If you’re actually making this, there’s no doubt you’re bold enough. The croquembouche is a classic French dessert and is absolutely delicious. The crunch of the hard caramel top into a light, sweet, and airy puff pastry ball filled with a velvety smooth chocolate cream is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted in my life. After I first saw it on the Great British Bakeoff, I knew I wanted to make a croquembouche myself. I made choux pastry and pastry cream for profiteroles one weekend to practice and make sure I could do it.
My first croquembouche was for my friend André’s birthday and he was blown away. I was quite proud of the result and would like to thank Claire Saffitz all of her tips on her Youtube video. It’s also her recipe as well with a few added notes on things I found helpful. If you’ve read this far, you’re either really interested in making a croquembouche, or you’re a family member.
General Notes
A croquembouche is an all day affair to make all in one go. If you’re doing everything on the same day, you can follow the recipe as written. However, if you’re doing this over several days, you can make the pastry cream and choux pastry dough ahead of time and store them both in the fridge for up to 5 and 3 days, respectively, ahead of time. The craquelin can also be made up to 3 days ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Piping, baking, and filling the cream puffs is an hour long affair. This doesn’t even include tracing out all of the circles on the parchment paper. Plus, when the croquembouche is going to be served needs to be accounted for. This dessert requires some planning.
Pastry Cream Notes
The pastry cream for the croquembouche needs to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours so it needs to be prepared first. Set out a metal bowl with a fine mesh sieve on top and set aside. Next, separate the egg yolks. Finally chop the chocolate into small pieces. Having everything prepped and ready will make your life much easier when making the different components of the croquembouche. Heat the milk, salt, and vanilla extract in a sauce pan over low-medium heat to infuse the vanilla into the milk. While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together. Whisk vigorously for several minutes until the mixture is thick, smooth and a pale yellow color. When the milk is simmering, turn the heat to low.
Place the bowl with the egg mixture on a kitchen towel so that the bowl won’t spin when you’re whisking. While whisking constantly, pour roughly half the hot milk mixture little by little into the egg mixture. This helps to bring the egg mixture temperature up gradually so that the yolks don’t cook and the pastry cream remains smooth. Add the warmed egg mixture back to the sauce pan, whisking constantly. Turn the heat up to low-medium and continue to whisk constantly until the mixture thickens up, holds the marks of the whisk and begins to bubble. If you stop whisking, after a few seconds a few large bubbles should rise to the top.
More Pastry Cream Notes
Transfer the dough to the fine mesh sieve and use the whisk to press the egg mixture through the sieve. Discard any solids. Add the butter in one piece at a time whisking constantly until smooth and fully incorporated. Next, add the chopped chocolate in and whisk until the chocolate is melted and incorporated into the pastry cream. If the mixture has cooled down too much, provided you used a metal bowl, you can put this over the burner on super low heat until the chocolate is able to be melted and incorporated into the pastry cream. Add the creme fraiche into the pastry cream and whisk until smooth.
Transfer the pastry cream to a pastry bag with a 1/4″ round piping tip. Shake the bag a few times to help remove any air bubbles. Next, twist the top of the pastry bag closed and place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours. The pastry cream can also be prepped up to 5 days ahead of time. Take the pastry cream out of the fridge an hour before using.
Craquelin Notes
The craquelin is prepared after the pastry cream when making the croquembouche all in one go. Combine the butter, sugar and salt mix until light and fluffy. Next, stir the flour in and knead a few times until a soft dough forms. Next, divide the dough in half. Roll out half the dough between two pieces of parchment to a thickness of 1/8″. Lift the parchment every now and again so the paper doesn’t wrinkle the surface of the dough. Place the rolled out dough on a baking tray and place in the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes. Roll out the other half of the dough while the first half is chilling in the fridge.
Remove the fist half of the dough from the fridge and using a 1″ round cookie cutter, punch out as many rounds of the dough as you can. Combine the scraps of dough into a round and place aside. Remove the second half of the dough from the fridge and punch out as many rounds as possible. Combine the remaining scraps and repeat as necessary until you have at least 70 rounds. Place the rounds in the fridge to chill until ready to use. If storing in the fridge for more than a few hours, store in an airtight container, up to 3 days.
Pâte à Choux Notes
Now that the craquelin and pastry cream are prepped and ready, the choux pastry dough can be prepared. In a sauce pan over low-medium heat, add the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and water. Bring the mixture to a simmer and stir with a wooden spoon to help melt the butter. Add the flour in all at once and stir with the wooden spoon to incorporate. Once the flour has incorporated, stir vigorously. A film will form on the bottom of the sauce pan, that’s normal, keep stirring. Once the dough holds together in a ball and the film on the bottom of the pan disappears, remove the pan from the heat.
Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Let sit for a minute and then mix on low for a few seconds to help cool the dough down. Next, add the eggs, one at a time to the dough. The mixture will get glossier and looser after each egg is added. After the fourth egg, check the dough to see if its the right consistency. When you pull the paddle out of the dough, the dough should form a “V” on the end of the paddle. Add the fifth egg if needed. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag and shake a few times to get any air bubbles out.
Choux Prep Notes
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and place the racks in the upper and lower third of the oven. Before the choux dough can be piped, the parchment paper needs to be traced with 1″ circles. This is a task that can be done ahead of time or while you’re waiting for the oven to preheat. Using a bottle cap or piping tip, trace thirty five (35) circles on a sheet of parchment paper. Repeat with a second sheet of parchment paper for a total of 70 circles. Flip the sheets of parchment over and place onto the baking trays to avoid any ink getting on your pastry. Cut a 1/2″ hole in the pastry bag containing the choux dough and place the tip in the center of one of the circles. Squeeze the pastry bag and don’t move the tip until enough dough has come out that it fills the 1″ circle. Repeat for the other 69 circles. Take the craquelin out of the fridge and place a round of craquelin over the piped choux dough.
Place the baking trays in the oven, one in the upper rack and one in the lower. Reduce the temperature to 375 once you put the trays in the oven. Switch and rotate the trays after 20 minutes. After an additional 10-15 minutes, the puffs should be a deep and golden brown. Leave the puffs in the oven and turn the oven off. Crack the door to the oven open with a wooden spoon to allow the puffs to slowly cool over 15 minutes. If cooled too quickly, the puffs could collapse. After 15 minutes, remove the puffs from the oven and using a paring knife, cut a hole in the bottom of each puff and let cool on the baking trays.
Assembly Notes
Now that the puffs are cooled, you’re finally ready to being assembling your croquembouche! But first, cover a 9″ cake round with aluminum foil. This will serve as the base for your croquembouche. Take a puff and insert the 1/4″ piping tip into the hole cut in the bottom. Squeeze the pastry cream bag to fill the puff, taking care to not overfill the puffs. Repeat for the other 69 puffs. Next, place wax paper underneath two cooling racks to catch any excess caramel that might drip off the cream puffs.
Make the first batch of caramel by combining 400 grams of sugar with 113 grams of water in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir the mixture to help dissolve the sugar while it is coming to a boil. Place a heatproof bowl next to the stove while the mixture is coming to a boil. When the mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook the mixture, swirling the pan often to help keep the mixture an even temperature. When the mixture is a medium amber color, remove from the heat and pour into the heatproof bowl. Working quickly in the next step is important since the caramel will start to harden. Put on two pairs of latex gloves on your working hand to help protect from caramel burns. Even with two pairs of gloves, they fucking hurt, trust me.
More Assembly Notes
Grab a cream puff and carefully dip the round side into the caramel to coat. Let the excess caramel drip off then place on the cooling rack. Repeat with the other cream puffs. If the caramel starts to harden up too much to work with towards the end, microwave for a minute or two and whisk with a fork to get it to a workable texture. Once all of the cream puffs have been dipped in caramel, clean the pan and bowl for the second batch of caramel. Combine 250 grams of sugar and 76 grams of water in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring to melt the sugar. Once, boiling, reduce to medium-low, stop stirring, start swirling and cook to a medium amber color. Remove from heat but leave in the pan for a second while you take care of the next step.
Arrange 11 cream puffs in a circle on your prepared base. Once the base 11 cream puffs are selected and laid out to your liking, pour the caramel into the heat proof bowl. Take a cream puff, dip the side in the caramel and place back on the base. Hold the cream puff in place until the caramel sets. Repeat with the other cream puffs. Once the base layer has been assembled, build the second layer with one fewer cream puff. Keep repeating this with each successive layer so that you achieve the traditional cone shape of a croquembouche.
Final Notes for your Croquembouche
After the top cream puff has been placed, its time to add the caramel strands. If the caramel has set too much, toss in the microwave to soften it back up and whisk with a fork to get it to a workable consistency. Dip the fork in the caramel and with the caramel dripping off of the fork in a thin thread, move the fork around the structure to create caramel threads. Repeat as necessary to create the desired effect or until the caramel gets too firm. Serve within 2 hours of assembling to ensure the caramel is crunchy and the cream puffs are crisp and delicious.
If making this in steps over several days, the unbaked choux pastry will keep in the fridge for 3 days. The pastry cream will keep in the fridge for 5 days. The craquelin, if covered, will keep in the fridge for 3 days. With that, good luck, have fun, enjoy, and go watch Claire Saffitz’s video again.
Croquembouche
Equipment
- 2 Pastry bags
- 1/4" round pastry tip
- latex gloves not strictly necessary but useful to avoid burning your fingers when using the caramel.
- Parchment Paper
- Fine mesh sieve
- Stand Mixer not necessary but highly recommended
- 9" cake round
- 2 cooling racks
Ingredients
Craquelin
- 113 grams unsalted butter, room temp 8 tbsp
- 150 grams Brown sugar
- 130 grams AP flour
- pinch Kosher salt
Pâte à Choux
- 125 grams whole milk
- 13 grams granulated sugar
- 5 grams Kosher Salt
- 100 grams Unsalted Butter 7 Tbsp
- 113 grams Water
- 130 gramps AP flour
- 6 Large Eggs
Pastry Cream
- 456 grams whole milk
- 6 grams Vanilla Extract
- 3 grams Kosher salt
- 199 grams granulated sugar
- 30 grams cornstarch
- 5 large egg yolks
- 85 grams Unsalted Butter 6 Tbsp
- 113 grams semisweet chocolate chopped into small pieces
- 240 grams Crème fraîche 1 cup
Caramel
- 189 grams water
- 650 grams granulated sugar
Instructions
Craquelin Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the room temp butter and brown sugar with a spatula until smooth.
- Add the flour and mix with the spatula until flour is fully incorporated.
- Fold the dough a few times to make sure its thoroughly mixed then divide in half
- Roll half of the dough out between two sheets of parchment until an eighth of an inch thick. Place rolled out dough on a baking tray and place in the fridge for 10 minutes until firm.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and remove the top piece of parchment. Using a 1" round cutter, punch out as many rounds as you can from the dough.
- Repeat the process with the second half of the dough and the remaining dough scraps until you have at least 70 rounds.
- Transfer the rounds to a plate and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Pastry Cream Instructions
- Place a fine mesh sieve over the top of a large heatproof bowl, preferably metal, you'll see why later.
- Separate the eggs and chop the chocolate if you haven't already so both are ready to go.
- Combine the milk. vanilla extract, and salt in a medium, heavy-bottomed sauce pan and over low-medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking occasionally.
- While the milk is heating up, combine the sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch in a large bowl and whisk to combine, Go overboard and really give your forearms a workout, switching between your left and right hand when one gets tired. The mix will seem too thick initially but will thin out the more you whisk it, around 2 minutes
- Using a ladle and whisking constantly, add around half of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture. This tempers the egg yolk mixture so when you add it back to the pan, it doesn't cook the egg yolks.
- Whisking the hot milk mixture constantly, pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
- Continue to constantly whisk the mixture in the pan and increase heat to medium. Cook for around 3 minutes or until the mixture holds the marks of the whisk and has thickened up to the consistency of pudding. If you stop whisking for a few seconds, the mixture should start bubbling.
- At this point, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mixture to the fine mesh sieve you set up earlier. Using the whisk, press the mixture through the sieve, discarding any solids.
- Whisk the butter into the mixture, one piece at a time until smooth.
- Add the chopped chocolate to the pastry cream and whisk until the chocolate has melted and the pastry cream is smooth. If the mixture cools too much and the chocolate isn't melting, place the (hopefully) metal bowl over the stove top on very low heat. Whisk constantly to bring the temperature of the pastry cream up enough to melt the remainder of the chocolate.
- Transfer the pastry cream to a storage container and place a piece of cling film directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a film from forming. Place in the fridge until cold, at least 4 hours.
- Once cold, combine the crème fraîche with the pastry cream in a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Transfer the pastry cream to pastry bag with a 1/4" round pastry tip.
- Shake the bag a few times to get any air bubbles out and store in the fridge until ready to use.
Profiterole Instructions
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Using a 1-inch round stencil, a pastry tip or bottle cap, trace out 70 circles using a pencil or pen, 35 circles per tray. Flip the sheets of parchment over so there isn't any transfer to the profiteroles. Set trays aside until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and arrange the racks on the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and water. Bring the mixture to a simmer using a wooden spoon to help the butter melt.
- Once the mixture starts bubbling, add the flour all at once and stir with the wooden spoon. Once the flour has been incorporated, stir vigorously until everything comes together into a soft dough and there's a light film on the bottom of the sauce pan.
- Continue to cook the dough over medium heat, vigorously beating the dough against the sides of the pan until the film on the bottom has reabsorbed into the bowl and the dough holds together in a ball, around 3 minutes
- Transfer all of the dough into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Let the dough sit for a minute or two then mix for 30 seconds to help cool the dough slightly.
- On low-medium speed, add the eggs to the mixture one at a time. After each egg the mixture will look glossier and looser than before. After the fourth egg, check the consistency of the mixture. It needs to be thick enough to hold its shape but loose enough that when you pull the paddle out of the dough, it forms a V shape when it falls off the paddle. Add the fifth egg if needed to get the right consistency.
- Transfer the mixture to a piping bag. Shake the bag a few times to get any air bubbles out and twist the bag to close.
- Cut a 1/2" hole in the bottom of the pastry bag. Place the tip of the pastry bag in the center of one of the circles and press the dough out, not moving the bag until the circle has been filled in with dough. Repeat for the rest of the circles.
- Take the craquelin rounds out of the fridge and press the rounds onto the tops of the piped pastry dough.
- Place one baking tray in the lower rack of the oven and the other in the upper rack. Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 20 minutes and switch the trays in the oven. Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the puffs have risen and are a deep golden brown.
- Turn the oven off and leave the puffs inside to cool for 15-20 minutes. Prop the oven door open to help cool the puffs slowly. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge so it can start warming up.
- Remove the puffs from the oven and using a small paring knife, poke a hole in the bottom of each puff to allow steam to escape. Let the puffs cool completely on the baking trays.
- Take the bag of pastry cream and insert the tip into the bottom of one of the puffs and squeeze the bag to fill. The cream puffs should be sufficiently filled but not so much that they're bursting. Repeat with the other 69 cream puffs.
Caramel and Assembly Instructions
- Take a 9" cake round and cover with aluminum foil. Set aside until ready to use.
- Place a heatproof bowl next to the stove and add 400 grams of the sugar and 113 grams of water to a clean sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring with a spatula until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has come to a boil.
- Stop stirring the sugar mixture and continue to cook on medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally to help keep the heat of the sugar mixture consistent. Cook the mixture until it reaches a golden-amber color and immediately remove from the heat. Transfer the caramel to the heat proof bowl and let sit for a minute. While the caramel is sitting, put on two pairs of gloves on the hand you're going to use to dip the cream puffs into the caramel.
- Grab one of the puffs and dip it round side down into the caramel so that there's a dome of caramel over the craquelin top of the cream puff.
- Place the puff, caramel side up on a cooling rack. Repeat with the rest of the cream puffs, working as quickly as you can because the caramel will begin to cool and thicken.
- Make a second batch of caramel with the remainder of the sugar (250 grams) and water (76 grams). Pour the caramel into a clean heat proof bowl.
- Arrange the base layer of cream puffs. Place 11 of the puffs in a circle on the prepared cake round so all the puffs are touching. One at a time, dip a side of the cream puff into the caramel and place back on the cake round. Hold in place until the caramel holds and repeat with the next cream puff.
- Repeat the dipping process to build the croquembouche. Build successive rings of cream puffs with each layer having one fewer cream puff than the layer below it. The finished product will be a hollow cone. Finish the croquembouche with a single cream puff on top.
- Heat the caramel up a bit in the microwave so its a bit more liquid. Using a fork, dip the fork into the caramel and lift it out so that a thin thread of caramel falls off the fork. Move the fork around the croquembouche to create caramel threads. Repeat as necessary until you get the effect you're looking for or the caramel is too hard to use.
- Serve within a few hours of assembling. The caramel will begin to melt into the cream puff and not be as crunchy and delicious as when first assembled.
