Gruber’s Grubs: Croquembouche

By Gabriella Gruber, Online Content Manager and Social Media Manager

Impress your family and friends with this delightful, decadent, and delicious dessert! Enjoy!

The instructions are listed below.

Ingredients: 

For the pastry cream:

• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• 5 egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 ounces chocolate

For the pâte à choux:

• ½ cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup flour
• 5 large eggs

For the craquelin:

• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour 
• Pinch of salt 

Directions

To make the pastry cream:

1. Combine the milk, vanilla extract, and salt into a pot. Put the mixture on the stove at medium heat and wait for it to come to a simmer. Make sure to whisk this occasionally.
2. While the milk is simmering, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks in a bowl. Whisk this until a very light and thick mixture forms.
3. Use a ladle to pour half of the hot milk into the egg mixture. While doing this, continue to whisk vigorously. After doing this, combine the egg mixture back into the pot with the leftover milk.
4. Whisk the mixture constantly until it becomes thick. Now, incorporate the butter. When the butter is melted, then add in the chocolate. Continue to mix until everything is smooth.
5. Take the pastry cream off of the stove, and move it into a bowl. Put plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to preserve it while it chills in the refrigerator.

To make the pâte à choux:

1. In a pot, combine the milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Bring this to a simmer and stir with a wooden spoon. 
2. Now, stir the flour into this mixture to create the dough. Once all of the flour has disappeared, stir the mixture until a soft ball is formed in the pot.
3. After this, scrape the dough into a stand mixer and turn it on medium speed. While doing this, add the eggs one at a time. Keep doing this until the mixture becomes smooth.

To make the craquelin:

1. Combine butter and brown sugar into a bowl. Mix these together with a spatula until a smooth mixture is created. 
2. Then, add in the flour and salt. Stir this until there is no more flour left and the dough is stiff. 
3. Roll out the dough onto parchment paper and cut small circles out of this. 
4. Cover and refrigerate these until they are ready to be used.

Baking:

1. On parchment paper, use a pastry bag and create small dots of the pâte à choux. 
2. Once you have used up all of the dough, add a craquelin circle to the top of each dot. 
3. Put this in the oven at 425 degrees. 

Assembly:

1. Once the pâte à choux are golden brown, take them out of the oven and poke small holes in the bottom of them. 
2. Put the pastry cream into the pastry bag and fill the inside of the pâte à choux with the cream. 
3. Make caramel by putting sugar and water in a pot and leaving it to simmer. 
4. Once the caramel is made, dip each individual cream puff into the caramel.
5. Create a circle of carmel on a plate and place the cream puffs into the caramel in a circular fashion. Continue to stack the cream puffs on top of eachother to create a cone shape.