This is a story how I made a croquembouche for the first time. Do you like cream puffs? A soft and creamy custard? What about some caramel too? Just imagine all those together. That is exactly what a Croquembouche is! All of those componments together, stacked on top of each other, glued with caramel.
I’ve wanted to make one since I heard about it in French class, and in November 2020, I finally made it. Did it exactly look like the pictures? No, far from it.
Now, they did taste amazing, if I do say so myself; presentation has never been my strong suit. I made it for a family gathering, and since most of us prefer chocolate to caramel, I did a chocolate drizzle instead of a caramel one. Though, it wasn’t much of a drizzle by the end…
Before I bake anything new, I like to do some research. So that is what I did! I researched a whole bunch about the croquembouche with blogs, videos and looked at different recipes to compare.
Another twist of making this for the family gathering is making them gluten-free so that everyone can eat them. I’ve only made gluten-free cream puffs once before this. They ended up pretty good, but I was still a little unsure because the puffs can sometimes be tricky.
A week or two before I made the tower, I went to a craft store and bought a foam cone to help make the pyramid shape. I was super excited and was sure this cone would be super helpful in the assembling process.
A couple of days before, I doubled, triple, and maybe quadruple-checked that I had all of the ingredients, it’s quite nerve-racking. We got to the cabin where the family gathering was, and that night I started making it.
Next, I started with the custard because it had to sit in the fridge for a while. It was my first time making ,custard and didn’t know how it would turn out, but it turned out quite nice—tasted as it should, very creamy!
I wasn’t stressed at all, and this was all going well.
Now, next on to the golden cream puffs! I was pretty confident in this step but never used the gluten-free blend or the recipe, so things could easily have gone wrong.
I made the choux (a mixture of flour, water, butter, and eggs), and all was still going well. I did a test puff, and it came out perfect! It puffed nicely and was golden brown. So, I did a whole pan, and those came out pretty nice.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the puffs got smaller and smaller. I was trying to make enough puffs, so I wouldn’t need to make more the next day. But by making them smaller, they couldn’t puff enough to fill well.
I put the second pan in; I was just cleaning up a bit, prepping the third pan, and that’s when my stress levels skyrocketed. The smoke alarm went off. By the end of baking the puffs, it didn’t go off just once or twice, but three times. It was just awful (all the kids were in bed by that time).
We had all the windows and doors open to let the smoke out. It wasn’t the actual puffs that were burning but it was the sweet potato juice that had dripped inside the oven before. I finished them and was very glad to be done for the night.
The next morning, I baked more because I didn’t have enough. We might have snitched one or two to test 😉 Before I started baking, I cleaned out the oven. There were burnt splatters everywhere, bottom, top, sides, and on the rack itself. While making them, I was shaking the whole time, hoping the smoke alarm wouldn’t go off again. When I finished, I was glad to be done making the puffs with no smoke alarm going off.
Later that day, I started to assemble it. I was planning to make my own caramel but didn’t think I’d have enough time. So instead, I cheated and used one from the store. I thought I would have enough time to do everything before the other desserts came out, but not even close. The assembly took a lot longer than I thought.
I tried putting parchment paper around the foam cone for easy cleanup, but it wasn’t sticking well to anything. Eventually, I got it to stay, but it was super loose.
Filled the puffs, or more like tried; the puffs weren’t puffed enough to actually have much filling inside, so that was really disappointing. I filled them with the custard as much as I could and then put them to the side.
I warmed up the caramel and started dipping the puffs in it and then sticking them around the cone base. The first row was fine. When I went to try and make another row, then a third, it all started to slide down. It wasn’t sticking at all.
You may ask why, why wasn’t it sticking? It’s caramel!
That’s what I thought, too; caramel has many different forms. There’s a candy form where it’s chewy and one where it’s for ice cream (which I had). The one I was supposed to make is like glue; it hardens as it cools. That is how the croquembouche is even possible. The caramel is the glue to help form the shape with the puffs.
I was getting even tighter on time but really wanted to make the tower. So, I grabbed a whole bunch of toothpicks and started stuffing them into the cone. It hurt my fingers, but I was determined to do it; the pain was worth it.
My sister helped warm up the chocolate for the ganache “drizzle.” I tried to swirl the chocolate around, like how I’ve seen in videos. The chocolate was way too thick. It was thinner until I added more chocolate, thinking it was too liquidy.
So, I decided just to put the chocolate on the side.
When I finished, I stood back, glad I was done. I was really disappointed with what I saw. The tower stood, but there were several empty spots and clumps of chocolate at the top. But technically, I still did make a croquembouche and could check that off on my to-do list.
It tasted amazing, an airy puff filled with custard covered in chocolate, yum! It was all gone by the end of the night, and I think everyone got their fill. There were multiple mistakes during this long process, but I know what not to do when I make it next time!
Would I ever make this again?
Absolutely YES! Would I change things how I did it? Also, absolutely yes!
Things I wouldn’t do again:
- Buying a foam cone; it might have made this time a success, but it’s not worth the money or the hassle of carrying around a big ol’ cone (though it was kinda fun.) Think of it this way; you need the caramel exactly right. It’s the glue to hold everything together.
- Making the cream puffs the day before; The puffs are pretty easy and aren’t time-consuming. So it’s easily made the day of. There isn’t as high of a chance of them collapsing or shrinking during the night, either.
Things I would do:
- Assemble it not as close to dessert time; I feared it would collapse. Eventually, it would, but I don’t think not after an hour or two (shouldn’t, at least).
- Plan for extra time; it never hurts to be on schedule, but it will never hurt to have extra time! Especially if youo’re making this for the first time.
Now, go in that kitchen and start bakin’!
Let me know when you try it!
Becky 🙂
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