Easter Croquembouche

My Easter centrepiece is a croquembouche, a stack or tower of profiteroles bound together with caramel. It does involve a little bit work, but I felt extremely proud of myself when it was finished and my friends were diving in for seconds, thirds and fourths. I have wanted to make one for ages, mainly for the challenge as there are lots of techniques involved, but also because a profiterole filled with smooth custard then coated in a thin crispy caramel just sounds delicious.

I’ve gone with an Easter theme and decorated mine with some little wafer flowers from The Cooperative Food home baking range and some Easter pralines in the shape of eggs, hens and rabbits (also from The Cooperative Food). I went a bit crazy and decided to make a nest out of spun sugar but I’m not going to detail how to do that here. My average sized kitchen was a little bit sugary and sticky by the time I’d finished and working with hot sugar can be really dangerous! If you’re an experienced baker then go for it, but if you’re more of a novice I’d recommend that you go for more is more on the other decorations.

For the pastry (makes about 40)

• 150g unsalted butter
• 200g plain flour
• 450ml water
• 4 large eggs
• 75g golden caster sugar
• Pinch of salt

For the filling

• 6 large egg yolks
• 600ml whole milk
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 150g The Cooperative Fairtrade Ghanaian dark chocolate (85% Cocoa)
• Pinch of salt

To assemble

• Lots of caster sugar (at least 400g just to be safe and as insurance in case you burn a batch by mistake)
• The Cooperative Wafer Flowers
• The Cooperative Spring Pralines

You can find lots of lovely things in The Cooperative home baking range, have a look here: http://www.co-operativefood.co.uk/groceries/home-baking/

Start with the pastry crème which will fill the profiteroles – it must be completely cold before piping. You can do this step a day in advance if it helps!

• Put the milk in a large pan and start to heat gently.
• Separate 6 eggs (keep the whites for something else, they freeze really well!) and beat in the sugar.
• Tip in the flour and salt then mix thoroughly until there are no lumps and the mixture looks like a paste.
• Once the milk has started to bubble slightly at the edges, pour half over the egg/sugar/flour paste and mix together.
• Pour the mixture back in to the pan with the other half of the milk, stir well and turn the heat to medium.
• At this point, the MOST important thing to do is to stir constantly, even if your arms start aching!
• The mixture will take about 10 minutes to thicken; you’ll know it’s ready when it’s the consistency of traditional thick custard. Remove it from the heat at this point.
• Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie) or for 60 seconds in the microwave then stir through the pastry crème.
• Cover the pastry crème immediately either with a dusting of icing sugar or with tightly fitting cling film. This will stop a skin forming. Leave in a cool place while you prepare the choux, or if you’re making in advance, wait until it’s totally cold then refrigerate.

To make the profiteroles (this can also be done in advance, either freeze or keep in an airtight container until you’re ready to fill.)

• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 200 degrees.
• Melt the butter in a large pan and add the water. Bring to the boil.
• Tip in the flour and salt then turn off the heat, beat the mixture together quickly (wooden spoon is your best friend for this job) until it comes together. It should come away from the sides of the pan and look smooth.
• Lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl. You’ll need some energy for this next part, or you might choose to rope in a mate to take over when your arm hurts.
• Beat the egg in to the dough until combined, and then gradually keep adding until the dough is smooth and silky.
• Grease a couple of baking sheets and spoon on teaspoon sized amounts of the dough leaving a few centimetres between each. Dab each mound with a bit of cold water then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The buns should rise and be golden brown.
• Take the buns out of the oven then pierce a hole in the bottom of each bun before leaving to cool on a wire rack.
• At this point you might need to make another batch depending on the size of your oven and baking sheet(s).
• Once the buns have cooled, put them back in to the oven for a further 5 minutes to crisp up.

To assemble!

You do need a piping bag to get the filling in to the buns, but if you really can’t get hold of one you can slice open the choux buns and spoon in the custard however it could make assembly a little tricky. You’ll need a 5mm plain nozzle for the piping bag. You’ll also need a mould of some description; I made mine out of a piece of cardboard, held together with a few strips of tape. The one I made was 25cm tall and measured 60cm round at the base. I covered the whole thing in greaseproof paper.

• Fill each bun with the chocolate filling, be generous, and don’t scrimp here.
• When all the buns have been filled, you can start on the caramel.

I found this easiest to do in 3 or 4 batches as caramel is tricky to get right if you’re not well practised.

• Tip some caster sugar in to a shallow frying pan and turn up the heat.
• You’ll see little beads of sugar start to melt at the edges and the sugar will start to turn golden, don’t be afraid to give it a bit of swirl if some parts aren’t melting but avoid stirring with a spoon.
• Once the sugar has all melted and the colour is golden brown, bring the pan over to the buns and mould.
• CAREFULLY dip each bun in to the caramel then work quickly to stick the buns round the mould.
• If you need to, make more caramel and carry on until all the buns are coated and your croquembouche starts becoming recognisable!
• Use a bit of leftover pastry crème to decorate with the wafer flowers and pralines.
• Stand back and admire your work!

Croissant Bread and Raspberry Pudding

This easy pudding is a bit different to the normal bread and butter pudding recipe as the flakiness of the croissants gives a slightly lighter texture. I’ve added raspberry flavour using jam, but you can add whatever fruit flavour you like, or just leave it out completely. I always spot croissants in the reduced bit in the supermarket, so look out for them there as it’s best made with dry croissants.

Ingredients:

• 6 stale croissants
• 300ml double cream
• 300ml whole milk
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 250g caster sugar
• 200g seedless raspberry jam
• Handful of fresh raspberries (optional)

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, gas mark 4.
• Grease a 12cm dish with butter (see the photo for the one I used – it’s not hugely important).
• Slice the croissants across in to 1cm slices, then generously spread each with jam.
• Arrange the slices in rows in the dish, packing them in a bit (it gets a bit messy).
• Heat up the milk, sugar and cream in a saucepan until it’s bubbling, then add a little bit of the hot mix to the beaten eggs. Whisk really well until combined.
• Keep adding the hot mix to the eggs until everything is combined and smooth.
• Pour the custard mix back in to the saucepan and heat gently for 5 minutes until it thickens slightly. Be careful not to let the mixture catch on the bottom as it will cook the eggs and go lumpy.
• Once it’s thickened, pour over the croissants, pushing them down a bit and making sure they soak up as much custard as possible.
• Find your largest roasting tin and add a mug of water, then put the pudding dish in to the larger dish to create a bain-marie or water bath.
• Cover the pudding tightly with foil then make a couple of holes in the top to let the steam escape.
• Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
• Allow to cool for 15 minutes before eating; serve with ice cream, custard, cream or just eat on its own!

Banana Cake with Lime Cream Cheese Glaze

Some people are a bit funny about eating over ripe bananas (my husband Jason just refuses!) so before you throw them away, consider using them up by disguising any darker bits in a cake. You can also freeze over ripe bananas then thaw them out when you fancy baking.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 350g ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 medium)
• 150g plain flour
• Half a granny smith apple, peeled
• 120g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120g soft brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
• Pinch of salt

For the glaze:

• 200g cream cheese
• Juice of 2 limes
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk

Notes on equipment: It’s useful to have a handheld electric whisk for this recipe; they are very easy to find and at about £5 it makes sense to invest in one if you can. You’ll also need a sieve for the dry ingredients which will help you get air in to the cake and prevent it becoming too dense. The cake tin I have used is a loose bottomed 8 inch tin, but if you don’t have that exact one, you can use a similar size; a bigger tin will give a larger surface area, so you’ll need to reduce the cooking time slightly. You could also make this in a loaf tin which will mean a slightly longer cooking time.

Method:

For the cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 180 degrees.
• Grease a loose bottomed 8 inch cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
• Using an electric whisk, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs a little at a time.
• Peel and mash the bananas and grate in the apple, give it a good mix then add the nuts and stir through.
• Add the fruit and nuts to the wet mixture and stir well.
• Sift in the dry ingredients through a sieve then fold in until well combined. Don’t stress about lumps here!
• Pour the cake mix in to the tin and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, stick a tooth pick in to the cake and if it comes out clean, take the cake out and allow to cool in the tin. If the toothpick doesn’t come out clean, give it another 5 minutes and try again.
• Once the cake has cooled and come away from the tin a little, turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:

• Combine all ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
• Once the cake is totally cool (don’t be impatient), pour over the top and smooth out using the back of a spoon, the glaze will drip down the sides and set very slightly.