Christmas Recipe Day 15…
Prep Time: 30 minutes. Bake Time: 1 hour. Serves: 8
Christmas Croquembouche…what a wonderful sight to see as a centrepiece on a lovely decorated table. This tower of a dessert will be sure to put smiles on your family’s faces and will be so much fun to eat! Crisp, yet soft choux pastry puffs filled with smooth vanilla cream will make for a spectacular dessert tasting this Christmas. We know you will all love it and the best thing is that you can decorate and design it any way you like!
Ingredients:
-325ml whole milk
-225g butter
-1tbsp caster sugar
-275g plain flour
-1/2tsp salt
-8 free range eggs
-400g ready made caramel
For the cream filling:
-1 litre double cream
-1 vanilla pod (substitutes available on Android and iOS)
-100g icing sugar
Method:
1. For the Christmas croquembouche start off by making a large cone out of cardboard and seal with a staple or Sellotape from the inside- do not use glue. Cover and secure greaseproof paper around the cone- this will help the choux pastry’s stick better. You can make up to 50cm tall to make enough room for all the choux pastry’s.
2. Next pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5/ 375F/ 190C and grease approximately 3-4 baking trays with melted butter, then line with grease proof paper.
3. Now add the sugar, milk, butter with 320 ml of water in a large saucepan, then sprinkle in the salt. Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer until the butter has melted.
4. Next sieve in the flour and mix using a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a smooth dough and goes to one side. Mix for about 20 seconds and then set aside.
5. Add in the eggs one at a time using an electric whisk. Once you have added in all the eggs you should have a smooth silky mix.
6. Now that you have your mixture place it in a piping bag with a round nozzle and pipe out 3cm circles onto the baking trays making sure you leave at least 3cm gap between each one as well. Repeat this until you have finished all your mixture.
7. Turn the heat down slightly on the oven to gas mark 4 then bake the choux pastry’s for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden brown and nicely puffed up.
8. Take them out of the oven and then make small slit on the side of each choux pastry then pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
9. Once baked take them out the oven and place them to one side to cool. While they’re cooling you can make the cream filling. To make the filling whip then cream until it forms soft peaks then add in the icing sugar and whip it through. Finally add in the seeds from the vanilla pod and mix well.
10. Once the choux pastry’s have cooled, add the cream mixture into a piping bag and use a thinner nozzle this time. Pipe a small blob of the cream mixture into each choux pastry and set them aside. Repeat until all of them have been filled.
11. Finally add the caramel into a bowl and dip the base of each choux pastry into the caramel and the stick onto the cone. Repeat this with all of them and add more caramel to the sides of the choux pastry’s to make sure they also stick to each other (You want to make sure you can’t see the cardboard at all so cover as much as you can).
12. If you have caramel left over pour it on and sprinkle with decorations! We love desiccated coconut and sweets to make it look like snow and holly! You could even use edible glitter, edible water decorations, chocolates, cocoa powder, icing sugar for dusting and lots more,…the list is endless!
A recipe that’s a little more complicated and takes longer to make but soooo worth the wait!
Christmas Croquembouche…Choux’d be glad you chose to make this 😉
