Croquembouche/Piece Montee - Daring Bakers' Challenge - May 2010

Tadeja Bjažević

Course deserti

Dissolve cornstarch in 80 ml of milk.
Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil, remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
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.
Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Preheat oven to 220°C. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.
Bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. At this point add the remain egg.

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip.
Pipe choux about 2cm part in the baking sheet. Choux should be about 2 cm high and about 2 cm 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. (which I also forgot)
Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
Bake the choux at 220°C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 180°C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more.
Remove to a rack and cool.
It can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

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

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 20 cm) 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.
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.
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.
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.