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Craquelin (sweet cracker dough)

This sweet cracker dough ("craquelin" in French) is a very simple mixture: equal parts of flour, butter and light brown sugar. It is simlilar to a shortbread dough and can be rolled out very thinly and cut into any shape as desired. Craquelin is mostly used (though not exclusively) on top of choux pastry (pâte à choux) to give a more attractive and regular result, with eclairs, for example, and gives them a delicious crisp crust on the top.

This is very much the current trend in French patisserie: less icing, at least on choux pastries, and more use of "craquelin". The pastries lose a bit of colour, but are less sweet and are crisper.

100K 3.8/5 based on 10 reviews

Last modified on: February 10^th 2019

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For 450 g, you will need:

1 150 g flour
2 150 g brown sugar
3 150 g butter
Total weight: 450 grams

Change these quantities to make: 50 g 75 g 150 g 300 g 450 g

Change measures: Metric

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How long will it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Resting	Start to finish
24 min.	30 min.	54 min.

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Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 5 min.

Put into a mixer bowl: 150 g flour, 150 g brown sugar and 150 g butter, cut into small pieces.

Stage 2 - 5 min.

Knead on medium speed until the dough is evenly mixed.

Stage 3 - 3 min.

Gather the dough into a flat cake and pat this out with your hand on a sheet of plastic film and cooking papers (very important, as the craqulelin dough tends to stick easily).

Stage 4 - 30 min.

Lay a second sheet of cooking parchment over the top, then roll out thinly with a rolling pin to about 1/8 of an inch (2 or 3 mm) maximum.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Stage 5 - 3 min.

After this time, lay the dough on the worktop and gently remove the top sheet of paper.

Dust the dough with a little flour.

Stage 6 - 3 min.

Turn the dough over onto the floured side, then gently remove the other sheet of paper.

Your craquelin is now ready for cutting out.

Stage 7 - 5 min.

Use cutters to cut out any shapes you want. Here I'm cutting small circles to use on choux puffs.

Stage 8

Sit a circle of caquelin on each mound of choux, put in the oven immediately and bake as usual.

Stage 9

When they come out of the oven, you will see how lovely and regular your choux puffs are when topped with craqulin.

Remarks

If you use softened butter, which has been out of the fridge for at least an hour, you will find the mixing at stage 2 far easier and quicker.

This recipe does not call for salted butter, but it is fine to use it if that's all you have to hand.

Keeping

1 or 2 days in the fridge, covered with plastic film.

Source

Home made.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
2,250 Kcal or 9,420 Kj	15 gr	261 gr	128 gr
113 %	6 %	25 %	19 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
500 Kcal or 2,093 Kj	3 gr	58 gr	28 gr
25 %	1 %	5 %	4 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

Possible allergens in this recipe: Gluten, Milk

How much will it cost?

For 450 g : 1.49 €

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Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

Some other recipes using this recipe

Choux pastry (pâte à choux)

Choux pastry is used for making profiteroles, eclairs and other small pastries.
524K4.5 1 hour 4 min.

Galette de Fougerolles

This Galette de Fougerolles is a flattish cake filled with a hazelnut buttercream and topped just before baking with a "craquelin" (sweet cracker) crust, studded with griottine cherries.
40K 3 hours 21 min.

Mini Mont-Blanc choux puffs

These mini choux puffs are topped with a layer of craquelin and filled with Mont-Blanc cream: a mixture of whipped cream and sweetened chestnut purée.
53K 1 hour 43 min.

See all recipes that use it

This recipe uses (among others)

	Brown sugar: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Little lemon biscuits, Tarte à l'coloche, Canadian apple crumble, Chantilly rice pudding, Tyrolean apple crumble, ... All
	Butter: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Ramekins of duchess potatoes, Gnocchi alla romana, Paimpol salad, Warm white bean salad with smoked trout, "Buttonhole" quail eggs, ... All
	Flour: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Coq au vin, Arlesian Biscuits, Chocolate rolls (petits pains), Flaky brownie brioche, Almond tuiles, ... All

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