Cream Puff Tree or CROQUEMBUCHE

Submitted by: jej
Last Updated: 10/27/2005

CROQUEMBOUCHE (Cream Puff Tree)

[This recipe comes from "Great Italian Cooking" by Luigi Carnacina. I've had this book for years. I am giving the "Croquembouche/Cream Puff Tree" (assembly) directions as they are in the book. Luigi has the actual individual recipes in various sections in the book. I am placing them separately. They are called "DESSERT -- CREAM PUFFS, plus their FILLINGS & ICINGS," all in one big section together, so you do not have to hunt all through my recipes for them. I have a few observations which I am italicizing. I am not sure what will happen to the italics when they are posted into my recipe collection, but if they don't work, I'll try to edit and make corrections.]

Luigi says:
"This magnificent dessert is extremely festive and impressive to look at, delightful to eat, and not terribly difficult to make. If one can make cream puffs and caramel, the effort expended on this confection is mainly patience. Although it is time consuming to prepare, one should not become panicky or hasty. Work calmly and all will be well."

1-1/2 recipe Cream Puff Dough
1 recipe Pastry Cream (the filling)
1 cup Fondant Icing
1 cup Chocolate Icing
1/2 recipe Genoise Base for Petits Fours
Caramel: 1 cup sugar & 1/3 cup cold water

Garnishes:
6 thin wedges candied citron
9 small wedges candied pineapple
15 Glaceed Strawberries, made with tiniest berries available
1/4 cup pistachio nuts, chopped
1/2 Fondant Icing
(Optional: chocolate lattice crown (see note below)

1) Place the cream puff dough in a pastry bag fitted with the large plain tip (or use the nozzle of the bag) and pipe out 40 small puffs about the size of a very small walnut onto a lightly buttered baking sheet. (When baked they should be 1-1/2 inches in diameter.) Bake as indicated in Cream Puff Dough recipe instructions.

2) Butter a 9-inch cake tin, line it with wax paper, butter that, dust with flour, and shake out the excess. Pour in the Genoise batter and bake as directed in that recipe. When baked, remove from oven, turn out on a cake rack, carefully peel off the paper, and cool. It should be a VERY thin cake.

3) Meanwhile prepare the pastry cream and allow it to chill, and prepare the fondant and icing. Have the garnishes all prepared and set out on plates. When the cake, puffs, and cream are properly cooked, begin your preparation.
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4) Fill each of the puffs with the pastry cream as indicated in the Cream Puff recipe. Spread the sides of 18 of the puffs with the fondant icing, leaving their tops and bottoms un-iced. Pour the rest of the icing over the cake, which has been placed on a large platter.

5) While the icing is still warm, press in 18 of the puffs as follows: draw an 8-inch circle on top of the cake and arrange 11 of the fondant-iced puffs around it, with their sides touching. Fill the center space with 7 of the un-iced filled puffs. Ice the remaining puffs with chocolate icing (you may choose to merely decorate some of them with thin lines and swirls of chocolate icing, squeezed from a stiff paper cornucopia with the end snipped off). Leave one puff un-iced and undecorated. Place all of the puffs and the puff-topped iced cake in the refrigerator. Make sure the loose puffs do not touch.

6) Place the sugar and water for the caramel in a small, very heavy saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar for about 5 minutes and then cook until a caramel syrup is formed, deep golden in color (356 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat at once and place saucepan in a larger pan of boiling water. (This arrests the cooking of the caramel, which must not burn, yet keeps it hot.)

7) Remove the puffs from the refrigerator. Take the chocolate-iced puffs and dip their bottoms in the caramel, 1 at a time. Use tongs for this as the caramel is very hot and can cause a serious burn. Arrange them over the un-iced puffs on top of the iced cake. This will give you a small circle of puffs, leaving the outer layer of ring of fondant-iced puffs uncovered. This is to be the 'second story' of the cake. It should take 8 or 9 puffs. When this has been done, fill the empty space in the center with 1 or 2 more puffs, dipping the bottoms of each in the caramel.

[NOTE: The 4th sentence says to "arrange them over the un-iced puffs on top." The last sentence suggests that it should be only a ring of the chocolate-iced puffs, leaving the center free to receive the "1 or 2 more puffs." If you do not question the paragraph as written, ignore this Note. --jej]

8) The third 'story' should take 6 puffs, the fourth 4 puffs, each dipped in caramel and placed on the last story at once, before the syrup has cooled. The caramel acts as a cement holding the layers together. Take the single un-iced puff and dip it totally in the caramel, then place it on the 'peak,' at the top of the cake (or tree).

9) Press the chopped pistachios around the side of the cake base. Place a glaceed strawberry between each puff of the first layer; place a wedge of candied pineapple between each puff of the second layer; place a wedge of candied citron between those of the third and fourth layers; and place a glaceed strawberry between each puff of the fifth layer. Place the 1/2 cup of fondant icing in a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip and pipe on little dabs of icing as shown in the picture.

[NOTE: The 'little dabs' are shown between each puff of the first layer, but sort of 'back in.' They are not resting on the glaceed strawberries. The next layer to receive dabs of this icing is the third layer. Because the croquembouche in the picture has 7 layers (counting the single puff at the top!), the next puffs are between the puffs of the fifth layer. This is another 'place them where you'd like them' kind of thing, INO. --jej]

10) Crown the tree with the optional chocolate crown. Serve as soon as possible. Serves 12.

NOTE: The chocolate crown is almost impossible to make without a special kind of chocolate used by candy makers, called 'dipping' chocolate, which hardens after it has melted. Regular baking chocolate will not harden enough. If you can obtain dipping chocolate, make the lattice as follows: Lightly butter a large sheet of aluminum foil, drape it over rolling pin, leaving a wide 'skirt' at the bottom. This will give you a curved surface. Heat the chocolate in a cup overwarm water until it is just melted. Pour it into a nucopia made of stiff paper. Snip off the end to make a tiny hole. Pipe the chocolate in strips on to the foil, to create 3 tear-shaped lattices as shown in the photograph. (They come to a point at the top, with several 'strands' at the bottom. Think of a trellis upside-down, but it is more streamlined. The 'cross' pieces in the picture are curved, rather than going straight across.) Let the chocolate cool, then carefully peel off the foil. Tuck the bottom edges of each lattice under the top puff and fix it in place with a little cool fondant icing. (In the picture, the lattices with the puff inside made me think a little of a bird cage.)

For additional effect, the example shown in the photograph has been made in 7 layers. If you wish to accomplish this, increase all ingredients by 1/2 and make 60 puffs, etc. Also, the photographed example is further garnished with glaceed apple slices. These are made by slicing a red unpeeled apple into very thin wedges and treating them in the same manner as Glaceed Strawberries (see recipe).