Croquembouche Recipe (French Caramel Glazed Cream Puffs Recipe)

Photo: Sara Harris

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TRADITIONAL FRENCH RECIPE: A Croquembouche or Croque-en-Bouche is a French dessert consisting of choux pastry balls piled into a cone and bound with threads of caramel.

The recipe for Croquembouche is quite long, over 25 steps before being able to taste it, but it is way simpler than it seems.

These is basically a beautiful towers of custard filled profiteroles held together with caramelised sugar, wrapped in fine strands of pulled sugar.

It looks impressive as a dessert centrepiece but is surprisingly easy to make.

 

 

 

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Skill Level:	Time: 3 Hours
Price:	Serves: 4 People

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Ingredients:

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Conversions

 

 

 

Directions:

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01 - Heat oven to 220C / 425F.

02 - In a saucepan, bring Butter, Salt, and 300gr / 10.5oz / 1.5 cups Water to a boil.

03 - Remove the pan from the heat and add the Flour stirring vigorously for about 3 minutes, or until a thick dough has formed.

04 - Return the Dough to the cooker and heat, stirring constantly for another 3 minutes, until the Dough is lightly dried.

05 - Transfer the Dough to a bowl, and let it cool for 5 minutes.

06 - With an electric mixer, beat in 8 Eggs, one by one. Make sure the Egg beaten is well incorporated before you add the next one. At this point the Dough will come together and be thick, shiny, and smooth.

07 - Put the Dough mixture into a piping bag and sqeeze a walnut-size piece of Dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, 1in apart one another.

08 - Lightly beat the remaining Egg with a pinch of Salt and brush each piece of Dough with it.

09 - Bake for about 10 minutes, or until puffed and light brown.

10 - Reduce oven temperature to 180C / 350F, and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes or until well browned.

11 - Remove the tray from the oven and let cool.

 

 

 

For the Pastry Cream:

 

12 - Warm the milk: Warm the milk in the saucepan until you start to see wisps of steam. D not reach a boiling point.

13 - In a medium bowl, whisk together the Sugar, Flour, and Salt.

14 - Add the Egg Yolks and whisk until a thick paste is formed. The paste may look crumbly or smooth. As far as the Mixture is thoroughly combined, it will be fine.

15 - Pour in the warm/hot Milk to the Egg Mixture and whisk to combine.

16 - Pour everything back in the pan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it starts to thicken. This should take a few mintues.

17 - When the Pastry Cream has thickened to a pudding-like consistency, pause whisking every few seconds to see if the cream has come to a boil. If you see large bubbles popping on the surface, whisk for a few more seconds and then remove the pan from heat.

18 - Stir the Vanilla into the Pastry Cream and then pour the Cream into the strainer set over the bowl. Stir to push it through the strainer. This will catch any bits of cooked Egg that may be in your Pastry Cream.

19 - Cover the Pastry Cream with a piece of plastic wrap pressed right up against the surface of the Cream and chill completely.

 

20 - Transfer the Pastry Cream onto a piping bag and squeeze a bit into each Croquembouche.

 

 

 

For the Caramel:

22 - Place 400gr / 0.8lb / 2 cups of Sugar and 125gr / 4.4oz / 0.5 cup Water in a saucepan and stir to combine. When the Sugar has turned light Amber, about 15 minutes leter, remove from heat.



22 - Using tongs, dip top of filled puffs in hot caramel.

23 - Place the Puffs, glazed side up, on a plastic-lined tray and start forming the Piramid glueing all Puffs together with Caramel. Or, if you have one, stick them on a Hollow Cone.



24 - Make extra Caramel with the remaining Sugar ( direction 20 ).

25 - Allow the Caramel to cool into the pan, until it is the consistency of honey. With a Spoon, drizzle thin strings of Caramel on a cold oven tray.

26 - Let the strings cool, but nor solidify, remove them and place them on the Croquembouche.

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Written by: Uncut Recipes

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