe two rings of coffee whipped cream on top of the ganache.
Whisk together the ingredients for the royal icing glaze in a small bowl, adding a little more milk as needed to form a smooth glaze. Dip the hats of the choux into the glaze, or spoon on and smooth. Top with sprinkles if using.
Place the hats on top of the cream puffs.

Notes

Recipe reprinted with permission from ‘Blooms and Baking’

Keywords: Cream Puffs, Constellation Inspiration, Milk Chocolate, Craquelin, Choux