Adriano Zumbo's Croquembouche

Hello Readers,

This is Stephen, live while we cook our latest experiment: The notorious Croquembouche from the first season of Masterchef by Adriano Zumbo.

The recipe I present below is the same from the Masterchef cook book (Volume 1) with just a few hints and tips I have established while attempting such a monstrosity.

The croquembouche is a French pastry which is pretty much a tower of profiteroles filled with custard and stuck together and coated with a toffee.  The croquembouche is a dish generally served during significant events, including weddings, baptisms and holy communions.  There are a variety of different recipes that can involve the addition of chocolates and can be decorated with a number of ingredients, including chocolate, ganache, fruits, flowers and nuts.

Jasmyne and I decided to recreate the recipe for a dinner which two colleagues from America who have come down to Australia for a week.  So without further ado we bring to you the Croquemboche:

Firstly we approached this recipe by cooking the profiteroles using Adriano Zumbo’s choux pastry as below.

INGREDIENTS

425mL water
400g butter
20g castor sugar
530mL milk
20g salt
530g Flour
16 eggs

 

Procedure

1. Combine the water, butter, sugar, milk and salt in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.  Remove from heat and quickly beat in the flour using a wooden spoon.  Return to the heat and continue beating until the mixture comes together and leaves the side of the pan.  Reduce the heat to low and keep beating for 1-2 minutes to cook the flour.  Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

 

 

 

      2. Preheat the oven to 210°C (190°C fan-forced).

      3.Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and using an electric beater beat the mixture to release as much heat as possible.  If you have a kitchen aid I would highly recommend you use it.  It took about 30 minutes for my mixture to cool down before adding each egg, one at time, and beating well between each addition.  Once all the eggs are added beat the mixture for a few more minutes until it thickens and becomes glossy.

 

 

      4. Grease at least two large baking trays or line with baking paper.  Spoon a portion of the pastry mixture into a piping bag with a 1.25-1.5cm nozzle.  Pipe mounds of the mixture 3 cm wide, 2 cm high and 5 cm apart onto the trays and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the puffs have puffed and are golden brown.  Ensure that the puffs are not pipped too closely together otherwise they will not rise enough.  The puffs should be firm and when broken in half are hollow.  Transfers the puffs to a wire rack and repeat with the remaining mixture.  This recipe should produce about 100 puffs. 

 

 

While the puffs were baking the custard was then prepared using Adriano’s crème pâtissiére.

Ingredients

1.3L milk
2 vanilla beans, split
18 egg yolks
330g castor sugar
130g cornflour
130g butter, chopped and left at room temperature

Procedure

1. Place the milk in a large saucepan and add the vanilla beans over medium heat until almost boiling.  It is up to personal preference, I scrape the vanilla beans and add the seeds to the milk so that are throughout the custard, while others would prefer to just throw in the beans.  Once the milk is almost boiling, the beans are removed.

 

      2. Meanwhile, combine and whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour in a large bowl.  Ensure that the bowl is large enough to hold the entire mixture; to ensure no spillage use a bowl that can hold at least 3L.

 

      3. Gradually whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture and return the mixture to the heat in a clean saucepan.  Whisk the mixture until it boils and thickens, then transfer to a cool tray to reduce the heat. Cover the surface of the custard with cling wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

  

      4. Once the mixture has cooled to 55°C, transfer to a large bowl and stir in the butter, then refrigerate until cooled completely.  If you do not have a thermometer capable of determining the temperature of this mixture use your hands.  Your hands can tolerate temperatures up to 60°C, so when you can touch the mixture without a burning sensation then it should be roughly the right temperature.  Also, ensure that you put the butter out to soften as this makes it a lot easier to stir through.

 

      5. Once the puffs have cooled and the custard is ready, spoon the custard into a piping bag with a nozzle less than 1cm wide.  Fill each puff with custard by poking a small hole in the base of the puff and filling it up with custard. This recipe is meant to fill a hundred puffs, but if you’re like us then it might fill fifty, since we were eating almost every second one.

 

The next step is the major assembly, in which the caramel toffee is required.

Ingredients

660g castor sugar
200mL water
260mL liquid glucose

Procedure

1. Pour the water into a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Gradually add the castor sugar and dissolve, by stirring; into the water without boiling the solution.  You can add the entire amount of sugar in the water but it would take quite a while to dissolve properly. 
2. Bring the solution to the boil without stirring once the sugar has dissolved. Once boiling add the liquid glucose and cook until a caramel colour has developed.

 

 

 

The assembly.....

1. Make the base by pouring the toffee into a greased cake ring on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  The base should be about 5mm thick.  Then allow the base to set, it would be best to set it in the fridge to ensure it is hard and sets fast enough.

 

      2. Dip the top of each profiterole into the toffee (the top being the side opposite to where the custard was injected), and place them upside down onto a tray or surface lined with baking paper or aluminium foil.  The original recipe requires hail sugar, in which some profiteroles are dipped into at this step.

 

 

      3. Oil the inside of the croquembouche cone.  If a proper cone is not available then a cleaned traffic cone can be used, as in this post.

 

      4. Place one of the puffs into the point of the cone. Then dip the sides of an individual puff into the toffee and place it into the cone.  Continue this until either the cone is full or you have used all the profiteroles. Then let cone to set for a few minutes in a cool place.  During this step it was recommended by both masterchef and Adriano Zumbo to keep a bowl of iced water beside you.  If you get any hot toffee on your fingers then immediately dunk them into the water, and please, please resist the urge to put your burnt fingers (covered in molten toffee) into your mouth, you will do even more damage.

 

      5. Place some toffee onto the puffs of the bottom of the cone and invert it onto your base and put it gently onto a serving plate.

      6. Then reheat the remaining toffee and dip two forks (back to back) and spin toffee around the croquembouche.  The dessert can then be served and decorated accordingly, the original recipe used violets, whereas we have put some strawberries with the dish.

      7. Enjoy, as it should serve about 30 people.

Comments

[Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella]

Well done! And using a traffic cone is sheer genius! :D

[Jasmyne Tea]

Haha, thanks a lot! However, it WAS suggested in Adriano Zumbo's recipe, so I'm afraid we can't take the credit :P We couldn't do the spiral pattern as well :( I guess practise makes perfect!

[Susan: My Food Obsession]

Definitely a piece of art! It just looks amazing :)

[Jasmyne Tea]

Thanks so much! :)

[muppy]

Just found this, I'm so impressed! I tried making choux pastry once and I failed, I really should have another go ;)

[Jasmyne Tea]

Why thank you! I just wish I had a nicer photo of it.

[Linda]

Can I make balls and custard day before and then assemble next day

[Nikki]

Linda, you can make the profiteroles in advance and keep them in the freezer, but i wouldn't suggest filling them until you are ready to assemble the croquembouche as the custard will make the pastry soggy.

great work btw!! looks fantastic!

[Karen]

My husband made me one for my birthday following the Adriano Zumbo recipe & built it free-hand! I think it's being a Manual Arts teacher that helped!