Originally Posted by
xmasjules
To make a Croquembouche (French word that means crunch to the mouth), you need to first make proffiteroles. I use the recipe for chocolate eclairs with custard cream that is on the "Taste.com.au" website. However, instead of piping long lengths, I use spoons to make small balls that will puff up to approx twice their size once cooked.
When cooled, I fill with custard cream. For this, I just make a really thick custard (like you would for vanilla slice). Then I whip 300ml cream until really thick. Then I combine the two and beat until light and fluffy. You can use the custard cream recipe with the eclair recipe, but I find the cream doesn't whip as well once the custard is added, so you need to whip the cream seperately and make the custard thicker (probably double the custard powder in the recipe), but that is just my opinion. Feel free to experiment until you get a thickness you like.
Then you need to make toffee. I make mine green, as I decorate it as a Christmas tree, however most places make it plain golden brown toffee and decorate with sugared flowers. If you google "croquembouche", you can see images of how people decorate them. I just use a normal toffee recipe used for toffee apples, as you want a thin layer of toffee that will set hard. Again, if you google "croquembouche", it will also give you recipes for the toffee and the proffiteroles along with instructions on how to put them together.
I was going to buy the croquembouche tin, but it is so expensive. I may just buy an orange witches hat (traffic cone), and pile the proffiteroles around the outside of it (after covering the cone in cling wrap first of course). This way I can remove the cone from the croquembouche and pull out the cling wrap when serving.
I will try to get a photo to attach here when I set everything up for the morning tea (December 03rd).