Requested: D's Caramel Croquembouche in Denmark

When Zia Rikke requested D's Croquembouche, I didn't ask him if he was willing. I just said, 'Of course!' And, then I told him he had to make it!

So, after making sure we had the ingredients...and doing all of the calculations from tablespoons to grams, cups to grams, and farhenheit to celsius, he got to work. These didn't end up as puffed as he would have liked, but it didn't stop everyone from digging in voraciously!

Ingredients

Pâte à Choux

• 12 T unsalted butter
• 1-1/2 C water
• 2 C flour
• 9 eggs

Filling

• 2 C organic heavy whipping cream

Burnt Caramel

• 2 C organic granulated sugar

Procedure

Pâte à Choux

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Bring butter and water to a boil in a large saucepan. Remove pan from heat and add flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture forms a thick dough and pulls away from sides of pan, approximately 3 minutes. Return pan to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until dough is lightly dried, about 2 minutes more.

Transfer dough to a bowl, and let cool for 5 minutes; using a wooden spoon, beat in 8 eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next. Dough will come together and be thick, shiny, and smooth.

Dip two spoons in water, shake off excess, and scoop a walnut-size piece of dough with one spoon. With other spoon, scrape dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet, setting pieces 1″ apart on a baking sheet.

Lightly beat remaining egg with pinch of salt and brush each piece of dough with it. 

Bake at 425°F until puffed and light brown, approximately 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°, and continue to bake until well browned, approximately 15 minutes. Let cool. While the puffs cool, make your filling.

Filling

Beat cream until stiff peaks form. Slice into the puffs and add a spoonful of cream. Set aside

Caramel

Place sugar in medium sauce pan. Cook until smooth and amber, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. 

Assembly

Dip the filled puffs in the caramel and place them on a lined baking sheet to harden. You are really just sealing off the filling point with this dipping. Dip the puffs in the caramel, again, and stack them to form a conical shape. We forgot to do this part!

Stack the filled puffs into a tower. Once the tower is the height you want, dip a fork in the caramel and swirl it around the tower to form the caramel threads.

We used the extra to create a topper of crunchy caramel.

I think they liked it. I hope they liked it. D wants to make it again this weekend, again. I might try to push it off till next weekend when we host a birthday party for his godfather. I think it'll be a nice birthday dessert along with some Danish treats I learned to make. Stay tuned.