Croquembouche Recipe Profiterole Tower HOW TO COOK THAT Ann Reardon

heavy cream

🥗Healthier: Greek yogurt

💰Cheaper: whipped topping

Greek yogurt reduces calories while maintaining creaminess

caramel

🥗Healthier: honey

💰Cheaper: sugar syrup

Honey provides sweetness with fewer processed ingredients

Once your pastry cream is cooled, place it into a piping bag and cut just the very tip off.

Poke the piping bag tip into the choux pastry balls and squeeze the mixture in until it starts to expand.

To make a cone mold, roll cardboard into a cone shape, trim the base flat, and staple it together, using tape if necessary. The cone should be 27cm tall and 10cm in diameter at the base.

Line the cone mold with non-stick baking paper.

In a saucepan, combine sugar and water with a little glucose or corn syrup, stirring until dissolved.

Wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush and leave unstirred over high heat until it starts to go golden, which takes around 6 minutes.

Once golden, remove from heat and be cautious as the sugar syrup is extremely hot.

Choose a nice-looking pastry to place at the base of the cone with the nice side facing down.

Dip the top and side of the pastry into the hot sugar syrup and place it on top of the base pastry, repeating this for the next pastries.

Continue adding pastries, dipping them in syrup to glue them together, until you reach the top of the cone.

Leave the croquembouche to cool for a moment before peeling back any excess paper and flipping it onto a serving plate.

Remove the tape and cardboard from the cone and gently unwrap the baking paper.

Using a wire whisk, trim off the loops from the end, or use two forks instead.

Place baking paper over a container so that it is raised at each end and dips in the middle.

Dip the whisk in the sugar syrup and drag it back and forth across the baking paper to create fine threads of sugar.

If the sugar syrup sets too much, reheat it to make it liquid again or make a fresh batch.

Continue dragging until you have enough angel hair sugar, then lift it off the paper and wrap it around the croquembouche.

Repeat the process until you are satisfied with the coverage, and add decorations like edible flowers.

Cooking Techniques

Equipment Needed

Spice Level:

Dietary

Allergens