Croquembouche — custard-oozing toffee covered profiteroles

Most people doing Christmas bake turkeys, ham or even fish, as it the often the case in Australia. We never do that. I dont do a lot of roasts in general, but keeping in mind that most years we are barely breathing from the heat at the end of December, the idea of an oven full of meat just never sounds like an appealing idea.

This year, I baked though. I made croquembouche.

Ever since I saw the episode on Masterchef where they had to make a huge tower of this delectable desert I have been wanting to make it myself. The sound of their silverware cracking through the toffee and the oozy profiteroles disappearing into a crunchy chewing of delighted tasters had left a permanent mark of desire in my gluttony inflicted brain. I had to do it.You can watch the episode and use the recipe yourself from their website.

Christmas seemed like a perfect time for this. The family agreed.

Following comments made by other people using the recipe provided at the Masterchef website, I made half of the custard and a quarter of the profiteroles. The custard still was not enough and I had a few empty vessels left in the end.

I dont know if it was because my last attempt at a Masterchef  Pressure Test recipe was the insane Chocolate Mousse cake or its just because I am so handy and wonderful (I prefer the latter explanation), but I found this to be very straight forward and uncomplicated. I didnt burn myself even once, although Miss Fab got a dab of caramel burn, because she couldnt keep her hands away from the stuff.

I didnt have the right attachment, so my profiteroles ended up with a bit of a decorative edge to them, but I was not complaining.

The custard in the recipe is wonderful. I am not really a custard person, but I will keep this recipe as an option if I ever need to make one again.

See, cant keep her hands away.

My toffee hairs might have been more thin and I didnt actually make a tower, as is the traditional croquembouche, but the end result was impressive never the less.

But looks are one thing and definitely not the most important one.

The real test is in the taste and experience of eating the thing.

The cracking of the stiff toffee hairs…

The oozy vanilla custard and the crunch of a mouth watering caramel. The combination is made in gourmet heaven. Mr.Blab didnt appreciate the toffee, but I found it absolutely integral to the whole experience. A profiterole with custard is one thing. A profiterole with a delightful crunch is something different – a much better different.

For a person that is not really into sweets, I found this irresistible. I kept on grabbing piece after piece and losing myself into the taste.

I am a big fan of croquembouche. In fact, I am a croquembouche nut. Hence I am not making this again, until I am so thin, I can eat a whole one of these mountains without an ounce of guilt.

Until then, I have my memories and these pictures. A cracker of an end to our Christmas this year.