Christmas day dessert idea - anyone made a croquembouche?

Two batches hardly rose at all :/ And over did about 10 as well. Bah, we'll see how it goes.

About 20 buns in all are too small/overdone. Hoping the final 20 rise alright though. I may have to make another smaller batch tonight and make some properly big ones otherwise I think my tower will be too small. Not sure if I should use the small ones or not really.

Hardly got the time to do this! ARGH. I suppose there is Christmas Eve though...
 
to fill a piping bag, you hold the piping bag in one hand and sort of peel the bag down towards the nozzle allowing you easy access to the bag, add some mix then fold bag up a bit and do again and so forth till you have a fulll bag.


They do expand a lot. Getting used to what the difference will be takes time. That it why just using a t-spoon instead of piping can sometimes be easier as gives you a idea of consistent sizes.

When they have cooled. You can use your little finger (or something else suitable,) to make a hole in the bottom of each one so you can pipe your chosen cream into them. A lot easier than using a knife.
 
Second batch of choux is in the oven... Got a feeling this one is going to fail. The mixture seemed a lot thicker and I had to put more egg in, just didn't feel right...

Had a go at caramel, turned out really well (beginner's luck?!)
 
I had a disaster! Whilst making mine I dropped boiling caramel on my fingers resulting in 4 very painful blisters :( I had to give the reins to my other half. The resulting croquembouche looked like a sack of **** and am not posting photos! Will post photos of blisters (they look more attractive than the croquembouche!)
 
OK... here goes, here's mine:

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I am, of course, talking ****. Prepare to laugh - I refuse to call it a croquembouche, it was a "pile of profiteroles".

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Oh well. It tasted nice and I made it all myself. Just a shame I failed at the final hurdle thanks to my clumsiness!
 
Looks tatsty, but yep more of a pile. However nothing's lost. Practice makes perfect and all that. Got to make the choux pastry tomorrow evening.
 
Had mine tonight, used white choc as the cement. Got pictures, but can't upload until I get to my pc, Thursday or maybe tomorrow. Went down a treat though!
 
LOL! Quality...

To be honest, I won't be challenging Delia Smith to a bake off anytime soon. I'm good at cooking, some might say "great", but I'm in envy of pastry chefs and bakers because I just cannot get it right. Spinning sugar is great fun, though it's a bit trial and error for me as I don't have a sugar thermometre so I had a 30 second gap to spin it before it had to be heated again so it didnt set in the pan...

I won't be making one of these anytime soon. I know for a fact it'll go wrong and it'll all end in tears.
 
First banch done, started off with piping bag, then it all fell out the end and went every where. Went to spoon and they are to large. Changed to a teaspoon for second batch and am sorting out a knew piping bag, so will give that a go again, as they do look nicer.

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Oven so crap can only do one tray at a time.
 
Looked a bit better in real life, I didn't go for a tower because I wasn't sure if it would work. So more of a pyramid. Really tasty though.

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vicisthebest said:
Pic Glaucus! Pic! x
Click to expand...

Just for you.



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By no means is it great but I'm pretty happy. If I can get it out and it stands up. Now a pro at making caramel each batch got better and better. Run out of time now, wanted to do so much more yesterday but had to fix parents comp, so didn't get home till late afternoon. Don't think I'll get time to do spun sugar, but I know I can do it know, made enough by accident.

Really want to make this again, need to master piping bag, so they are all neat and same size and smaller.
 
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