This is the third part in the croquembouche (piece montee) series.

This part is the assembling of the croqueenbouche, you will need to have done the cream puffs and the creme patissiere.

Croquenebouche is a pyramid of cream puffs fille dwith creme patissere using caramel as glue.

I will let my wife report on the Caramel as she does it better than i do.

With a small pointy knife of a small pastry tip, poke a hole in each of the cream puffs on their underside. blend the cold creme patissere with a fork, and fill a piping bag with it. Pipe the creme to the puffs and set them aside.

In the serving dish, make a pyramid shape. I used a Tagine lid wrapped in foil.

Make a caramel and dip the puffs upside down then arrange them on serving plate.

This is the second part in my series for “Piece montee“.

In the first part i made some creme patissiere, the filling for the cream puffs.

In the final part we will pipe the cream to the puffs and assemble them with caramel to a pyramid.

Ingredients

• 1/2 liter water (some use 1/4 liter water, 1/4 liter milk)
• 8 oz butter
• 8 to 9 eggs +1
• 10 oz flour
• 3 oz sugar

Heat the water and butter to near boiling point. Remove from the hear. Drop all the flour in one time and mix with a wooden spoon. the batter will come off the walls of the pan and will be smooth.

Put in the food process for a few minutes to evaporate some of the water, or return to low heat and keep mixing for a minute.

Add the eggs one at a time. for the 9th egg, mix the egg in a small bowl and pour a little bit at a time so you can control how much egg you add.

Pipe the dough to a cooking sheet.

With a brush, wash the puffs with a little bit of milk and an egg. With a fork flatten them a little.

Cook for about 40 minutes at 400F.

Your puffs are ready for piping.

You can also pipe them long and make eclairs!

Last week, we celebrated my daughter’s 10th birthday!

We made a Croquembouche (“Piece montee”): a pyramid of cream puffs with creme patissiere filling.

Let’s start with the creme patissiere!

Ingredients

• 1 quart of milk
• 8 oz of sugar
• vanilla beans or extract
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 1/2 oz corn starch
• 1 oz butter.

Start by heating the milk, 4 oz of sugar and a couple of vanilla beans (score then in two and get the seeds with a knife, put the seeds and the beans in the milk).
While it’s heating, mix in a large bowl the eggs and egg yolks, 4 ox of sugar and the corn starch.
You can add a little bit of Grand Marnier liqueur though it’s not compulsory.
When the milk is nearly boiling, remove the vanilla pods, add the milk little by little to mixing bowl while mixing with a wooden spoon, then transfer it all back to the pan and heat while mixing until you can see the bottom of the pan while moving the spoon. Add four oz of butter and mix; pour to a container and cover with cling film; refrigerate.

The creme patissiere is ready for piping to the cream puffs!