Croquembouche Recipe: How to Make French Croquembouche

For the crème pâtissière:

• 2¼ cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 9 large egg yolks
• ⅓ cup cornstarch
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cubed

For the pâte à choux:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus one tablespoon water, divided
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs, room temperature, plus 1 egg yolk

For the caramel:

• 3 cups sugar

1. 1

   Make the pastry cream. In a large pot over medium heat, bring the milk, vanilla bean, and half of the sugar to a boil, slowly stirring to prevent the mixture from burning on the bottom of the pot.

2. 2

   In a bowl, whisk together the other half of the sugar with the egg yolks. Whisk immediately to prevent the yolks from “burning,” or drying out upon contact with the sugar.

3. 3

   Stir in the cornstarch until smooth, then slowly whisk in ½ cup of the warm milk and sugar mixture, stirring until evenly combined. This process is tempering, a cooking technique in which you gradually raise the temperature of a cold or room-temperature ingredient—in this case, eggs—by adding small amounts of a hot liquid to prevent the cold ingredient from cooking quickly or too much. If you add all of the hot liquid into the eggs at once, you’re going to end up with lumpy scrambled eggs in your pastry cream.

4. 4

   While stirring, pour the egg mixture back into the pot of milk.

5. 5

   On low to medium heat while stirring constantly, heat the mixture until it noticeably thickens. It takes about 3 minutes or so to thicken. Once thickened, it takes 2 minutes to cook out the raw taste from the cornstarch. It will continue to thicken as it cools, so remove it from the heat before you evaporate off too much water. Look for the foam on the top of the custard to start disappearing, which signifies that the custard is almost finished cooking.

6. 6

   Remove from heat and allow the custard to cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally.

7. 7

   Add in the cubed butter and whisk until evenly combined. Good pastry cream is rich and smooth, with a pale yellow color and a glossy, velvety texture. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to help remove any lumps and to remove the vanilla bean.

8. 8

   Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap pressed up against the surface of the pastry cream to prevent skin from forming, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

9. 9

   Make the choux buns. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

10. 10

    Make the choux pastry. In a medium saucepan, bring the butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup of water to a boil over medium heat.

11. 11

    Remove from the heat and add the flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir until the dough comes together in a smooth ball, about 5 minutes.

12. 12

    Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition.

13. 13

    Make the egg wash. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and 1 tablespoon water.

14. 14

    Transfer choux pastry to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe 1-inch balls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

15. 15

    Using a pastry brush, gently brush the top of each choux bun with egg wash.

16. 16

    Bake until puffed up, about 5–10 minutes.

17. 17

    Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking choux buns until golden brown, about 10–15 minutes longer.

18. 18

    Transfer shells to a wire rack. Using a paring knife, poke a small slit into each bun’s bottom and let cool completely.

19. 19

    While buns are cooling, fill a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip with crème pâtissière. If you made the pastry cream ahead of time, give it a quick whisk to loosen.

20. 20

    When the buns are completely cool, pipe the pastry cream into each bun and set aside.

21. 21

    Make the caramel. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water.

22. 22

    Using a heat-proof spatula, stir until sugar dissolves. When the sugar mixture begins to boil, stop stirring.

23. 23

    Use a wet pastry brush to dissolve any sugar crystals formed on the side of the pan.

24. 24

    Continue to cook the caramel without stirring, occasionally swirling the pan, until caramel just starts to take on color.

25. 25

    Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, swirling occasionally and dissolving sugar crystals with the wet pastry brush as needed, until the caramel is amber in color.

26. 26

    Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl.

27. 27

    Working quickly, dip the top of each cream puff into the hot caramel and transfer to a wire rack to cool. If at any point the caramel becomes too solid to dip, warm it up in the microwave.

28. 28

    Make the second batch of caramel. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup of water.

29. 29

    Using a heat-proof spatula, stir until sugar dissolves. When the sugar mixture begins to boil, stop stirring.

30. 30

    Use a wet pastry brush to dissolve any sugar crystals formed on the side of the pan. Continue to cook the caramel without stirring, occasionally swirling the pan, until caramel just starts to take on color.

31. 31

    Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, swirling occasionally and dissolving sugar crystals with the wet pastry brush as needed, until the caramel is amber in color.

32. 32

    Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl.

33. 33

    Make the base of the croquembouche. Arrange 9–11 cream puffs in a circle on a serving platter, using a greased bowl or foil-covered cake tin as a guide, if desired.

34. 34

    Working quickly, dip the side of one cream puff in caramel and attach it to the serving platter, holding it in place for a few seconds if needed. Repeat with remaining cream puffs until you have formed the base ring.

35. 35

    Repeat the dipping-and-sticking process to build your cream puff tower, reduce the number of cream puffs in each row by one, and use extra cream puffs to fill in any gaps.

36. 36

    Top your tower with a single cream puff.

37. 37

    To make the spun sugar decoration, dip a fork in the caramel and swirl around the croquembouche, leaving a thin thread of caramel behind. Repeat to cover the tower in spun sugar.

38. 38

    Serve immediately.

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