Ann Reardon

Croquembouche recipe Profiterole Tower

croquembouche recipe profiterole tower

Croquembouche (crockenbush) are beautiful towers of custard filled profiteroles held together with caramelised sugar. This one is then wrapped in fine strands of pulled sugar. It looks impressive as a dessert centrepiece but is surprisingly easy to make.

Croquembouche Profiterole Recipe Ingredients
This recipe makes enough to make a croquembouche that is 27cm (10.63 inches) tall and 10cm (3.94 inches) in diameter at the base.

For the Choux Pastry Recipe
1 cup or 250millilitres (8.45 fluid ounces) Water
75g (2.65 ounces) or 1/3 cup Butter
160g (5.64 ounces) or 1 cup plain all purpose Flour
4 Eggs

croquembouche recipe easy

Heat the oven to 428ºF (220ºC)

Place the water and butter into a saucepan and heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour all at once and stir until it thickens and leaves the sides of the pan, continue to stir and heat for another minute until it forms a really stiff ball.
Remove it from the heat and add in the eggs one at a time mixing really well after each addition.

Place into a piping bag and pipe dollops onto the baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes at 428ºF (220ºC) or until crisp.

Pastry Cream Recipe
500millilitres (16.91 fluid ounces) or 2 cups milk (4%)
4 egg yolks or 60g (2.12 ounces) – (you can use the whites for macarons or pavlova)
3/4 cup or 164g (5.78 ounces) sugar
30g (1.06 ounces) or 3 Tbsp flour
Whip the egg yolks and sugar until pale, whisk in the flour. Heat the milk, you can infuse it with flavour while it is heating, see the video for more help with this. Add a little hot milk at a time to the yolks mixture whisking as you do. Return to the pan and stir until well thickened.

Crispy Caramel and angel hair

150millilitres (5.07 fluid ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp and 1 tsp water
450g (15.87 ounces) or 2 cups and 1 Tbsp sugar
21g (0.74 ounces) or 1 Tbsp liquid glucose or light corn syrup
Heat over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Leave unstirred until it just starts to go golden. Remove from the heat.

Construct the Croquembouche

Make sure you are using non-stick baking paper so that your sugar does not stick to your mold.

You can buy a stainless steel mold for making larger croquembouche but they are expensive, so for making smaller ones you can see the video for making your own.

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

85 Comments View Comments

  1. Thanks Ann for this lovely recipe! Came out really nice.

  2. OMG you’re amazing Ann!!

  3. Hello, ANN 🙂 how did you make that angel hair sugar…looks so thin like that ….I wanted to see the video … Thank u 🙂

  4. Hey Ann i was wondering if the oven needs to be preheated

  5. Hi Ann,
    so I took your challenge and did my first Croquembouche for my wife’s birthday.
    What to say…
    I learned a lot! You know, those days when it just doesn.t work…!
    First, I learned that before putting the choux to the oven, you have to wait for the oven to have reached its temperature; so the first batch of choux weren’t cooked enough when I removed them from the oven and they all deflated! (and it really wasn’t the first time I did choux…)
    Second batch was OK.
    Crème pâtissière was perfect, at least one thing that went well!
    And then comes the time to build the tower.
    So I had a very nice looking tower that stood for… about a minute!
    So 2 things:
    1) be generous with the sugar syrup on the choux (I didn’t put enough, I was scared of burning myself)
    2) don’t overstuff your choux with crème pâtissière; it makes choux more fragile
    Also, work fast, because the syrup set fast!
    I was able to save it (mostly!) so it looks still a bit as it should, but wider at the base, and less high!
    Here’s a pic; next time it will be better!

  6. Does the oven need to be fan on or off? 🙂

    • Hi Chanya my oven is fan forced, no choice in turning it on / off

  7. HI ANN MY BIGGER SITER IS CELIAC AND I HAVE A LITTLE QUESTION THIS RECIPE CAN WE MAKE IT WITH GLUTEN FREE FLOUR? YOU ARE AMAZING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH minicookinggirl

    • Hi minicookinggirl, I havent tested this one with gf flour but do give it a go and let us know

    • i have tested the chocolate cake recipe and chocolate brownies and they both work well

  8. Hi I was wondering if I was making this for a dinner party could the cream in the puffs stay out at room temperature for long periods of time without spoiling? thanks!

    • Hi Hayley, Its best for the custard filling to stay in the fridge until close to the time of serving, it will not go sour or spoil it is more a health and safety issue, cold foods should be served cold, hot foods hot.

  9. How many does this make? And it is the same recipe to make the eclairs? 🙂

    • This recipe makes enough to make a croquembouche that is 27cm (10.63 inches) tall and 10cm (3.94 inches) in diameter at the base or makes approximately 50 profiteroles or 30 medium sized eclairs

  10. hi anne, tried this yesterday, added baileys to the pastry cream, and it tasted really good. thank you for the recipe 😀 is there any way to cut down the sugar in pastry cream ?

    • Hi karleen, yes you can reduce the sugar in this recipe

  11. Hi Ann!
    My family has a dairy alergy in it… Is it possible to substitute the butter with oil or margerine?
    And the milk in the filling with coconut milk for instance?

    • Hi Shira yes you can use margarine

  12. Hi Ann I’ve been watching your youtube clips and the things you make are just amazing and so useful, I’m going to try your light fluffy sponge cake first. Just like you I’ve been looking for the perfect recipe, thank you very much.
    Tanya

    • 🙂 hope ti went well Tanya

  13. Hi Ann I love your videos and ill like to be like you some day

    • thanks keely

  14. Hi Ann, I can’t get the dough to leave the sides of the pan or get stiff! I’ve tried to add more flour or less butter and water but it never works, do you have any tips to help me?

    • Hi lexi what flour are you using? plain all purpose flour? Over high heat it will thicken

      • Can u use self raising flour

        • hi mai not for this one

  15. Hi Ann,

    The Choux recipe was a huge success in my home tonight 🙂
    I made a cream and custard filling and I only dipped a few in chocolate because I only had dark and the cocoa flavour was to strong.
    Photo attached.
    Have a great week,
    Cristi

    • great job cristi

  16. Is there a substitute for glucose or corn syrup?

    • hi devya, can you get glucose powder? if not you can do it without but it may crystalize before you’re finished and you’d need to make a fresh batch

      • Hi anne, thanks so much. Yes I have glucose powder.

        • the glucose syrup that I have here is 78% so you could try adding 78g glucose syrup to 22g water and heating it until it is dissolved

  17. what temperature do we bake the pastry at?

    • hi makayla 220C

  18. Hi Ann,

    I used your recipe to make a croquembouche today. I made slightly larger ones and used a dolly varden tin for the cone shape instead of using a cardboard cone. It turned out great!
    It was my first time making cream pat, choux pastry and even crispy toffee/angel hair. It took me two hours from start to finish and it all turned out fabulously thanks to your instructions.
    It was a big hit at dinner, everyone loved it.

    Thanks so much for another great recipe!

    • beautiful rochelle, thanks for sharing the pic. I love the little flowers too they finish it off well.

      • Nice I like it I wanna make it one day

        • 🙂

  19. At what temperature do you cook the dough in the pan?

    • hi mina 220C

  20. I am so inspired by all your videos. Just wants me to try all your things. God Bless Keep up the great work. Janet

    • thanks Janet

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