French profiterole cake Croquembouche

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 5 hr

1. STEP 1

   

   How to make a cake from Croquembouche profiteroles? First, let's make the base for the cake. On a sheet of thick paper, draw a quarter circle with a radius of 30 cm (the size can be changed). Cut out the drawn segment and connect it in the shape of a cone; to do this, simply connect the straight sides together. First wrap the resulting cone in several layers of foil, and then cover it tightly with cling film. That's it, our form is ready.

2. STEP 2

   

   How to make custard tarts for a cake? Prepare the necessary ingredients. To speed up the cooking process, the choux pastries can be made the night before. In this case, transfer freshly baked and completely cooled profiteroles into a bag or container with a lid and leave at room temperature until the next day.

3. STEP 3

   

   Cut the butter into small cubes and place it in a 1.5-2 liter saucepan.

4. STEP 4

   

   Add milk, water and a pinch of salt.

5. STEP 5

   

   Place the saucepan on the fire and bring the contents to a boil. The butter should be completely melted.

6. STEP 6

   

   Be sure to sift the flour, this is important, because if there are lumps in the flour, it will be difficult to break them up during brewing.

7. STEP 7

   

   And without removing the saucepan from the heat, add all the flour at once. Remember that you may need less or more flour, you can read more about this in the article, the link to it is at the end of the recipe.

8. STEP 8

   

   Actively stirring the mass with a wooden spoon or spatula, brew the dough for 1-2 minutes over low heat. During this time, the dough should gather into a single mass and turn into a smooth lump, and a thin flour coating should form at the bottom of the pan.

9. STEP 9

   

   Place the cooked portion of the dough into a bowl and let it cool. To make the dough cool faster, I simply stirred it with a spoon for 4-5 minutes.

10. STEP 10

    

    While the dough is cooling, crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork. If you have fairly large eggs, you may need 7 eggs. Wash the eggs with baking soda first, as they may contain harmful bacteria.

11. STEP 11

    

    When the custard has cooled slightly, start adding eggs in small portions. Mix the dough very thoroughly. Once one portion of eggs is fully incorporated, you can add the next portion.

12. STEP 12

    

    You should end up with a very soft, shiny dough.

13. STEP 13

    

    Fill a pastry bag with a round tip with the finished dough. If you don’t have a bag, then take a regular thick bag and cut off a corner of it, or simply spoon out the dough using two teaspoons. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and use a bag to pipe the dough into small mounds at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other. Try to place the dough in small portions, literally the size of a quail egg.

14. STEP 14

    

    You can smooth the tails on the dough with your finger dipped in water.

15. STEP 15

    

    Bake the profiteroles in a preheated oven for first 20 minutes at 200°C, then reduce the temperature to 160°C and bake them for another 15-20 minutes until beautifully golden brown. By the way, it is very important: do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes, otherwise the profiteroles may fall off! Remove the finished profiteroles from the oven and leave to cool. The times are approximate, use your oven as a guide. Read more in the article, the link is at the end of the recipe.

16. STEP 16

    

    How to make custard? Prepare the necessary ingredients. You can also prepare the custard the night before; it will cool well in the refrigerator overnight.

17. STEP 17

    

    Pour the milk into a saucepan, put it on the fire and heat well, almost until it boils.

18. STEP 18

    

    Meanwhile, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.

19. STEP 19

    

    Beat lightly with a whisk. You don’t have to try to completely dissolve the sugar; it will dissolve when you add hot milk.

20. STEP 20

    

    Add flour to the egg mixture (it also needs to be sifted) and mix thoroughly with a whisk.

21. STEP 21

    

    Pour hot milk into the resulting mixture in a thin stream, while constantly stirring with a whisk.

22. STEP 22

    

    Pour the resulting mass back into the saucepan and place on low heat.

23. STEP 23

    

    With constant stirring, brew the mixture until a thick, smooth cream is obtained. To do this, simply bring the cream to a boil - you will notice how bubbles begin to appear on its surface and that’s it, you can remove the cream from the heat. And also, be sure to stir the cream constantly, do not leave it for a minute, otherwise it may burn and, in addition, lumps may form in it.

24. STEP 24

    

    Pour the finished cream into a bowl and, stirring from time to time, leave it to cool for 10-15 minutes. By the way, if suddenly lumps still form in your cream, then simply strain it through a sieve.

25. STEP 25

    

    Stir the butter into the cooled cream.

26. STEP 26

    

    Cover the finished cream with film so that it fits tightly to the surface of the cream and cool it well. When you have the profiteroles, cream and cone shape ready, you can start assembling the cake.

27. STEP 27

    

    How to make caramel? Prepare the necessary ingredients. Caramel is not difficult to prepare, but when working with it you need to be very, very careful and attentive, as you can get seriously burned. Alternatively, instead of caramel, you can use melted and slightly cooled chocolate to assemble the cake. The choice of chocolate (white, black or milk) is completely up to your taste.

28. STEP 28

    

    Pour sugar into the center of the saucepan and add water to it. If sugar crystals get on the walls of the saucepan, be sure to wash them off with a slightly damp brush.

29. STEP 29

    

    Place the saucepan on the fire and melt the sugar over high heat until it becomes caramel. Be careful, stir the mixture only until it boils. Also, watch the color of the caramel and don’t burn it.

30. STEP 30

    

    Dip the caps of 30 profiteroles into hot, freshly cooked caramel and place them caps on a sheet of parchment, greased with a thin layer of vegetable oil, leave the profiteroles in this form for 5 minutes so that the caramel completely hardens. This is not necessary, but this way the cake will look more elegant. Try to make the caramel layer not very thick so that it is convenient to eat the profiteroles.

31. STEP 31

    

    This is such a beautiful caramel crust that you get on the cakes.

32. STEP 32

    

    Fill a pastry bag with a narrow nozzle with cream and fill it with 60-70 small profiteroles (30 pieces with caramel crust and 30 pieces without it). I indicate the number of profiteroles based on the calculation that for one pyramid 30 cm high you will need about 60-70 small profiteroles.

33. STEP 33

    

    Build a pyramid. To do this, if necessary, cook a fresh portion of caramel and carefully dip the filled profiteroles on the side (on the side where they will come into contact with other cakes) and cover the entire cone with them, alternating cakes with and without a caramel crust.

34. STEP 34

    

    Cut off the tip of the cone, this will make it easier to lay out the last cake. This is such a cute Christmas tree.

35. STEP 35

    

    Traditionally, Croquembouche is decorated with fresh or sweet flowers. I used sweet (sugar) roses. You can glue sweet flowers using caramel or melted chocolate.

36. STEP 36

    

    At the very end, decorate the cake with caramel threads. Just keep in mind that this should be done no more than 1-2 hours before serving, since the caramel is very finicky and these threads begin to melt over time. To make caramel threads, cook a new portion of caramel and let it cool a little, dip a fork or whisk into it and wait until the caramel begins to flow down into a thin thread and start wrapping the cake with these threads.

37. STEP 37

    

    French dessert - Croquembouche cake made from profiteroles is ready!

38. STEP 38

    

    When serving, the cake is not cut, but simply disassembled into cakes.

39. STEP 39

    

    Bon appetit!

Comments on the recipe

mother of a sweet tooth

27.12.2023

4.8

Thank you for such beauty and for your painstaking work (many photographs and the whole process described in detail)!!!

nasstin

27.12.2023

5

What a beauty! What a sight for sore eyes!

Nadin_Ka

27.12.2023

4.9

How unusual! I'm taking it for myself!

Natusik

27.12.2023

4.5

Violochka, what a delight you brought us!!! I can imagine how delicious it is! But I’m still afraid to try it, I’ve cooked a lot of things in my life, but never profiteroles. Well, you have to take a risk in the end! Thank you very much for the recipe!

Marina_

27.12.2023

4.6

Thanks for the recipe! Very beautiful! <br />By the way, choux pastry is not really capricious. So don’t be afraid to work with it if it’s your first time. The description with photo of the recipe is absolutely super! Everything is visible, clear and understandable. I wish there were more such detailed recipes.

Natasha

27.12.2023

4.7

A very beautiful and delicious cake. I made it for my birthday, everyone really liked it. Thanks for the recipe and detailed description with photos.