France Croquembouche (Caramelized Cream Puff Tower)
An impressive-looking tower of cream puffs held together with shiny threads of caramel, the croquembouche is French culinary artistry at its best. One-inch balls of puff pastry filled with a light, sweet cream or custard, stacked into a large cone, and enveloped in crunchy caramel ribbons make for a show-stopping dinner finale. Because cream-filled puffs can turn soggy after a few hours, leave pastry unstuffed until ready to serve the croquembouche.
Recipe Servings: 4
Prep Time
1 minute
+ 3 hours resting
+ 3 hours resting
Cook Time
50 minutes
Total Time
3 hours 51 minutes
Vegetarian
Vegan
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Kosher
Halal
Ingredients
- 9 Tbsp (135 g) unsalted butter
- 1½ cups (350 ml) water
- 1 Tbsp (13 g) sugar
- ½ tsp (2.5 g) salt
- 1½ cups (180 g) cake flour (self-rising)
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 6 medium eggs
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp (38 g) sugar
- 2 Tbsp (15 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp (15 g) cornstarch
- 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 cups (400 g) sugar
- ¾ cup (180 ml) water
Directions
- Combine butter, water, sugar, and salt in a saucepan set over medium-low heat and bring to a gentle boil.
- Add flour and beat to a shiny gloss until it doesn’t stick to sides of pan, about 2–3 minutes.
- Make a well and add eggs to it one at a time, beating mixture after each addition. Don’t use last egg if mixture is too soft.
- Fold in vanilla extract.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C) and grease two large baking sheets.
- Form batter into 1-inch (2.5-cm) balls, place them on baking sheets, and brush on just a little beaten egg (do not use too much as it prevents rising).
- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden-brown.
- Reduce heat to 350°F (180°C) and bake for 10 minutes.
- Turn off heat and open oven door to dry out puffs to a crisp consistency.
- Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a bowl.
- Warm milk in a saucepan set over medium-low heat until it is steaming.
- Whisk steaming milk into yolk mixture.
- Continue whisking until a smooth thick custard form and mixture reaches 170°F (77°C).
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- Chill custard cream 2–3 hours before filling puff pastry to assemble croquembuche.
- Combine sugar and water in a saucepan set over low heat, stirring to prevent sticking.
- Cook to a light gold.
- Remove from heat and place saucepan in a bowl of water to prevent caramel from hardening.
- Fill puff pastries with custard (or whipped cream if preferred).
- Dip puffs into caramel and arrange, building on a larger conical base up to smaller layers making sure to stick balls tightly together with caramel.
- Drizzle caramel with wavy swirls from top down around cone.
For Choux Pastry:
For Filling:
For Caramel:
For Assembly:
Notes
- If filling puffs with whipped cream instead of custard, use frozen whipped cream for easier assembly.
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