Daring Bakers:Croquembouche

Croquembouche

It has been many years since I made croquembouche. I made it for a Christmas party when my children were small, and they were so delighted with the beautiful caramel and cream puff structure. It was tall and glistening with caramel, and almost looked like the beautiful Christmas trees that you see in lit up Rockafeller Center in New York.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake . Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri. The individual parts of this elegant dessert are not hard to make. It starts with pate a choux, an easy dough for the puffs, which are filled with pastry cream, and the caramel both holds it together and acts as a delicate, elegant, decoration. Mini Me made the cream puffs and Mimi Jr. made the pastry cream and together we assembled our tower. Good team work made this go really fast! Although I have used other recipes for both the cream puffs and pastry cream in the past, this time we used both the recipes as given from the Daring Bakers fourm and they worked out nicely. Although the puffs and pastry cream can be made a day ahead, this dessert is best eaten within a few hours of construction so the puffs don't get soggy. Lucky for me, the eating part is never a problem in our house and it disappeared pretty fast.

Pate a Choux
 (Yield: About 28)

¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Preparing batter:
1. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

2. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan

3. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

4. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.


 Vanilla Crème Patissiere

1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

1. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
3. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
4. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

We divided our pastry cream in half and to one part added extra vanilla and to the other the zest of 2 oranges for a delicate orange flavor. To each we folded in about 2/3 cup whipped cream, to give us a light creamy filling.

printable recipe

Our cream puffs were light and crispy with just a hint of sweetness. The orange filling with the caramel was a really good combination that I would definitely use again. There are endless combintaion to use for filling and decorations which makes this a good dessert to try again and again, making it different each time. If you want to see what the other Daring Bakers made visit our blog roll.

TWD: Quick Classic Berry Tart

Cristine of Cooking with Cristine picked Quick Classic Berry Tart. This sweet buttery tart crust filled with a vanilla pastry cream and topped with fresh fruit is the ideal spring or summer dessert.

Since I was having guests for dinner last week we made mini tarts to serve for dessert. This was the perfect dessert to have for company because both the pastry cream and the tart shells were made a day ahead. At the last minute all we had to do was assemble the tarts. We are lucky enough to live close to a small farmer's market and were able to get some delicious farm fresh berries and when we were putting everything together, we chose not to glaze the tarts since the berries were so ripe and sweet.

Because the tarts were small and the crust thick, we made small mounds of the pastry cream, which provided the right balance of crispy crust to creamy filling. We topped each of  them with a single type of berry since they were mini tarts, but on a larger tart a mix of several berries would also be good.

I had a few tart shells and pastry cream left over so I mixed the pastry cream with some caramel sauce I had made earlier and made a few banana caramel tarts. These were good, but we all liked the combination of the simple vanilla cream with the sweet, fresh berries the best. This is a great recipe for experimenting with seasonal fruits and new flavor combinations and I know we will be trying it again with whatever we can get at our farmer's market this summer.

Quick Classic Berry Tart

 Baking: From My Home To Yours

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Storing: Eat the tart as soon after it is constructed as possible, certainly on the day it is made. If you must keep it for a few hours, store it in the refrigerator, making sure to keep it away from any foods with strong odors

 About 1 1/2 cups Pastry Cream, cooled or chilled (Recipe Below)

1 9" tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough 

2 pints fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries, or an assortment of berries 

1/3 cup red currant jelly mixed with 1 tsp of water, for glazing

 Process:  

Smooth the pastry cream by giving it a couple of strong turns with a whisk. Spoon enough pastry cream into the tart crust to come almost to the rim, then even the surface with a rubber spatula. Carefully lay the berries on the cream, arranging them in any pattern that pleases you. If you are using strawberries, either halve them from top to bottom or slice them, depending on the size of the berries and your whim.

  

Bring the jelly and the water to a boil in a microwave oven or on the stovetop. Working with a pastry brush or a pastry feather, dab each berry with a spot of jelly. Or, if you like, you can glaze the entire surface of the tart, including the bit of pastry cream that peeks through the berries.

  

Pastry Cream

Makes about 2 cups

2 cups whole milk

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature

  

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

  

Meanwhile, in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk- this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get into the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

  

Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. You can press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold, or, if you want to cool it quickly - as I always do- put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water, and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.The pastry cream can be kept tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Sweet Tart Dough

Makes 1 -  9" Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick plus 1 TBSP (9 TBSP) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk 

Put the flour, confectioners sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in - you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each- until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change- heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

 Butter a 9" fluted tart pan with a removable bottom ( or for  mini tart,s mini tart pans or muffin cups) Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don't be too heavy-handed - press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

 Preheat the oven to 375. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minute s(mini tarts bake for about 15 minutes). Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.

Bake for another 8 minutes (adjust your time for minis) or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust's progress- it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

printable recipe

Thank you Cristine for a classic, and versatile recipe.  If you want to see what the other TWD bakers made check our blogroll.