CROQUEMBOUCHE - THE DARING BAKERS

When seeing the date on my calender, I had to curse. I could not believe that in less than a day it would be the 27th of May and that all members of the Daring Bakers' would be blogging about their latest creation, yet I still had not started making this month's challenge. Once again, I did not manage to start baking in advance for the event and had to run at the last minute in order to be able to blog about it on time. I cannot believe that the 27th has already arrived...

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of "Little Miss Cupcake". Cat challenged everyone to make a "Piece Montée", or "Croquembouche", based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Well, to tell you the truth, for this very challenge I was not the least stressed by the work that was awaiting nor apprehensive about the idea of putting together a "Pièce Montée" because making choux pastry (remember my DB post about "Chocolate Éclairs"), pastry cream or caramel was nothing new to me. Most Daring Bakers members have already made one or the other during the course of the last months.

I thought to myself "Finely, this recipe is not going to cause any trouble". Well, as incredible as it might seem, I did come across a very annoying problem while making my cream puff shells. My first batch was a total flop. The cream puff shells looked so sad and were flat like omelets. this made me slightly panick and question my capacities as a baker. it was one of those moments when you lose all self-confidence and blame yourself for the bad results. I mean, boy were they fugly and totally unusable!

After doing a little research, I realized that if they had this saggy shape it was due to the fact that the pastry was far too wet. So, for my second attempt at making cream puff shells I decided to use smaller eggs (53g instead of 63g), thus incorporating less liquid to the choux pastry. My second batch was just perfect. The cream puff shells came out all puffy and looked very pretty. Phew!

The cream puffs shells rose beautifully, were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They tasted of butter and reminded me of popovers. As I wanted to give a summery flavor to my cream puffs, I chose to make lemon pastry cream. Needless to say that the pastry cream was delightfully fresh and irresistibly silky smooth. In order to stick the cream puffs together, I opted for the caramel glaze wich added a layer of oomph to the whole dessert and gave a dramatic look to the pièce montée.

I wish to thanks Cat for having chosen that awesome treat and for giving me the opportunity to prove to myself that I have the skills to put together such a festive dessert. I will certainly make this goodie very soon again!

~Pièce Montée or Croquembouche ~

Equipment required:
• Several baking sheets
• Parchment paper
• A whisk
• A pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• A pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• A flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée
• Some of the items you may want to use to decorate your piece montée include ribbons, Jordan almonds, fresh flowers, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolates, etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LEMON CRÈME PÂTISSIÈRE

Ingredients:
1 Cup (225ml) Whole milk
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
6 Tbsp (100g) Sugar
1 Large egg
2 Large egg yolks
2 Tbsp (30G) Unsalted butter
1 Tsp Natural vanilla extract
3/4 Tsp Pure lemon extract

Method:
1. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
3. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
4. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil.
5. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface.
6. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream:
Bring 1/4 cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.
For Coffee Pastry Cream:
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PÂTE A CHOUX

Yields about 28.

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup (175ml) Water
6 Tbsp (85g) Unsalted butter
1/4 Tsp Sea salt
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Cup (125g) All-purpose flour
4 Large eggs (~53g)
1 Egg & A pinch of salt (for egg wash)

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 220◦C (425° F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
3. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
4. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
5. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
6. Add 1 egg (The batter will appear loose and shiny). As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
7. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets (Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide). Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
8. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
9. Bake the choux at 220◦C (425° F) until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
10. Lower the temperature to 180◦ C (350° F) and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more.
11. Remove to a rack and cool.

Remarks:
They can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FILLING THE CHOUX

Method:
1. When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet (Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HARD CARAMEL GLAZE

Ingredients:
1 Cup (225g) Sugar
1/2 Tsp Lemon juice

Method:
1. Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand.
2. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke.
3. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color.
4. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ASSEMBLING THE PIÈCE MONTÉE

You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert.
For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer.
Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Method:
1. Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet.
2. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place).
3. When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Etant donné la longueur du texte original, je n'ai malheureusement pas pu faire une traduction française de ce billet et je m'en excuse auprès de tous mes amis lecteurs et blogueurs francophones!

C'est pourquoi je vous suggère de vous rendre sur le blog mentionné ci-dessous. Vous y trouverez cette recette en version française.

Chez Isa de "Les Gourmandises d'Isa" (Canada)
Chez Vibi de "La Casserole Carrée" (Canada)

CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIRS - THE DARING BAKERS

After 11 months of baking as a member of "The Daring Bakers", my eager to learn more and put my knowledge to the test is still intact. I'm an autodidact baker (& cook) who craves to assimilate information and learn more about anything that takes place in the kitchen, so August's challenge had everything to satisfy me...

Although, I must say that I was looking forwards to something less chocolaty, more seasonal, lighter, more refreshing and a lot fruitier, the recipe that was proposed still enthusiasted me, mainly because it originates from one of the books by the French pastry king himself, Pierre Hermé.

I had already made wonderful "Choux Pastry" (see my "Profiterole" recipe) as well as "Pastry Cream" in the past, so nothing was really new to me, but I was looking forwards to getting to try that recipe as I wanted to see how good those "Chocolate Eclairs" would be and if they would be the best I've eaten so far...

This month, nothing was really difficult (at least for me) and nothing was time-consuming. Things went smoothly and I didn't come across any major problem nor did my kitchen end up looking like a battlefield after a mayhemic confrontation, yet I wasn't exactly satisfied by my "Chocolate Eclairs" as the "Choux Pastry" didn't rise correctly and never looked as puffy as when I use my "The King Arthur Flour" recipe. Instead of being the dainty and beautiful little puffs that I generally get, those looked sad, deflated and quite shaggy, eventhough I followed the instructions to the letter. It was the very first time that I had such bad looking "Cream Puffs" and, boy, that depressed me a little (well, actually, a lot) as I thought that I would get better results with a Pierre Hermé recipe!

Anyway, maybe I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist and I tend to see flops where there are none (or no major ones...)! In any case, those "Chocolate Eclairs" were far from being bad or totally hideous. It's just that they weren't as impeccable or as dainty as I wanted them to be.

Eventhough the "Cream Puff" cases weren't totally gratifying shape-wise, the "Chocolate Pastry Cream", which I flavored with ground tonka bean, was very delicate texture-wise, refined in flavor and absolutely scrumptious. The coffee-flavored (my flavoring) "Chocolate Glaze" was wonderful, but it was too runny in my opinion. It would have been perfect to drizzle over ice cream, but it was quite difficult to glaze the "Chocolate Eclairs" with it as it never set well, even after leaving the tops of the "Chocolate Eclairs" for 40 minutes in the refrigerator. In order, to solve that problem, I added some icing sugar to the warm "Chocolate Glaze" and it did the trick.

All in all, those "Chocolate Eclairs" were gorgeous. I would definitely have prefered something less chocolate-oriented and more summery, that's sure, but I enjoyed every bite I took! So, it was a real success, no matter what!

I realy want to thank Tony Tahhan at "Tony Tahan" (USA) and Meetak at "What's For Lunch Honey?" (Germany) - make sure to ckeck their wonderful sites - for having chosen that interesting recipe and for making me discover new horizons!!!

~ Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé ~
Recipes from "Chocolate Desserts" by Pierre Hermé.

Makes 20-24 éclairs.

CHOCOLATE PASTRY CREAM

Ingredients:
2 Cups (500g) Whole milk
4 Large egg yolks
6 Tbsp (75g) Sugar
3 Tbs Cornstarch, sifted
7 Oz (200g) Bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/3 Tsp Ground Tonka bean
2 1/2 Tbsp (1 1/4 oz/40g) Unsalted butter, at room temperature

Method:
1. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2. Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
3. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat). Stir in the melted chocolate, the ground tonka and then remove the pan from the heat.
4. Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process (make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth).
5. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140° F (60° C), remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled (the cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge).

Remarks:
Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.
In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

***************

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Makes 1 cup or 300g.

Ingredients:
1/3 Cup (80g) Heavy cream
1/2 Tsp Coffee powder
3 1/2 Oz (100g) Bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 Tsp (20 g) Unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 Tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

Method:
1. In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the coffee powder and the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
2. Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Remarks:
If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
 in the microwave or over a double boiler (a double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water).
It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95° to 104° F/35° to 40° C) when ready to glaze.

***************

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Makes 1 1/2 cups or 525 g.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Oz (130 g) Bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 Cup (250 g) Water
1/2 Cup (125 g) Crème fraîche or heavy cream (35% fat)
1/3 Cup (70 g) Sugar

Method:
1. Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens (it may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon).

Remarks:
You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks.
Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

***************

PIERRE HERMÉ'S "CREAM PUFF DOUGH"

Enough for 20-24 éclairs.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup (125g) Whole milk
1/2 Cup (125g) Water
1 Stick (4 ounces/115g) Unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/4 Tsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Cup (140g) All-purpose flour
5 Large eggs (63g), at room temperature

Method:
1. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.
2. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon (the dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth).
3. Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough (you will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs).
4. Preheat your oven to 375° F (190° C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.
5. Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 inch (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff (the dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs).
6. Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm (the total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes).

Remarks:
Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.
You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags.
They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.
The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

***************

ASSEMBLING THE ÉCLAIRS

You'll need:
1 Qt Chocolate Glaze
1 Qt Chocolate Pastry Cream
20-24 Cream Puffs Shells

Method:
1. Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
2. Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula (the glaze should be barely warm to the touch - between 95°to 104° F or 35° to 40° C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.
3. Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs (make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry). Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Remarks:
If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.
The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled, otherwise they'll get soggy.

Etant donné la longueur du texte original, je n'ai malheureusement pas pu faire une traduction française de ce billet et je m'en excuse auprès de tous mes amis lecteurs et blogueurs francophones!!!

Je vous suggère de vous rendre sur les blogs mentionnés ci-dessous. Vous y trouverez cette recette en version française:

Chez Anne de "A Foody Froggy In Paris" (France)
Chez Isa de "Les Gourmandises d'Isa" (Canada)