Croquembouche

Well, well, well…it has taken a LOT of work to get to the Croquembouche. Not only am I happy to have survived this beast of a dessert, but I am thrilled to say I’ve completed the last recipe I’ll be trying out of Dessert Person! I purposely saved this recipe to the very end; aside from being listed as a “very challenging” recipe, it just looks like a finale dessert (I was not proven wrong).

In general, the ingredients for Claire’s Croquembouche recipe are not very hard to find. This was the first time I made the chocolate variation of the pastry cream, and surprise, surprise, it’s my favorite version. I was very happy to have chocolate incorporated into the final dessert. I found that making both the pâte à choux and pastry cream came a lot easier this time, as I did not have to reference the directions as much as before. I made both of these the day before I assembled the Croquembouche; I placed the pâte à choux in two piping bags before placing it in the fridge overnight.

I also made the craquelin cookies the day before, however this is where the Croquembouche recipe actually starts. This simply involved mixing up unsalted butter, brown sugar, flour and salt into a dough. Looking back, I have no idea why it needs to be divided in half, as I proceeded to roll out the dough and use a one-inch piping tip to cut circles. Claire suggests to get 70 rounds cut out, which is very easy using this size. I covered these with the rest of the parchment paper I had left and placed them in the fridge overnight as well.

It took about 2 ½ hours to make the chocolate pastry cream, pâte à choux and craquelin. I was hopeful this meant it would only take about two or three hours for the assembling part—far from it. I highly recommend to prep one day before, then assemble the next, because you very well may be spending anywhere from four to seven hours on the next steps.

The next day, I finished the steps of baking the cream puffs. Claire suggests the pâte à choux will provide around 66 puffs. This is definitely possible, but my first few were a lot bigger than they needed to be when I piped them, so I only got about 55. You honestly might want to make a double batch of pâte à choux to ensure you’ll get the needed amount to complete the Croquembouche tower (you can always use the rest to make Gougères or something else). I then placed a craquelin round on top of each choux puff. I baked the puffs for about a half hour, then turned off the oven and kept the puffs in there with the door propped open for 15 minutes. After I took them out, I used a paring knife to slit a hole in the bottoms to help the puffs dry out. I was extremely happy with how the puffs turned out, especially with the craquelin cookie baked on top! As I’ve mentioned before with other recipes, I highly recommend using a silicone baking sheet; the puffs that baked on parchment paper turned out great, but the ones on the silicone were perfection.

As the puffs cooled down completely, I used foil to cover a cardboard cake round, then duck taped it on to the bottom of a wooden serving plate. I wanted to make sure it did not have any chance of moving once I started assembling! Then I placed the pastry cream in a piping bag with a round piping tip and carefully piped filling into each puff. It only took two seconds to notice the change in weight of the filled puff; I played it safe to make sure none of the puffs exploded on me since I already knew I didn’t technically have the amount Claire recommended.

By this point, two hours had gone by; I was hopeful I could just whip up the caramel sauce, stack up these puffs and call it a night—that was NOT how the next set of steps went.

The caramel sauce simply involved cooking water and sugar together until it was thick and slightly amber. From other recipes, I knew this process takes about ten minutes or so. It is also EXTREMELY hot, so I was nervous about pouring it into a glass measuring trip. Nevertheless, I prevailed. I had no trouble dipping the tops of the puffs in the caramel, placing them on a drying rack over a baking sheet to cool. However, after about three minutes, I noticed the caramel started to crystalize. This seemed very strange, so I added some more hot water and mixed it up—but that started turning into a science experiment, with amber bubbles rising to the top of the glass! Somehow, it all calmed down and I managed to use the rest for dipping the puffs, but not all of the puffs looked as glossy as I wanted. Some looked more like a glazed donut (those would clearly be used for the back of the Croquembouche).

In Dessert Person, Claire guides you through making two batches of the caramel; but what’s more important is noting her introduction paragraph where she reminisces about her sister frantically running out to buy her more sugar when she made her first Croquembouche years ago. THANK THE LORD I happened to have an extra package of sugar in the pantry, otherwise I would’ve been so screwed. So, make sure you have a ton of sugar on hand.

The process of stacking the puffs in a circular tower was actually pretty easy with the caramel—but that was only when the caramel did not crystalize on me over and over and over again! I made five batches of caramel sauce from beginning to end of the assembling. I tried bringing it over to the tower and dipping the puffs in the actual saucepan versus transferring the caramel to another measuring glass, which seemed to give me an extra minute or so. But overall, I was lucky if I had three minutes to assemble the Croquembouche before the middle part of the caramel would harden, and the rest followed before it was unusable. It was extremely frustrating and tiring to do this over and over again. Not to mention, I had a rotation of pans being used because that hardened caramel DOES NOT want to come off unless you keep the pan under searing hot water for several minutes (Don’t be surprised if your water bill is a little bit higher after making this recipe!). Trust me, you do not want to let your pans sit with this stuff in them overnight, clean them immediately while you’re watching the caramel boil in another saucepan. I’m sure there’s some scientific reason my caramel mixture was not working correctly, but I am a home baker, I don’t know these things!

In terms of assembling the puffs, I have experience in this arena with cupcakes. Last year, I made a cupcake Christmas tree using a Styrofoam cone. While I had a back base for this version, I still had to make sure I was placing all the cupcakes correctly. It also gets a lot harder at the top of the tower to place everything just right so it makes a nice point. This experience was very helpful in stacking the Croquembouche, however I knew pretty early on that I would not have enough puffs for the entire tower. This was kind of a bummer, but I also knew I could still get the desired height if I was strategic in how I placed the front puffs. Once I had a strong base all around, I started just working up the front side, making sure I had enough to fill out a pyramid on the top.

Placing the final puffs was certainly a race to the finish line with the caramel since I did not want to make another batch. After probably five hours of running back and forth from the stove to the stacked puffs, to the hot sink and repeating, I finally had a half-ass tower of a Croquembouche. From what I had previously read from other bakers online about this recipe, I knew this one would likely not turn out like the picture in Dessert Person. Aside from the disastrous caramel, this recipe really wasn’t that bad. It was very easy to bake the chocolate cream puffs, especially after completing similar techniques for other recipes. I actually enjoyed the process of stacking the Croquembouche; it’s one of the few recipes in this book where presentation is 90 percent of the finished product being considered a success! As much as I’ve enjoyed learning different recipes, I’ve learned from this experience that decorating is what I love most about fancy desserts. I just like pretty things! Whether or not your Croquembouche tower turns out, know that these chocolate cream puffs are freaking delicious. I’m not much for cream puffs, but the chocolate was divine with the softness of the puff and crispiness of the craquelin and dipped caramel.

I often wondered working through all these recipes what it would feel like when I (hopefully) had a successful, finished Croquembouche and knew this project was complete. While I imagined it would feel a bit noble and profound, I was honestly so tired that I was just glad to call it a night! Baking at an intermediate or advanced level is not for the faint of heart; you often start out hopeful, then become concerned something is going wrong or could go wrong, then frustrated and hopeless when it does. You have to decide whether to just start over or find a backup plan to save what you started. Sometimes it works out perfectly, and many times it does not. This project was never for Instagram likes and compliments; it truly was my effort to talk the talk and walk the walk. And now, I feel I can do that! This moment is very reminiscent of Julie and Julia; I feel accomplished in what I’ve done this past year, and even more grateful to Claire for allowing all of us bakers an opportunity to learn a range of concepts and techniques in our own kitchens.

I decided on this last bake to watch the YouTube video of Claire making Croquembouche with her brother-in-law before I made it myself. It was comforting to see the Instagram vs. Reality versions of how this dessert could turn out beforehand!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwQlEF8DXs8