Croquembouche
One of the classic French special occasion desserts is the Croquembouche. The Chef's Companion describes the dessert as "bite-size cream puffs piled high into a pyramid and cemented together with sugar glaze or caramel." This seems a rather pedestrian description for the pastry. The one pictured above was for a wedding and had several hundred cream puffs filled with pastry cream.
The construction involves placing hot caramel coated cream puffs into special cylindrical molds designed for this purpose. When the caramel has cooled , the pastry pyramid is un-molded and decorated accordingly. Often times, spin sugar is added for effect. The spun sugar does not work, though, in humid conditions. The tip for serving this dessert is to use a pair of kitchen shears to cut off portions. Personally, I like to have cream puffs on the side that are more easily served and use the pyramid to finish serving.
Chef Christine Dahl, Christine Dahl Pastries, prepared this example for a large wedding in Montecito, CA. It served about 200 guests.
Chef Michael Hutchings
Michael's Catering
Santa Barbara, CA
