Christmas day dessert idea - anyone made a croquembouche?

You don't have to make a croquembouche with caramel, although it is the most traditional, when I made one i put custard in the choux and stuck it together using cardboard and silver foil and chocolate as children tend to prefer that.
It is also a great alternative for people who have never made it before as it is easier to put together as chocolate really hardens up in the fridge.
 
Ahleckz said:
I was looking at videos of these last night, and I'm now thinking it's going to be an awfully daunting adventure!
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It shouldn't be that bad to be honest. Making the choux pastry is quite easy and baking everything is quite simple. I'm actually thinking this recipe has a bit of a bad rep and will be simpler than it might seem.

Of course I'm perfectly setting myself up to fail here :p
 
Assembly is my main concern really, and decorating it. I'm not the most artistic person so I'm concerned that it'll just look like a total mess! :o

Looking forward to seeing pictures of our attempts though!
 
Oh, I'm certainly going to give it a go.
Just trying to decide what recipe to use and what to use to flavour my cream. I've read that limoncello and an orange liqueur is often used however I'm thinking it would be gorgeous with Amaretto.
 
FYI: Delia Smith still sucks at cooking and her idea of moistening the greaseproof paper before piping the choux dough onto it is a terrible one.

Take two of practice runs tomorrow :p
 
Keep us posted Frenchiepoos!

I've decided to go for a Disaronno cream.

I'm going to give the sugar work a trial run, and maybe make a couple of shoe (La Cusines new meme?) balls but not planning on an entire practice.
 
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I've decided to go half-and-half with the cream. Half plain, half flavoured with Bailey's (making it for younger siblings, one of whom is a bit funny about alcohol-flavoured things. She's OK with Bailey's though).

Was still at the thinking stage when I first started this thread but now feeling I have to do it, no backing out now!
 
'ive made one before, and rather than do a full trial run. If you haven't made Choux pastry before, make some chocolate eclaires,, as practice, the cone and mould is the easy bit.
and to be honest a bag of sugar is cheap, so practice the caramel
.
 
I had another run again last night to serve to guests at a house party and the sugar went quite horribly wrong. Mostly due to not attending it properly and expecting it to take less time than it did to warm up (moderate heat = le suck).

The end result was still damn nice, just not optimal. I would definitely do as mangobreeder said and do a few trial runs with le cheap sugar. As I've said before, the choux pastry part is fairly easy.
 
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