Cakery Friday: Croquembouche {Part II}

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting the rest of the croquembouche tutorial, so lets get right to it! Today’s post is dedicated to pastry cream, caramel glue and assembly. {Click here for part one}.

For the pastry cream…

Gather all of the ingredients {vanilla bean and butter are not shown, oops}

Place 2 cups of milk and 1/4 cup of sugar into medium saucepan over medium heat.

Add in the seeds from one vanilla bean.

Combine 5 egg yolks and another 1/4 cup of sugar in a bowl and whisk together until smooth. Add in 4 tablespoons of flour, 4 tablespoons of corn starch and a pinch of salt, mix to combine.

When the milk has just begun to boil, remove from heat. Very slowly dribble the hot milk into the yolk mixture, stirring constantly {this is called tempering and ensures that you do not make scrambled eggs!}.

When about half of the milk has been added, place all of the yolk mixture into the saucepan over medium heat. Using a whisk, mix the pastry cream as it heats, making sure to reach all of the corners or the pan when you stir.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Allow to boil for 1 minute as the mixture thickens. When mixture is thick, remove from heat and place in 5 tablespoons of butter. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

To assemble the croquembouche. Place the pastry cream in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/8 inch round tip and fill each puff with the cream.

And last by not least…. make the caramel glue:

Prepare an ice water bath, place aside.

Place 1 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

When the mixture begins to turn amber, immediately remove from heat and place in ice water bath to cool the caramel. Use immediately as your “glue”.

To assemble the croquembouche. I like to trace a circle on a piece of parchment paper to make sure it is perfectly round.

Carefully dip the top half of each filled puff into caramel {be careful not to burn your fingers}, allowing the excess caramel to drip back into the pan. Transfer puff, hot caramel side down, to the ring.

Repeat with 9 more puffs, forming a connected ring as you work. Repeat with more puffs, layering rings to form a pyramid. Sort of like building blocks {but sugary and delicious ones, of course}.