Croquembouche: Profiteroles Cake

I seem to have a Profiterole craze for the past days; I guess I'm aiming to somehow perfect it. To be honest, Choux pastry is one of the most easiest things I've tried making, just stick with the ingredients to the dot. To see your pastries puff is such a reward; you can fill them with whatever flavor you want. I've gone through failed attempts, but they're not completely useless.

Anyway, my sister is coming home from Manila today after a two week stay. She feels a bit low lately, so I decided to somehow cheer her up. Me and her son wanted to celebrate her coming home with a nice cake. I didn't feel like making an ordinary cake. Still fascinated with puffing Choux pastries, I decided to make a Croquembouche.

Croquembouche is a high cone of Profiteroles coated with caramel sugar and decorated with spun sugar, chocolate, flowers and ribbons. In French, it literally means "crunch in mouth" attributed to the crunchy texture of the caramel sugar coating of each Profiterole. It's traditionally a French celebration cake for weddings and baptismals, but now are a usual addition to dessert buffet as a centerpiece.

To form into an even cone, a stainless steel / paper cone is used by most professionals. I'm no professional, but I wanted to make one, even just a small one. Instead of using a cone, I just stacked the filled pastries in a circle and used caramel sugar as glue. The finished product is, like my sister described, a leaning tower of Puffpuff.

My first Croquembouche with ganache drizzles and spun sugar: a foot high.

Has a homey but elegant feel to it, right? The shape is uneven because I just made the pastries in random sizes. The concern I had was with the spun sugar, it melted once I left it in room temp and it was a bit humid today and I got a nasty burn on my hand while handling the spun sugar syrup. :(

I made a different filling this time, a Vanilla Crème Patissière (Pastry Cream) and made use of the Ganache still left from last time. I meant to stick to basic flavors because I'm not really sure how things would turn out, I didn't want to waste ingredients in another disaster. But you can replace vanilla with almond, lemon or other extracts to make the cake more interesting.

VANILLA CREME PATISSIERE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup evaporated milk

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch 

1 tsp vanilla extract

PROCEDURE

1. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch until smooth.

2. In a small saucepan, heat milk until steam comes up.

3. Pour half of the milk into the egg mixture and whisk immediately. This will introduce the egg to the hot milk without making it into scrambled eggs.

4. Set heat to very low and slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan while whisking.

5. Whisk to prevent the bottom from burning. Continue until mixture become thick and smooth (1-2 minutes).

6. Remove from heat and transfer into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent film from forming. Let cool for at least 2 hours before using as filling.

SPUN SUGAR

INGREDIENT

1 cup white sugar

1 tbsp corn syrup

1/3 cup water

PROCEDURE

1. Pour all the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat covered saucepan until all sugar melts into the liquid.

2. Remove cover and let boil until color turns into deep amber. Cool for about 2 minutes.

3. Use a fork to create threads by dipping its end and spin around the Profiterole tower. Repeat until satisfied with the amount of spun sugar web.

CAUTION: SPUN SUGAR SYRUP IS CRAZY HOT. BE CAREFUL WHILE HANDLING, ELSE YOU'LL END UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

:( Ouch. And eww, I desperately need a manicure.

Although it caused me some pain, the spun sugar web is absolutely beautiful. It's so delicate and whimsical. But let's just reserve the technique for very special occasions from now on, shall we? I wouldn't want to be constantly covered with nasty burns. And I think it would be helpful to have a bowl with ice water nearby just in case. ;)

Click this link for the Choux pastry and Ganache recipe.