January 10, 2010
Day three of The Game and I feel quite good. The lack of coffee is still on my mind, but I sufficiently caffeinated myself by having an afternoon cuppa tea and spent my "free calories" by putting a splash of milk in. As I sat to enjoy my tea, I picked up the President's Choice Insider Report magazine - essentially a flyer touting all of the new food products that President's Choice puts out. Turning the pages, my mouth began to water. I turned to the dessert page and my head nearly exploded with the gorgeous looking cakes, particularly the cream puffs (profiteroles). It's been ages since I've had a profiterole and I would have loved to have one with my tea - but why stop at one, I would have loved to have a whole pile of them! A whole pile of cream puffs, with spun sugar on them! A whole croquembouche for myself! But since I am committed to winning The Game, I decided that I would blog about a croquembouche instead of indulging in one. Today's question is: how does one make a croquembouche?
A: Croquembouche is from the French 'croque en bouche' meaning a crunch in the mouth. A croquembouche is a fancy, edible, structure made of choux pastry, filled with chantilly cream, held together by caramel and decorated with cheveux d'ange (spun sugar). The croquembouche was displayed on the medieval tables of French royalty and nobility, and is now a traditional cake for weddings, baptisms and communions.
As the answer to this question is in recipe form, it is difficult to research and summarize. So I have copied Laura Calder's recipe for croquembouche - Laura Calder hosts a cooking show called French Food at Home on the Food Network. I have never made one, so I cannot vouch for how good this recipe is. However, I have decided that as a celebration for completing The Game, I will make one for all of the participants and have them over for COFFEE and dessert!
Laura Calder's Croquembouche
Ingredients
Pastry
1 1/2 cups water
Pinch salt
3/4 cup butter
4 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Milk for glaze
Pastry Cream
2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped
Croquembouche
1 recipe pastry cream
1 recipe baked choux balls
3 cups sugar
Directions
Pastry
1.Heat the oven to 375 F/190 C.
2.Put the water, salt, butter, and sugar in a roomy saucepan, bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, beating until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Return the pan to the heat for a minute or two and beat to dry it out a little. (Removing moisture will allow the paste to absorb more egg, which will ultimately make the puffs lighter.)
3.Remove the pan from the heat. Beat in the eggs, the equivalent of one at a time, until fully incorporated. (Do not try to add them at once because they can’t be incorporated quickly enough, it makes a total mess, and furthermore you may not need all of them.) After the third addition of egg, add only enough to make dough that will fall, glossy and heavy, from the spoon. Beat in the vanilla. Spoon the dough into a piping bag.
4.Mix a bit of milk into any remaining egg (if no egg left, use only milk). Have at the ready with a pastry brush for glazing. Pipe the dough into evenly-sized (about 1-inch/2.5 cm) balls on a non-stick baking sheet, leaving a good 2-inches/5 cm between them so they have room to expand. Brush the tops with the glaze and press the snouts down with a fingertip. Bake until puffed up, light, dry, and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, so they can breathe all around and will keep their shape and not go soggy.
Pastry Cream
1.Put the milk in a saucepan. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the milk and throw in the pod. Bring just to a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and set aside to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes.
2.Beat the yolks and sugar to pale thick ribbons. Gradually beat in the flour. Whisk the milk into the egg mixture in a thin stream. Add the flavouring and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Strain and set aside to cool with a buttered piece of waxed paper on top to prevent a skin from forming. When cool, fold in the whipped cream.
Croquembouche
1.Put the pastry cream in a piping bag with a sharp tip. Poke the tip into the choux balls and fill with pastry cream.
2.Put the sugar with 1/2 water in a saucepan, dissolve, and boil to caramel (340°F). Dip the choux balls into the caramel and arrange in a circle. Continue dipping and build the balls up like a stone wall, preferable around an oiled cone (or flowerpot) to make a big tree. Spin some of the extra caramel around the tree. Set aside until ready to serve.
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