Croquembouche- A true baker's challenge

Next time a guy asks me about my hobbies of what I do for fun, I'm going to direct them to this post. This is what I do for fun.

Ever since the Tiramisu post I've been looking for another classic elegant dessert to make.
I've stumbled upon this one a few times and finally had a lazy Saturday to devote to it.

What is a Croquembouche? It's a tower of profiteroles bound together by caramel.



This was my first experience with choux pastry, (the dough you use to make the profiteroles or little cream puffs). Despite my nervousness, it turned out perfectly.

The recipe wasn't without it's problems though.
1.) I didn't bake my profiteroles long enough and some of them deflated.
2.) My caramel ended up being too thick and made for some dangerously sharp pastries.
3.) I burned 4 fingers trying to dip profiteroles in caramel.

However, it was DELICIOUS, sure my tower was more of a ring, but it was tasty and adorable. It's a little silly, but I felt really accomplished when I finished this one.

Bonus, I made the whole thing out of baking staples I had in my house.

Expect more profiteroles from me in the future, probably chocolate covered ones, I'm a little clumsy for caramel.

Okay this is going to be a lot of steps. Start with the filling.

Vanilla Pastry Creme

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of milk (I used skim and it worked fine)

Mix the egg yolks and about a 1/3 of the sugar, whisk in flour until thoroughly combined.

Heat remaning sugar, milk and vanilla to a boil. Remove from heat.

Then temper the eggs by pouring about half the milk into the eggs and whisking quickly. Then add the rest of the milk and mix well then return all of it to the pot.

Whisk constantly over a medium heat, and bring it to a boil. Although it to bubble and continue whisking for 2 minutes. (It thickens up fast, so keep whisking or it will burn or boil over.)

Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and place plastic wrap right on the surface of the creme to prevent a skin from forming.

Refridgerate. (You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time.)

That wasn't tough right? Now to the real work.

This is my cat, diligently watching me cook.

Pate a Choux (Choux Pastry)

3/4 cup of water

6 tablespoons of butter

1/4 tsp. of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 cup of (regular) flour
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Bring the water, butter, salt, and sugar to a boil in a pot.

Remove from heat, add flour and stir vigorously.

Return to heat, stirring constantly until the batter was dried slightly and begins to pull away from the pan (about 2 minutes).

Remove from heat and pour into the bowl of an electric mixer (you can mix by hand if you want).

Let cool slightly.

Add eggs one at a time slowly, giving them plenty of time to incorporate.

Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Fill a piping bag, or a big plastic baggie (that's what I used) with the dough and cut a small tip in the end.

Pipe out small balls that are about 1 inch high and 1 inch wide. Keep them about an inch apart.

(Doesn't matter if they all aren't perfect, mine ended up being totally different sizes, just keep it as uniform as you can).

With a clean finger dipped in warm water, push down any tips on the tops of the dough, so they appear smooth.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, until they are well puffed and slightly golden in color.

Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for 20 minutes until well colored and dry. (Don't afraid to let them brown, I didn't leave mine in long enough and they deflated).

Remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

(Cool completely before filling.)

To fill the pastries

Fill a piping bag or plastic baggie with the vanilla creme. Cut a small tip in the end.

Pierce a small hole in each pastry.

Fill each pastry (not till they burst open, but make sure each is adequeately filled). Work slowly, experimenting of a few of the uglier pastries until you figure it out.

Refridgerate while you make the glaze.

The Glaze

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of water

(The recipe I followed wanted you to make a caramel with no water, but the results were sharp and hazardous to the mouth, so I'd advise adding some water.)

Combine water and sugar in a pot until it resembles wet sand. Heat on medium, until the edges begin to melt and the center starts to smoke. Stir, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar is a clear amber color. Remove from heat and use immediately.

Final Assembly

Most versions call for you to dip the pastries in the caramel glaze, but I must warn you, it's extremely easy to burn yourself the glaze that way.

I burned myself pretty bad.

Instead I would suggest making a small ring of pastries on the bottom of the plate/platter you're using and then drizzling the glaze over the top of them. Then placing another layer on top of that, and drizzling glaze on top of that. And repeating until out of pastries.

If the glaze seizes up during assembly, just reheat.

Once you've finished assembling, let the glaze cool a little and experiment with making swooshing movements over the tower to make the little wasps of sugar.