Almost a year ago, I made my first croquembouche, and it basically failed. In that post, I said I’d make it again. I made it again recently and it turned out much better!
To remind you, a croquembouche is a cream puff tower. If you look up croquembouche, you can see how beautiful they are. Croquembouche is a french dessert and means crunch in the mouth. The cream puff is filled with pastry cream (I did vanilla), dipped in caramel to give a shiny look when it’s finished, then dipped again as glue for assembly. All that caramel is supposed to harden, giving it a crunch.
You can read about my first time making it here.
Now in October 2021, it was time to try again! My intention when I started was to practice for Thanksgiving, so I made a mini-er one than when I first made it.
I planned to assemble everything on a Friday. I made the cream puffs on that Tuesday and put them in the freezer. Then I also made the pastry cream on Wednesday and let it sit in the fridge.
On Friday, I did a little research on caramel since that was the key component of failure last time. I reread the recipe many, many times making sure I didn’t miss anything. I preheated the oven to 350, and let the cream puffs defrost and crisp up.
I sat up my little station to fill the puffs. Then I started on the caramel. I was confident when it started but soon turned into dread. In my head, I can’t stop thinking about burning caramel and how big a mess it would be to clean up. But what I learned in this process, is caramel doesn’t burn THAT fast. Yes, it burns quickly if you’re not watching it. I had this caramel on pretty low heat (of fear of burning it).
So what I ended up doing is, taking it off the heat way too early. It was practically still water, the sugar was dissolved but it wasn’t caramel. I dipped the filled puffs into the “caramel” and set them aside, waiting for them to harden. But they never hardened but became sticky. I decided, maybe it’s not cooked enough. So I put it back on the heat. I took it off and on at least six times before it really started becoming caramel.
Around the 5th or 6th time, I pulled out a thermometer, and it was still at least 100 degrees too cool. So, I left it on the heat until it reach 315-320. Between the 3rd-4th time, I tried assembling the puffs, but they started falling over. I did get two layers almost done, took the picture, but then again they started falling over.
When I got the right temperature, things started going a lot smoother. I had the puffs organized by size, but then they got all messed up throughout the process of trying to assemble it. I just wanted to be done, so I was just trying to get them all on.
At the top, it was supposed to be a single, like “tower” kind of finish. But mine was like a dome. I stopped using the caramel and just started placing the puffs where they’d support each other.
When I finished, I was very happy with it. It stood as it should, and without toothpicks or a cone! This croquembouche looked so much better than the other. It took me about 2 hours, starting from filling the puffs to stepping back. It’s a long process to get this dessert, but it’s worth it to try new things you’ve never done before or want to master.
I now had to wait to eat it.
Finally, that time came, and I took a bite. It didn’t taste very good…at all. The pastry cream was pretty melty and warm (probably mostly from all that dipping). It was way too sweet and sticky. The caramel was everywhere and soaked into every crevice.
Final thoughts: The presentation was a ton better this time around, but the taste of the other one was a whole ton better (probably because there was chocolate involved).
Earlier, I said I had the intention when I started this to make it for Thanksgiving this year. But after this time and last time making it, I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen making a fancy dessert that will be devoured within minutes while all my family is off playing games and talking.
So, will I make this again? Yes!! I for sure will, but maybe not for another year.
Some afterward thoughts:
Mistakes:
When I made the puffs, I should have poked holes in them before the freezer. That way, when I reheated them, they could crisp even more.
What I did differently:
When I made cream puffs before, I never let them sit in the oven and they always turned out fine. But this time i thought maybe I should, especially that they were gluten-free. So I did and I will be doing this step from now on.
Last time, I used a foam cone. I didn’t do that this year and I’m glad. If your caramel is perfect you shouldn’t have any problem with assembling it.
What will I do differently next time?
I don’t even know why I didn’t make chocolate pastry cream, chocolate is superior and makes everything better. I will do that next time for sure!
Thanks for reading, see you next time!
~Becky 🙂
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