Croquembush custard cake. We start cream profiteroles

Do you want to surprise guests at the holiday? We advise you to prepare french cake profiteroles "Crockembusch". It is spectacular, original, gourmet dessert, which is built by a pyramid from In the article you will read what kind of cream is needed for the filling, how the tower is held together, how the dough is made. In addition, the recipe and advice from experienced confectioners will be described in detail.

Cooking custard dough

To prepare a delicate and tasty cake from Croquembush profiteroles, you need to choose the right ingredients. To begin with, sift into a bowl of 150 gr. flour. Then pour into the pan 250 gr. milk, add a pinch of salt and 100 gr. oils. Mix everything and put on fire. The butter should melt. To prevent the mass from burning to the bottom of the pan, it is necessary to constantly stir and bring to a boil. You can then turn off the burner. Wait for the milk and butter to cool slightly and add the flour that was sifted in advance. Beat the dough with a whisk or a blender until smooth, so that there are no lumps. Then take a spatula (preferably a wooden one) and stir constantly. The dough should become thick.

Wait until the mass has cooled completely, and only then add the eggs (about 4-5 pcs.). Beat with a mixer until uniform consistency. Now it's ready for the profiteroles.

Ingredients for sour cream

Profiterole cake can be with any filling. However, there is an opinion that sour cream the dessert is more nutritious and tender. To prepare the cream, you need to take a pack fat sour cream(500 gr.), 100-150 gr. powdered sugar and vanillin to taste.

Blend the above ingredients in a blender until smooth. Only here it is important not to overdo it. Beat products for no more than one minute. Longer stirring will spoil the cream: it will become too liquid for the filling.

Cooking caramel

Before preparing a cake from profiteroles with sour cream, you need to make a tool that holds the cakes together. The most commonly used caramel. To prepare it, you only need 1.5 cups of sugar and 80 ml of water.

First you need to choose correct capacity so that the caramel does not burn and does not spoil the dishes. Therefore, take a small bowl or pan with a thick, light-colored bottom and high sides. Pour water into it and pour sugar into it. Mix thoroughly and turn on medium fire. Boil the caramel, stirring constantly.

Its color should be amber. Once the caramel has thickened slightly, remove it from the heat and let it rise on its own. Now you can move on to the next step.

Croquembush Cake: A Step-by-Step Recipe

When we have dough, cream, caramel, then we can start preparing the dessert itself. First, we cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out the cakes on it. It's easier to do this. However, if you do not have it, then you have to fantasize. Many housewives replace the package. Cut off one corner and pour into it choux pastry. Now squeeze small cakes onto a baking sheet. Don't forget the distance. Cakes should not be nearby. There should be at least 3 cm between them, as they increase in size and can stick.

Turn on the oven at 220 degrees and bake the cake for about 10 minutes. Pay attention to color. If the products are browned, found golden crust take it out right away. Sometimes they can be baked for 7 or even 5 minutes.

If the profiteroles are caked, take them out - let them cool. When they become warm, cut them a little on the side, bottom or top and fill with sour cream. Then you can start building the cake itself. Take a tray, lay on it Now try to build a tower or a pyramid from profiteroles. So that the product does not fall and does not lose its shape, dip each cake in a pre-prepared caramel.

The height and width of the cake depends on the number of profiteroles you have baked. When you have dipped the last cake in caramel and put it on top, you can consider the dessert ready. You can decorate it. To do this, pour it with caramel. You will get not only a delicious cake from profiteroles, but also an original one.

Many bake a cake with different fillings. It all depends on the preferences and tastes of the person. Profiterole cake with sour cream is not the limit. Can be done with pistachio filling, With boiled condensed milk or raw, etc. To make the dessert resemble the warm season, it is stuffed different berries, fruits, nuts. Try adding these ingredients to a cream. It turns out delicious and delicate cake which will win the hearts of many lovers of this dessert. If you want to stand out and do something more original, then you can replace the caramel with chocolate icing. Berries and fruits are also added there. If you do not have milk, and all the other ingredients for choux pastry are available, then replace with water.

A pyramid of profiteroles will never turn out to be even if it is built by eye. In this case, take the cardboard and make a cone out of it, which you put in the middle of the dish. Arrange cakes around the cone in a spiral. Then it will be smooth and beautiful cake from profiteroles with sour cream. Some housewives are experimenting with food coloring. Then the cake turns out to be an unusual color, which pleases both the hostess and guests.

If you are using chocolate icing You can add strawberries to it. These ingredients are in perfect harmony with each other - it turns out an unforgettable and unique taste. You can also fasten the eclairs with chocolate. To do this, melt it in a water bath. You can use white, milk, dark chocolate. It needs to be hot for the cakes to set well. IN cream mass you can add lemon juice. Then he will lose the sugary-sweet taste, instead a pleasant sourness will appear. You can add some orange juice for a citrus smell and taste.

Conclusion

As you can see, it turns out a beautiful cake with a very simple one. Every housewife can cook it. This dessert can be made for any occasion. You will surprise your guests with original, refined and delicious cake. Some housewives believe that such a dessert can be used instead of a Christmas tree, it looks so beautiful. Imagine, experiment and you will definitely succeed.

Croquembush is a classic French dessert that consists of a tower of profiteroles. The whole structure is supported by golden crunchy threads of caramel. Literally, croquembush means "crunch in the mouth." This precise definition the way a caramel-covered custard cake feels in the mouth.

This French-style cake is served at weddings and other special occasions. Most often you can see croquembush in Italy and France, but today this magnificent dessert is becoming more and more popular in other countries of the world. We invite you today to create Croquembush step by step with photos. Such a master class will allow you to easily master the technique of building croquembush.

To some, a profiterole cake may seem like a too difficult task, but in fact, if you prepare a little, then there will be nothing wrong with it. The three main components are profiteroles, custard and caramel - prepared according to classic recipes that are familiar to any confectioner.

Our step by step lesson with a photo is easy to do. Interested in how to build a cake - prepare the necessary fixtures:

• 36 profiteroles
• 2 cups custard
• 1 cup of sugar
• ¼ glass of water
• medium bucket
• pastry bag with medium round nozzle
• a large sheet of thick colored paper or cardboard
• parchment paper
• duct tape
• fork
• baking sheet

Our recipe from step by step photos begins with the formation of a cone of colored paper or cardboard. Line the inside of a cardboard cone with parchment paper. Trim the protruding edges so that it sits flat. It depends on how beautiful the cake will be for a wedding anniversary or other holiday. You should have a shape for creating a croquembush.

Fill the profiteroles with the custard using a pastry bag fitted with a nozzle. Now you have to make caramel, and for this time we will set aside the profiteroles.

The next step of the master class is the creation of caramel. Combine sugar and water in a medium sized bucket. Cook over medium heat until the caramel is golden color. Graceful custom-made birthday cakes decorated with golden caramel look not only elegant, but also noble. Dip the bottom of the bucket in cool water for a couple of seconds. This will prevent the caramel from browning. Place the ladle on a stand or kitchen towel.

When you work with hot caramel, be careful. Always have a glass ready cold water. If it gets on your fingers hot caramel, You can quickly dip them into the water.

Now the recipe with step-by-step photos suggests a very responsible step. Place the custard in the cone with the bottom facing up. Dip another cake in caramel and place in a cone so that the caramel sticks together two cakes. Continue by placing the profiteroles in the cone with the top facing the sides of the cone. Many of our ideas can be used to decorate other confectionery products. Looking for how to decorate cupcakes? We will advise you!

Profiteroles should be placed closely at the top of the cone and then cover the sides of the cone as you work with confectionery according to our master class. Place the cone in a vase or tall glass if you feel uncomfortable holding it while working with hot sugar.

Form the last row of cakes so that the bottom part looks up. This will give the whole structure a more stable shape when you take it out of the mold.

The next step in the detailed tutorial with photos is to turn the filled cone over onto the stand. Remove the cardboard from the cone, then carefully remove the parchment paper. Add more cream profiteroles to your croquembush if it looks a bit lopsided or has holes in it.

Use the leftover caramel to create a gorgeous sugar cobweb to decorate your sweet creation. Heat the caramel over low heat until it becomes liquid.

Lightly spray the baking sheet with a spray. Dip a fork into the caramel and quickly move back and forth over the baking sheet. After that, long thin strips of sugar should remain on the baking sheet. Repeat this step of the master class until you have a large number of sugar fibers. This will take approximately five minutes. Carefully gather the strands of sugar and wrap them around the croquembush as if sugar garland. You can add as many strands of sugar as you like.

The custards and custard can be made in advance, but must be collected and decorated with sugar threads on the day the dessert is served. Accordingly, caramel will also have to be prepared on the day of the holiday. Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container and stored for up to three days, but keep in mind that the humidity level in the refrigerator can cause the caramel and cake batter to be too soft.

Now you can enjoy your work by stepping back. You just have to enjoy the amazing taste of your creation. The masters of "Kakeri" have various recipes and master classes for decorating cakes, which they regularly share with you with pleasure. But if you do not want to cook or you do not have time, our experts will be happy to help you.

Order us a croquembush of any size - such a delicacy in a miniature or giant scale will really impress all those invited to the celebration. We will be happy to help you make your holiday truly beautiful, elegant and unforgettable. Contact us if you want to get a unique sweet dish for the holiday.

Friends, I would like to say a few more words about my impressions of the cake, if I may))
I really liked caramel version Crockembus. Until I tried it, I would never have thought that crispy caramel can be so harmoniously combined with delicate custard and "shu" cakes ... let's call it a game of textures and tastes;)
I give the proportion for custards and cream a little more than is required by the recipe - it is better to have a few cakes left unused than not enough.
I sincerely thank Lyudmila for helping me translate the name of the recipe into French :)
So, meet: "Piece montee en choux a la pistache"
Bon appetit! :))

Croquembush is a kind of French Christmas tree (pyramid) made of custard cakes, and in order to assemble such a Christmas tree, we need a cone shape. The cone can be easily made from thick paper.
On the sheet, draw a quarter circle, with a radius of 30 cm.

In order for the segment to turn out to be even without a compass, you can take a thread (string), wrap a pencil around it, clamp one end of the string in the center of the circle, and draw a circle with a pencil.

Cut out the resulting segment and roll it into a cone, connecting the straight sides together.
Glue the edges with masking tape or wide transparent tape.
At the cone, cut off the top about 2 cm from the top (to make it easier to lay the last cake).
Wrap the cone with foil or cling film.

Fill ready dough a pastry bag with a round nozzle and deposit in small slides on a baking sheet covered with parchment, at a distance of about 3 cm from each other (considering that the cakes increase in volume).

"Tails" on the deposited dough can be smoothed out with a finger dipped in water.

Preheat the oven to 190 ° C, fix the door with a wooden spoon so that it is slightly ajar, and bake the cakes for about 30 minutes.
Ready "shu" take out of the oven and cool.

Custard cakes (without cream) can be put in a bag or tightly closed container and stored at room temperature for 12 hours, but it is better to use fresh cakes.

cook pistachio custard.
Pictured are the ingredients for pistachio custard.

Pour milk (600 ml) into a saucepan (about 3 liters in volume) and bring almost to a boil.
In a large bowl, put the yolks (150 g), add sugar (140 g) and corn starch(60 g).

Blend everything with a whisk until smooth.

Pour hot milk into a bowl with yolks in a thin stream, while whisking vigorously with a whisk.

Pour the yolk mixture with milk back into the saucepan.

Cook the cream over low to medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until it begins to thicken.
As soon as the cream begins to thicken, remove the pan from the heat and continue to intensively stir the cream with a whisk outside the heat (so that the cream is well brewed and no lumps form).
Then return the pan to the stove and continue cooking until the cream boils.
At the first sign of boiling, note the time, and cook the cream, stirring constantly with a whisk, for 30 seconds.

Transfer the cream to a clean bowl, tighten with cling film so that it fits snugly on the surface of the cream and cool to 50 ° C.
Add to cream butter(60 g).

Cream, constantly stirring with a whisk, cool to room temperature in a cold water bath (for this, a saucepan with cream can be placed in a sink with cold water, making sure that water does not get into the cream).

Advice. The cooled custard can be tightened with cling film so that it fits snugly on the surface of the cream, and put in the refrigerator.
To complete the preparation of the cream, you need to drive softened butter into it. Therefore, before stuffing the eclairs with cream, I recommend that you take the cream out of the refrigerator in advance, let it warm up to room temperature, and then beat in the butter along with the pistachio paste (read the recipe below).

In a clean bowl, beat softened butter until fluffy (beat for about 3-4 minutes).

Add pistachio paste.

And beat together with butter until fluffy.

Small portions add custard, constantly beating at medium speed of the mixer. You can add a couple of drops of green food coloring(if you add pistachio paste to the cream).

Beat the custard well until fluffy and smooth.

Tip 1. Custard can be prepared without adding pistachio paste (if it is not possible to buy it or cook it yourself). If necessary, I can give a recipe for pistachio paste a little later, in the near future, unfortunately, I will not have time to do this.

Tip 2. The custard here is slightly sweet. I give the proportions of sugar for the cream, taking into account the fact that croquembush is fastened with caramel and, in combination with custard, caramel gives enough sweetness. If you fasten the cake with melted white chocolate - it is also quite sweet, you can leave the same amount of sugar as in the recipe. And if you fasten the cakes with dark chocolate, you can add more sugar to the cream, according to your taste.

cook caramel.
Pour sugar into a small thick-bottomed saucepan and pour a little water, literally, to moisten the sugar.

Next to the stove, put a cup of cold water and put a silicone brush.
Heat the sugar over high heat without stirring (you can only stir until the syrup boils).
Periodically wash the walls of the pan, moistened with cold water with a brush from adhering sugar crystals. This is done so that the sugar does not caramelize - do not neglect this nuance.
Boil the caramel until light amber in color (do not overcook, because the caramel heats up very quickly, it is better to remove the pan from the heat a little earlier than overcook).

Remove the pan from the heat and, preferably, immediately place it on a marble surface to stop the heating.

Tip 1. I advise you to collect caramel cake only more or less experienced hostesses, while not being distracted by anything, but focusing on the process. Cooking caramel is NOT difficult, but it requires the utmost attention to yourself, otherwise, God forbid, you can seriously burn yourself. Therefore, before starting work, evaluate your strengths objectively: are you experienced enough in the kitchen, will household members interfere with your cooking, and do you have everything you need in stock.

Tip 2. Another nuance when working with caramel is that it hardens very quickly. Of course, it can be heated, but this can be done, perhaps, 1 time, and if you try to heat it again, the caramel will simply become burnt caramel. Therefore, from experience, I can suggest preparing caramel in small portions (for example, from 100 g of sugar) and also, stock up on 2-3 saucepans and, in turn, use them to make caramel.

Tip 3. During cooking, sugar can caramelize and this can also be a problem. Firstly, the likelihood of caramelization depends on the quality of sugar (I had this: two packs of sugar of different brands - caramel is cooked just perfectly from one pack, subject to elementary conditions, there is not even a hint of crystallization and I immediately start cooking caramel from the second pack ( another manufacturer) - it begins to crystallize almost at the very beginning of cooking, it is much harder to work with such sugar - I can hardly cope with it). By the way, I think that glucose syrup should help to cope with the problem of crystallization and the rapid solidification of caramel. And although I have it available, I decided not to add it for the sake of the purity of the experiment (after all, not every one of you will have glucose syrup). Also, for the sake of the same experiment, I added a little crystalline caramel to a serving of caramel citric acid- the consistency turned out to be wonderful, the caramel did not solidify so quickly. It could be reheated several times, but the taste is ... to put it mildly, unpleasant. I don't recommend adding lemon.
But you can try to add a little freshly squeezed lemon juice at the end of cooking - it is possible that with lemon juice caramel will be tastier than with lemon. Better yet, find glucose syrup or try to cook it yourself (recipe invert syrup is on the site). Or try replacing it with honey. All information about the use of lemon juice, glucose syrup, and its substitutes, rather theoretical, in practice, until there was time to experiment - I share with you, suddenly some of the tips will come in handy at the right time for one of you;)

Tip 4. When I spoiled a couple of servings of caramel (sugar from the second pack) and the result did not please me, I did it easier - I prepared DRY CARAMEL - the quality of sugar is not of fundamental importance for making dry caramel and to some extent, it is even easier to cook. For dry caramel, pour sugar into a thick-bottomed saucepan and put the saucepan on a strong (!) fire. Please note that the heating should be exactly strong or medium-strong. As soon as they put the saucepan with sugar on the fire, immediately begin to intensively stir the sugar with a spoon on a long handle (so that it is not so hot on the hands). From intense heat, the sugar will begin to melt quickly, turning into caramel. The main thing is to stir vigorously all the time. I want to note that I tried to cook dry caramel earlier without stirring, as many recipes recommend, but, unfortunately, the sugar caramelized not completely, but in patches: it burned here, it didn’t start to melt and also began to crystallize. And with constant stirring, sugar completely turns into caramel - this result seems more stable to me, and I give my preference to it. Just don’t be scared: at the beginning of heating and stirring, the sugar will begin to gather into lumps, but literally, in no more than half a minute or a minute, it will begin to turn into a beautiful amber caramel ... do not overdo it on the fire! ;)

Spread a sheet of parchment on the table and grease it well. vegetable oil without smell.
In the hot, freshly made caramel, dip the top of each cake and place the caramel side down on the buttered parchment.
Thus, dip all custard semi-finished products in caramel. Prepare a fresh batch of caramel.
Gently(!) Dip each custard toy the side that will be in contact with the other custard.

In order not to burn yourself, try sticking custard balls on a wooden skewer.

And put on a dish around the cone.

Thus, collect the entire croquembush.

Tip 1. When the croquembush is assembled, it remains to solve the issue of its storage. You should not put it in the refrigerator, because. from high humidity, the caramel will begin to melt and the structure may collapse (only croquembush sealed with chocolate can be placed in the refrigerator or on the balcony). Also, if it’s rainy outside and there is high humidity in the room, it’s better not to cook croquembush with caramel, but to stop at chocolate version. And for storing caramel croquembush, I see only one option: gently wrap the cake in several layers food film and leave in a cool room until the evening, up to a maximum next day(but a day is already a long time: there is no guarantee that the cream will last so long and the cream will not deteriorate if the room is not cool enough). Before serving, remove the cake from the cling film and glue some cakes that may have begun to fall off on a fresh portion of caramel. For these purposes, it is desirable to have a certain amount of spare "shu" so that in case of marriage it is possible to replace them with whole ones.
You can, of course, fill the "shu" with cream in advance, store them in the refrigerator, and collect the cake directly on the day of serving - but this option is for those who have free time on the day of the holiday to mess with the cake ... I think that not many people have it.

Tip 2. In many French recipes, croquembush is recommended to be removed from the cone. I wouldn't recommend doing this. Given its unreliable caramel construction, caramel can fail at the most unexpected moment - even if the cake is also held by a cone. What to do with it, with this capricious caramel... :)

Before serving, the cake can be decorated with caramel threads. To do this, you need to cook a portion of caramel, dip a fork into it, wait until the caramel begins to drain in a thin stream, then a thin stretching thread, and start wrapping the cake with the resulting caramel threads. Caramel threads look very elegant.
When serving, the cake is disassembled into individual cakes, starting from the top.

Bon appetit and Happy New Year! :)))

Recipes for making cakes at home with photos

croquembush

1 hour

225 kcal

5 /5 (2 )

Not so long ago, at a friend's birthday party, I happened to try an interesting and very delicious dessert called Croquembush, and since I love to cook, I naturally borrowed the recipe for this delicacy.

Before today I've only managed to make croquembushiki a few times, but that's enough to give me the confidence to recommend the next recipe.

• Inventory and kitchen appliances: mixer, baking sheet, parchment paper, pastry bag, coasters for eclairs.

Required products

Features of product selection

As you can see, all the components of the Croquembush dessert that are displayed in the recipe can be easily found in any kitchen. The only thing to pay attention to is caramel sauce , which you can easily cook yourself (more on that later) or just replace it regular boiled condensed milk. I tried both options, but I must say that everyone at home liked the first one more.

History of the French Dessert

When describing the process of preparing any dish (not just Croquembush delicacies), it is always useful to get acquainted with its history, because this is the only way to find a real classic recipe cooking. Unfortunately, in our case, the name of the creator of such a beautiful sweet masterpiece has not been preserved in history, but it is known for sure that he was a Frenchman.

Around the 60s of the 17th century, he happened to attend one of the wedding ceremonies in London, where the pastry chef was surprised at how carelessly the chefs designed the wedding cake - the pies with filling simply towered on a tray in a shapeless slide.

Taking this recipe as a basis and adding a little to it, a culinary specialist unknown today made a very spectacular cake in the form of a cone, fastening individual pies with caramel. This creation was called "Crockembusch", although a little later, instead of pies, snow profiteroles began to be used. air cream inside.

It is caramel that is considered classic addition described cake, but in our time there are many others step by step recipes"Crockembus", where it is not used.

How to cook Croquembush at home: a step by step recipe

Nowadays, the Croquembush cake, which is a pyramid of profiteroles, is baked not only for weddings, but also for various celebrations. A wide variety of creams can be used as a filling, and grated chocolate and nuts are great for decoration. In fact, preparing such a dessert is quite simple, you just need to follow the recipe exactly and follow the sequence of all culinary tasks.

So, for starters, let's start preparing custard dough, which, without exaggeration, can be called the basis of the French Croquembush.

While the profiteroles are cooking and cooling, you can move on to the caramel sauce and cream for filling the Crockembus cake.

Sauce first. To prepare it, you need to take a small saucepan and mix 60 ml of water and 100 g of sugar in it, then put the mixture on fire and bring to a boil (so that the sugar dissolves). At the same time, pour the cream into another saucepan and put it on the stove to heat it up.

If you pour cold cream into the syrup, it will splatter a lot.

As soon as the sugar in the saucepan dissolves, stop stirring and remove the foam. You also need to moisten a silicone brush in water and run it along the walls of the container to collect all the remaining sugar crystals, otherwise, once they get into the syrup, they will cause it to crystallize, resulting in a solid sugar lump in the saucepan. We leave the syrup on the stove for 3-4 minutes, and as soon as it thickens a little and begins to turn golden, you can remove the saucepan from the heat.

IN hot mix add 2-3 tbsp. spoons of hot cream, gently mix with a whisk, and then pour out all the remaining cream. Together with the cream, return the saucepan to the stove again and cook, stirring, until the sauce becomes smooth and homogeneous. As soon as we have achieved this result, remove the saucepan from the heat, add salt and oil, stir well - the sauce is ready. It should be served warm, although it can be cooled and stored in the refrigerator if necessary.

Each hostess herself can choose the desired color of sugar syrup and, accordingly, caramel. To do this, you only need a sugar thermometer, which must first be placed in a bowl with hot water and only after that into a container with caramel. For light caramel, the syrup should reach a temperature of 160 ° C, and for dark caramel - 175 ° C.

Cream recipe for Croquembush

While our profiteroles are cooling down, and the caramel sauce is already waiting in the wings, we start creating the filling for the Croquembush cake, the basis of which is butter cream. To do this, beat the butter (200 g) with a mixer until it turns white, after which we add caramel sauce by a tablespoon. We put the finished cream in a pastry bag and fill the eclairs with it.

How to decorate and serve Crockembusch beautifully

Considering that the Croquembush cake, the recipe with the photo of which is described step by step above, cannot be called a standard dessert, then its collection is somewhat different. I take flat small saucers and lay out a three-story pyramid of eclairs on them: the first floor consists of five pieces, the second of three, and I put only one profiterole on top. To fill the inside of our cakes with cream, I make a small incision in the bottom, into which I insert the spout of a pastry bag, squeezing out the cream.

Having made several such pyramids (mini-cakes "Croquembush"), we decorate each of them with a caramel thread. Caramel is prepared as follows: over low heat, without stirring, melt the sugar (for 1 cup we take ¼ of a glass of water and ½ tsp of vinegar) until it is completely dissolved. In order for the thread to stretch better, the caramel must cool slightly. With the same caramel, profiteroles can be glued together, which will give the pyramid additional stability.

Translated from Latin, caramel means " sugar cane”, and the Indian Dalits realized the importance of this product several thousand years ago. It was they who managed to get the first primitive caramel.

Caramel for Croquembush is the most standard version its decorations, however, if desired, it can be replaced with chocolate icing. In addition, berries, nuts, fruits can serve as a good additional decoration. As for the dough for profiteroles, instead of water, you can take milk., but the main thing is that the amount of liquid for the Croquembush cake corresponds to the above recipe with a photo. For a more intense vanilla flavor dessert, you can add a little vanilla extract to the cream.

There are also some tricks when decorating a cake. For example, for ideal flat surface it is necessary to make a cone out of cardboard in advance, placing it on a plate or tray, and lay out cakes in a circle around it (in a spiral).

Served at weddings, baptisms and first communion. However, we believe that the French serve such a confectionery miracle only to New Year's table. I can assure you - you are a little mistaken.

Yes, indeed, the shape of the croquembush dessert resembles Christmas tree but can you wait whole year until such a delicious culinary delicacy appears on the table?! France disagrees!

Сroquembouche (or rather - croque en bouche) - literally translated from French means "(something) crunches in the mouth" ... And all thanks to the most delicate profiteroles, which are the basis of the dessert and are baked from choux pastry shu, which is used for eclairs, Saint-Honoré cake, salambo, gougère appetizers.

Balls (or profiteroles) of shu dough are filled with anglaise cream, folded into a slide, glued to each other with melted caramel and served. Sometimes the dessert is decorated with small French almond meringue pasta, or whipped cream, ganache is used as a filling. Croquembush can be topped with candied almond flakes, edible marzipan flowers. It all depends on your imagination.

Croquembush dessert history

The invention of French decoration holiday table- Croquembouche is attributed to Marie-Antoine Carême, one of the first representatives of high french cuisine, who included it in 1815 in the cookbook "Royal parisian cuisine"("Le Pâtissier royal parisien"). Even earlier, this dessert was mentioned in 1806 in the culinary encyclopedia of Alexandre Viard (Alexandre Viard's) - "Le Cuisinier Impérial" ("Imperial cuisine") and in the book of the first Parisian restaurateur Antoine Beauvillier ( Antoine Beauvilliers"), who also gave the recipe in "L" Art du Cuisinier "(" Culinary Art ") in 1815.

In the culinary encyclopedia of Wiard and others, earlier cookbooks Croquembush was included in the list of desserts. At that time they were called complex dishes, they were both salty and sweet, served during the opening of large banquets and grandiose feasts.

In popular culture, on March 6, 2009, graduates of the State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering in Pune, India, they built the world's largest croquembush - its height was 4.5 m!

Croquembush ingredients

Shu dough

• water - 375 ml
• butter - 150 g
• flour - 175 g
• eggs - 5 pcs.

Cream Angles

• milk - 600 ml
• vanillin
• egg yolks- 6 pcs.
• sugar - 75 g
• flour - 65 g

Croquembush recipe

Shu dough profiteroles

Preheat the oven to 200° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare the shu dough - pour water into large saucepan and add oil. Bring the mixture to a boil and quickly add all the flour, stirring the mixture thoroughly so that the flour boils and does not form lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring vigorously until the dough has cooled and is firm.

Beat the eggs with a whisk, add a little to the chilled shu dough. Mix everything thoroughly until a homogeneous mass. Transfer the resulting shu dough into a pastry bag and deposit the profiteroles (the diameter of the cone for jigging is 5 mm). For a large croquembush, you need to deposit and bake 75 profiteroles - this will require 3 baking sheets.

When depositing, it is necessary to leave some distance between the blanks, since profiteroles will increase in size during baking. Before baking, smooth each profiterole with a wet finger or a wet brush so that no scallops from the confectionery syringe remain on its surface.

Bake profiteroles for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and pierce the base of each profiterole with the tip of a knife to release the steam. Put in the oven for another 3 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and let it cool down.

Cream anglaise

In fact, this is a well-known custard. If you don't like this, you can fill the profiteroles with whipped cream.

For the crème anglaise, pour the milk into a saucepan, flavor with vanilla, and bring to a boil over low heat. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks, sugar and flour until pale cream. Pour the hot milk into the mixture of eggs, sugar and flour, stirring quickly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring until the mixture thickens.

Strain ready cream anglaise through a fine sieve, cool. Place in a pastry bag and fill each profiterole with it through the hole in the bottom.

To assemble croquembush, you will need a cone made of paper or other food material, ready-made hot caramel.

For caramel, you need to take 300 g of sugar and 225 ml of water. Dissolve sugar in water sugar syrup to a boil, then - boil the caramel to + 154 ° C. As soon as this temperature is reached, dip the pan for a few seconds in cold water the bottom so that the temperature of the caramel does not rise further by inertia.

Dip one side of each profiterole into the caramel and arrange around the prepared cone. If the caramel begins to harden during use, it can be gently reheated over a fire.

After assembly, the croquembush must cool for at least 30 minutes. Garnish the finished, assembled croquembush with thin strands of caramel, edible flowers from marzipan mass, sprinkle with candied almond flakes.