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!