I have a love for all things lemon, and have thought about making this dessert ever since I developed a cream puff recipe for my gluten free croquembouche (instructions coming soon). This flavour combination tastes like a lemon meringue pie. It has the classic cream puff exterior with a craquelin to give a crunch, filled with a silky lemon cream and topped with toasted meringue. This modern take on two classic desserts will surely impress your guests.
Layers
Lemon Cream Filling: This tart, creamy lemon cream filling is the perfect combination to be the star of this dessert. Not only is it tart, but it is creamy and lemony, the perfect combination. It is honestly one of my favourite things to eat. Think of a typical lemon curd that you would find inside a lemon merginue pie, now add more butter and think creamy. Lemon cream is a combination of tart, creamy with a hint of sweetness to create the lemon cream I love! You can use it in so many different desserts such as pies, tarts, macarons, over ice cream and my personal favourite way inside cakes – especially my lemon meringue cake. Did I tell you I love lemon meringue? Check out another lemon meringue dessert I have created – lemon meringue biscotti.
Cream Puff: Soft and pillowy shell is the perfect vessel to hold the delicious lemon cream. These cream puffs are topped with a craquelin. A craquelin is a great way to add a bit of crunch and texture into a cream puff which creates the illusion that this tastes like a lemon cream tart.
Meringue: No lemon meringue tart would be complete without meringue. These lemon cream filled cream puff feature the signature toasted meringue on top. There are no special tools or pipping bags needed to create this. You dip the cream puff into the meringue and then toast.
Cream puff dough
Cream puff dough, also known as pâte à choux, is a versatile French pastry dough used to make various desserts, including cream puffs, éclairs, profiteroles, and beignets – they all feature the same base dough just in different shapes, sizes and fillings. This French pastry dough is unlike any other dough you have come across, because it is cooked twice: once on the stovetop before the flour and eggs are added and again in the oven.
The pate a choux dough takes water, butter, salt and sugar, heats them up and then combines them with the Bob’s Redmill 1-1 Gluten Free flour. It will feel like you are messing up the dough as it will be a thick paste, but you are doing great.
The dough will need to be cooled slightly, you will add in eggs gradually. You will beat the mixture until a smooth, shiny dough forms. The dough should have a thick, pipeable consistency that holds its shape when piped onto a baking sheet.
When baked, the high moisture content in the dough creates steam, which causes the pastry to puff up dramatically. The interior remains hollow, perfect for filling with sweet or savory fillings.
Shaping
Before the shaping begins you will create the craquelin. This will create the ‘pie’ like texture on this dessert. It is super easy to make, you combine everything together and spread it between two sheets are parchment paper. Roll it in a uniform thickness (about the thickness of a tart shell pastry) and put it into the freezer to firm up. Once it is firm, but still flexible, you will use a cookie cutter or something round about the same size as your cream puffs will be. Cut out the discs and wait for the next step.
This is the fun part, shaping the cream puffs. There are a lot of techniques out there for shaping cream puffs, some people spoon them onto a baking sheet for a more organic shape, and some people pipe them. I love my creating mine to be fairly uniform, so I pipe them onto a baking sheet. You can make them as large or as small as you would like. They will expand in the oven, so make sure you leave some room around them.
You want to pipe holding the piping bag with a round tip at a 90-degree angle to the baking sheet and the tip slightly above the surface. Gently squeeze the piping bag to release the batter onto the baking sheet, forming small mounds of dough. Once piped, you will take a disc circles you cut out of the craquelin and place it on top of cream puff so they bake together.
different flavour combinations
Cream puffs are the perfect vessel for different flavours. I have only made classic cream puffs filled with vanilla bean pastry cream and then experimented with this tasty recipes. As I create more and more flavour combinations, I will add them on my blog.
Storing cream puffs
Cream puffs are best eaten the same day to have the perfect marriage of flavours and textures. I was not sure how these would last so I did a couple of tests. Some were left on the counter overnight in an air tight container to see how they would hold up and they turned out well. While the texture was slightly less soft than on the first day, the flavour remained excellent. I also put some in the fridge. I prefer this method. It kept everything the perfect texture. This will only work for one or two days because the moisture of the fridge will start to melt your meringue.
Gluten Free Lemon Meringue Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Lemon Cream Filling
- 110 grams white sugar
- 1.5 lemons zested
- 2 large eggs
- 85 grams fresh lemon juice – about 2 lemons
- 150 grams butter
Cream Puffs
- 95 grams Milk
- 95 grams Water
- 90 grams Butter
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp white sugar
- 1 splash Vanilla
- 105 grams Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour
- ¾ tsp Xanthan Gum (This is extra, as the flour already has it)
- 3 large Eggs
Craquelin
- 115 grams Light Brown Sugar
- 115 grams Butter
- 115 grams Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour
- 1 pinch Salt
Meringue
- 2 large egg whites
- 83 grams white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Lemon Cream
- In a bowl, add sugar and lemon zest. Using your hands, rub the lemon zest and sugar together. The sugar will have a pale yellow colour and smell amazing.110 grams white sugar, 1.5 lemons zested
- Add in eggs and lemon juice and whisk.2 large eggs, 85 grams fresh lemon juice – about 2 lemons
- Place the bowl on top of a double broiler. Whisk it every couple of minutes until it reaches 175F. It will become thicker. It usually takes about 20 minutes.
- Using a sieve, strain the mixture pushing as much of the mixture through the fine mesh strainer.
- Add butter to the strained lemon cream until it is fully incorporated.150 grams butter
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing it to the top of the lemon cream to avoid a film. Place in the fridge for 4 hours to set.
- Once the lemon cream is set and cold, move on to the next step. I like to make the lemon cream the night before I plan on making the puffs.
Craquelin
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- In a stand mixer bowl, add brown sugar and butter. Cream together until smooth and fluffy.115 grams Light Brown Sugar, 115 grams Butter
- Add in flour and salt and mix throughly until mixed well. About 2 minutes until it forms a dough.115 grams Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour, 1 pinch Salt
- Between two sheets of parchment paper, place the dough between them. Using a rolling pin, roll it out the size of a cookie sheet.
- Put the cookie sheet with the dough into the freezer for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer and remove the top layer of parchment paper.
- Using a round object (I like to use a very small cookie cutter about 2” wide) cut circles out of the dough.
- Return the cookie sheet back to the freezer while you make your pate a choux.
Pate a Choux – Cream Puffs
- In a pot add milk, water, butter, vanilla, sugar and salt together and bring to a rolling boil.95 grams Milk, 95 grams Water, 90 grams Butter, 1/2 tsp Salt, 1 tsp white sugar, 1 splash Vanilla
- Remove the pot off of the heat, and add in the flour and xanthan. Work quickly to whisk it together to avoid clumping.105 grams Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour, 3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
- Once the flour mixture is incorporated into the milk mixture transfer this to a stand mixer bowl. On medium speed, beat the mixture to cool down the mixture.
- The mixture will start to look separated. This is when you add in the eggs, one at a time while the mixture is still beating. Once all the eggs are added in, turn the mixture up to high and let it mix for 2 minutes. You will know when it is done because of mixture will go from looking like scrambled eggs to silky and glossy.3 large Eggs
- While the mixture is mixing, prepare a large piping bag with a large round tip. As well as a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Once the mixture is completed, add the mixture to the prepared piping bag.
- At a straight up and down angle, pipe a 2” wide by about 1” tall mound of pate a choux.
- Once you have all of them piped out, remove the cookie sheet from the freezer with the craquelin on it. Remove a craquelin circle and gently place it on top of the cream puff. Do not worry that it is not fully covering it, or touching the entire cream puff.
- Place the cookie sheet of prepared cream puffs in the oven for 30 minutes. DO NOT open the oven! You need the moisture to help puff up the cream puffs.
- After 30 minutes, you can open the oven door to let out all the steam and then bake for another 7 minutes.
- When the cream puffs are baked, take the tray out of the oven and let them cool on the tray for a couple minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
Meringue
- Once the cream puffs are cooled. Add egg whites, sugar and salt to the bowl of your stand mixer and place it over a double boiler. Whisk this mixture often until it reaches 130 F2 large egg whites, 83 grams white sugar, 1 pinch salt
- Remove the bowl from the heat and attach it to your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Start off on a medium/low speed to avoid large air pockets until medium peaks.
- Turn the mixer on high until you have stiff peaks and turn off the mixer
Assemble
- In a piping bag, with a round tip, fill it with the cooled lemon cream and set aside.
- Take the cream puff, and on the bottom (flat side) using a sharp knife cut in an X.
- Using the prepared piping bag, stick the tip into the X at the bottom of the cream puff and fill it up. You will feel the weight difference when it is full.
- Once all cream puffs are filled, hold it from the bottom and dip it 3/4 into the meringue and gently pull up. It will cover most of the craquelin and form a peak at you pull it out.
- Once all cream puffs have meringue, take our kitchen torch and toast each of the meringues.
- Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe?
Lovely. Now let me know how you liked it and how easy it was to bake. Tag @laurabakesglutenfree on Instagram and hashtag it #laurabakesglutenfree.
While I have you here, may I suggest few you try next:
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