Croquembouche
Ingredients
- 320 g whole milk and 320 g water, for the choux
- 12 g salt and 12 g sugar
- 280 g unsalted butter
- 360 g all-purpose flour
- 200 g eggs
- 300 g whole milk, for the pastry cream
- 2 vanilla beans, seeds scraped
- 100 g egg yolks
- 80 g granulated sugar and 40 g cornstarch
- 1000 g granulated sugar, for the caramel
- 300 g water and 100 g glucose, for the caramel
A croquembouche is the French christening and wedding centrepiece, and it is not a cake at all: dozens of small choux buns, each filled with vanilla pastry cream, dipped in caramel cooked to a deep amber and stacked around a cone until they set into a single crackling tower. The name means 'crunch in the mouth', which is what the caramel shell does. The engineering matters as much as the pastry — the caramel is the only glue, it must be worked hot and fast with gloved hands, and the finished tower must never see a refrigerator or the puffs go soft.
Method
Bring the milk, water, salt, sugar and butter to a boil until the butter melts. Off the heat, beat in the sifted flour until the paste looks like mashed potatoes, then dry it over medium-high heat, stirring, until a film forms on the pan.
Beat the paste in a mixer for 30-60 seconds to cool it, then add the eggs a little at a time until the dough falls slowly off the paddle in a V.
Pipe 2.5 cm rounds onto lined trays, smooth the tips with a damp finger, and bake at 175°C (350°F) for 25-30 minutes without opening the oven. Cool completely.
For the pastry cream, boil the milk with the vanilla and half the sugar, whisk the yolks with the cornstarch and remaining sugar, temper, then return to the pan and boil about 1 minute, whisking, until thick. Chill covered.
Poke a hole in the base of each puff and pipe in the pastry cream.
For the caramel, bring the water, melted glucose and sugar to a boil, stir once, then cook without stirring to a medium amber at about 174°C (345°F) and stop it in an ice bath.
Dip the tops of the puffs in the caramel and set them in silicone moulds, then build the tower around a metal cone, dipping the side and bottom of each puff in caramel to glue it to its neighbours. Do not refrigerate, and serve within five hours.
