{"id":23117,"date":"2025-06-27T21:10:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cocinando.us\/?p=23117"},"modified":"2025-06-27T21:10:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:10:05","slug":"choquettes-french-cream-puffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocinando.us\/?p=23117","title":{"rendered":"Choquettes: French cream puffs"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dinner in Paris generally starts at 8 pm, especially in restaurants, and I get ravenously hungry between lunch and dinner.<\/p>\n

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Parisians do dine rather late \u2013 often not until 9:30 pm or later, and that\u2019s\u00a0an awfully long stretch. So French people visit their local p\u00e2tisserie for an afternoon snack, known as le go\u00fbter<\/em>, although nowadays Parisians often call it le snack.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Le snack is often nothing more than a buttery financier<\/em> or a tender madeleine<\/a><\/i>. At home, French children at home are often given a split piece of baguette<\/em> with a bar of dark chocolate tucked inside to keep them happy until dinner.<\/p>\n

But my snack of choice is invariably les chouquettes<\/em>: Cream puffs covered with crunchy nuggets of sugar, then baked until golden-brown. The eggy, pillowy puffs are piled uneventfully behind the counter and sold in crisp little paper sacks, each one holding about 100 grams, or about 10. I found that engaging the counter person in a few words of niceties will often mean that before the ends of the bag are twisted shut, an extra puff will be tossed in as a little gift for l\u2019am\u00e9ricain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Nothing is easier to make than chouquettes<\/strong> and you can bake them right\u00a0with ingredients you likely already have on hand. The only thing you\u2019ll need to find is pearl sugar, which gives the puffs their signature crunch. Some tell me you can buy it at Ikea stores, or you can find it at King Arthur<\/a> or on Amazon<\/a>. If you have sugar cubes, you can crush those up into rough chunks and use those, although they\u2019re not quite the same.\u00a0And if you\u2019re like me, and like chocolate, you could\u00a0press some chocolate chips into a few of the puffs before baking.<\/p>\n

This is one of my favorite of all French snacks and I can polish away a whole bag, or tray, in no time. These are best made and eaten right away, or later the same day \u2013 if they last that long!<\/p>\n

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Chouquettes<\/h2>\n
From The Sweet Life in Paris<\/a><\/span>Shaping the mounds of dough is easiest to do with a pastry bag, although you can use two spoons or a spring-loaded ice cream scoop.<\/span>Pearl sugar is available in the U.S .from King Arthur<\/a> and at G. Detou<\/a> in Paris, and is also available from French companies such as Daddy<\/a> (called perles de sucre<\/em>) and Vahin\u00e9 (sucre chouquettes<\/a>). You can approximate pearl sugar by crushing sugar cubes in a sturdy zip-top freezer bag with a rolling pin or hammer.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Course <\/span>Dessert<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuisine <\/span>French<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Servings <\/span>6<\/span> servings<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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