Cream puffs with caramel diplomat + perfect choux dough guide

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cream butter and sugar for craquelin, add flour and mix until a soft homogenous dough forms. Place between 2 pieces of parchment and roll until it's 2 mm thick. Put in the freezer for 10 minutes minimum or until ready to use.
2. Make choux pastry exactly as described in this post. However, in our case it doesn’t matter what kind of pastry tip you are using as your choux will be covered with craquelin. 
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper - spray the sheet with PAM to make parchment stick, or pipe a tiny bit of dough under each corner of the parchment sheet as shown in my video. You can also trace circles on the parchment with a pen to help with consistent piping - make sure to space them at least 2” from each other and flip the parchment ink side down.
4. With a cookie cutter that has the same diameter as your circles cut out craquelin disks. Return to the freezer until ready to use.
5. Pipe the cream puffs holding the piping bag with choux dough upright, then twist the tip at the end to cut off the dough. Place a disk of craquelin on top. Bake for 30 - 35 min until golden brown. Here, DON’T OPEN THE OVEN until the 25 min mark. 
6. Remove from the oven, immediately make a tiny incision with a very sharp knife in each shell to let the excess steam out. Let cool slightly, then poke a hole in the bottom of each choux or cut off the top with a very sharp bread knife to fill with the cream. If you chose to cut the top - use a small cookie cutter to cut off the rough edges. Fill with cream using a star tip or any tip of your choice.

Salted caramel diplomat:

1. To make diplomat cream, start by whisking together yolks, salt and cornstarch. In 2 separate containers, heat the milk and 50 ml of cream until almost boiling hot (easiest in a microwave). In a small pot melt sugar over medium heat until it turns into dark amber caramel (don’t stir it as it might turn into sugar sand instead). 
2. Remove from the heat and quickly add hot cream. Whisk it in but be careful - it might start spitting hot caramel. Whisk in milk, return to the heat and bring the mixture to a low boil. Add ⅔ of it to the yolk mixture to “temper”, whisking until well incorporated. Return the pot with the remaining milk to the stove at medium-low heat. Slowly pour in the yolk-milk mixture whisking constantly so it doesn’t stick to the pot. Whisk vigorously for a minute or until thick (see my IGTV for the texture reference). Immediately remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl. Whisk cream for another minute then cover with plastic wrap, pressing it against the cream. 
3. When it cools down completely, whip the remaining 70 ml of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold ⅓ of  whipped cream into caramel cream until fully incorporated. Add the rest and gently fold it in, until very smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until ready to use.