Lemon and Meringue Choux
I tasted these choux pastries at Andreea’s place and loved them, so I decided to make a version to show you as well—so you can make them, and hopefully love them too.
So here it is: a recipe for lemon cream choux with torched meringue—a very silky lemon cream topped with Italian meringue that I torched for a really cool look.
(And for those who don’t know… this sentence is just the line I write for Google, so the page ranks better in search. Don’t be mad at me. 😄)
For 10–20 choux pastries
(depending on how big you make them)
Choux Pastry
100 g Water
100 g Milk
100 g Butter
2 g Salt
10 g Sugar
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat them until they come to a boil, making sure the butter is fully melted before the liquid starts simmering.
133 g Flour
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the flour, mixing until fully incorporated. Place the saucepan back on medium heat and cook the dough, stirring with a spatula (without scraping the bottom), until a thin film forms across the base of the pan.
Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until it cools down.
200 g Eggs
Gradually add the lightly beaten eggs while mixing on low speed, until you get a glossy dough that flows slowly in a ribbon.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 2 hours.
Craquelin Topping
60 g Butter
80 g Sugar
Mix the softened butter with the sugar.
80 g Flour
Add the flour and mix until fully incorporated. Roll the dough out into a thin 2 mm sheet. Chill, then cut out circles about 1 cm wider than the choux you intend to bake.
Pipe the choux onto a micro-perforated mat, top each one with a craquelin disc, and bake at 165°C with fan for about 35 minutes.
Once they’re done, poke a small hole in each choux immediately to release the steam.
Cream Filling
Cream 1 (Pastry Cream)
225 g Milk
Heat the milk while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
6 Egg Yolks
100 g Sugar
20 g Cornstarch
4 g Vanilla
Whisk everything together, then pour the hot milk over the mixture while whisking.
Return everything to the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring continuously, until the cream boils, thickens, and becomes glossy.
200 g Butter
Add the cold butter in 2–3 additions, mixing until fully incorporated.
Cover with plastic wrap in contact and let cool.
Cream 2 (Lemon Cream)
90 g Sugar
113 g Lemon Juice
1.5 Eggs (1 whole egg + 1 yolk)
75 g Butter
Heat the sugar and lemon juice together, then pour the hot liquid over the lightly whisked eggs.
Place the bowl over a bain-marie and stir gently with a spatula until the mixture thickens considerably.
Add the butter at the end and mix until melted and smooth.
Cover with plastic wrap in contact and let cool.
Combine the Creams
Mix the two creams together (I used a 1:1 ratio, but you can adjust depending on how strong you want the lemon flavor).
Use the resulting cream to fill the choux pastries.
Italian Meringue
100 g Water
400 g Sugar
150 g Egg Whites
Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Put the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer.
When the syrup reaches about 110°C, start whipping the egg whites.
Once it reaches 118°C, pour the syrup in a thin stream over the whipped whites while mixing on high speed.
Dip each choux into the meringue and torch the surface for a beautiful toasted look.
It’s fun!
Enjoy!
