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Croquembouche
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Croquembouche

A French classic dessert of cream-filled profiteroles piled into a cone held together with spun sugar.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword Caramel, Pastry Cream, Profiteroles
Prep Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 6 hours 5 minutes
Servings 1

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.