Croquembouche
Croquembouche is one of the many classic French pastry dishes attributed to Antonin Carême, known as the “king of chefs and the chef to kings.†He served as chef to French, Russian, and English royalty and aristocracy in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. A recipe for this unique pastry creation is found in Carême’s 1815 book Le P¢tissier royal parisien.
Croquembouche consists of pastry cream filled choux puffs, dipped in caramel and assembled around a cone. Lastly the entire tower of puffs is covered in spun caramel. The name is derived from the French phrasecroque en bouche, loosely meaning, ” crunch in the mouth.”
While croquembouche may be assembled free form, it is best to use a cone of some type to assure symmetry. There are stainless steel forms available but they are rather expensive. For this croquembouche I used a 14†high by 7 ½â€ high Styrofoam cone, wrapped in foil which worked beautifully. A cone may also be formed from heavy kraft paper.
This tower of caramelized cream puffs is a beautiful dessert centerpiece of a Christmas or New Year’s buffet. It’s an incredibly fun project with a partner or two. The small pastry cream filled cream puffs can be ordered from a local bakery. Ask that they don’t fill them too far in advance as they will lose their crispiness. Then it’s just a matter of making caramel, putting on some latex gloves to protect your hands and assembly.
Croquembouche
| Yield: 1 14-inch Croquembouche | # of Servings: 20 to 25 |
Ingredients:
3 recipes P¢te à Choux
2 recipes Pastry Cream
1 cup (8 fl oz) heavy cream
2 cups (14 oz / 397 g) sugar
½ cup (4 fl oz) water
½ tsp cream of tartar
Special tools and equipment needed:
- One 14-inch high by 7-inch diameter Styrofoam cone, or heavy cardstock sheet rolled into the same size cone
- One 3-qt heavy bottom sauce pan
- 21†disposable pastry bag
- Latex gloves
Pre-recipe preparations:
- You will need about 100 small puffs to assemble this size Croquembouche.
Directions:
Making the puffs:
- Make the P¢te à Choux.
- Using a #6 Ateco tube, pipe out small cream puffs.
- Bake at 425 °F for 15 minutes. Lower temp to 375 °F and bake until golden brown and firm, about 10 to 12 additional minutes.
- Let cool. They may be placed in Ziplock bags and frozen for up to 3 weeks ahead.
Make the Pastry Cream:
- Make a double batch of the pastry cream. Let thoroughly cool in the refrigerator.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the pastry cream. Set aside in the refrigerator.
Assembling the Croquembouche:
- If the puffs have been frozen, defrost and crisp in a 350 °F oven for 5 minutes, or until crisp.
- Poke a hole in the bottom of each puff with a chopstick.
- Prepare pastry bag with a small round pastry tube and fill with the cream mixture.’
- Fill each puff with cream.
- Wrap cone in foil and place on serving platter.
- Make an amber colored caramel from the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Dip the pan in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking.
- Using latex gloves on your hands to prevent sugar burns, dip the flat side of a puff in caramel and place it, caramel side down on the serving platter, against the cone. The cone is used as support. Do not attach the puffs to the cone.
- Continue with additional puffs to form the bottom layer.
- For the next layer, place the flat caramel side of each puff on top of a puff on the bottom layer. Continue in this manner for the 2nd layer, and additional layers to fill the Croquembouche.
- Place on buffet table and serve within 3 hours.
Optional spun caramel:
- Prepare a spot on your countertop with foil or a silpat.
- Rewarm the remaining caramel until it is thin enough to drizzle and using two forks, form caramel threads on the foil or silpat. When cool enough to handle drape over the Croquembouche.