Welcome back to another delicious lactose free recipe. To celebrate the first post of the new year I wanted to do something epic. When better dessert to start with than a giant croquembouche. Croquembouches are epic desserts consisting of filled profiteroles piled into a cone shape. The are equally daunting and delicious. The trick is to take it one step at a time.
Always remember that if you fail it is a learning experience and not the end of the world. Baking is something that takes practice. Failures give you an opportunity to look at what went wrong and why. That knowledge and experience is so important for any baker regardless of skill level. Everyone starts somewhere.
To assemble the croquembouche you will need a mold. You can always use a homemade cardboard cone. I preferred to use something sturdier. I used a 34 cm Mondo Croquembouche Mold.
The recipes here have been tested with lactose free ingredients multiple times to ensure their success and deliciousness. As always, this recipe is lactose free providing you use the right ingredients. Always make sure your ingredients are safe.
Margarine / Butter
Nuttelex Original is a plant-based spread made with sunflower oil that is dairy free and vegan. While I have had troubles working with other Nuttelex products in the past, the Original spread still remains my go to lactose free substitute.
Milk
For milk I used Liddells Full Cream. It is lactose free and a good quality milk to work with.
Icing
To decorate I have used my go to buttercream icing by ‘Over the Top’. It is a fantastic dairy free icing that is easy to work with. You can find this brand at various baking suppliers.
Chocolate
The chocolate used in this recipe was from a brand called Sweet William. The dark chocolate buttons are dairy free, nut free, lactose free and gluten free. I have used their products in icing, cookies, ganache, panna cottas and cakes, and have found no issue with the quality.
Ingredients
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Crème Patisserie
- Choux Pastry
- Spun Sugar
- Decorating
- Equipment
Instructions
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Crème Patisserie
- The first thing you need to prepare is the Crème patisserie. It requires several hours in the fridge to thicken so it needs to be prepared first.
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Place the sugar, yolks, egg, salt, vanilla and custard powder in a bowl.
- Whisk until smooth.
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Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat. Bring the milk to a simmer (almost a boil).
- When the milk starts to bubble remove the saucepan from the heat. Use a ladle to slowly pour some of the milk (around half) into the egg mixture while continuously whisking.
- When the eggs have been tempered you can add the egg mixture back into the hot milk.
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Heat the mixture (medium heat) until it starts to thicken and boil. Whisk continuously, it should only take a few minutes.
- Remove the mix from the heat and add the margarine. Whisk thoroughly until it has been mixed in.
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Pour the custard into a large bowl. Immediately place clingwrap onto the surface of the custard. This prevents a skin from forming. Let the custard cool down to room temperature and then place in the fridge for at least four hours.
Choux Pastry
- Preheat your oven for 200 C (390F) and line a tray with baking paper. Use a little spray of oil spray to stick the corners down.
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Sift the flour twice. Do not skip this step. Picking lumps of flour out of the dough is not very fun. I speak from experience of course.
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In a large saucepan place the milk, water, sugar and salt. Place on a low heat Stir until dissolved.
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Once the salt and sugar has dissolved add the margarine and stir. Keep heating until the margarine has melted.
- Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
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Once the mixture has come to a rolling boil remove from the heat. Pour all the flour in the milk and quickly beat with a wooden spoon. BE CAREFUL THAT THE MILK DOESNT SPASH UP WHEN YOU ARE MIXING IT. Keep mixing until the mixture comes away from the side of the saucepan. It will look slightly like mashed potato.
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Tip the mixture onto a large plate or tin and flatten. Leave to cool completely.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl. Lightly beat.
- When the mixture is completely cool (not warm) place into a bowl.
- Add the eggs in a little at a time. Mix well each time.
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Continue until it becomes a lovely smooth paste.
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Spoon the pastry into a piping bag fitted with large circle piping tip.
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Pipe little balls onto the baking tray, around 3cms in diameter. Make sure to leave a gap in between them as they will rise and spread. Fill up the tray.
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Wet your finger and smooth down the tops of the profiteroles.
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Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 175 C (350F) and bake for another 20 minutes until golden and crisp. A darker color is preferred as the shells will stay crisp for longer.
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Remove the profiles from the oven and make a small hole on the bottom with a skewer or knife. Be careful they will be very hot. Use tongs to hold them to avoid burning yourself.
- Transfer them onto a cooling rack.
- Repeat piping and baking the profiteroles until all the batter has been used up.
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Spoon the crème into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle. It may be easier to place the bag into a glass cup while you fill it.
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Pipe the crème into the small hole you made in the profiteroles.
- Place onto a clean tray and place into the fridge until ready to assemble the croquembouche. Croquembouche Assembly
- It is time to assemble to croquembouche. Place your mold onto a large plate. The trick to this assembly is doing one row at a time, placing the mold into the fridge so the chocolate sets so the profiteroles. This helps the profiteroles stick to the mold and creates a nice base for the higher rows. Make sure you have enough room to fit it in the fridge.
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Place a handful of chocolate buttons into a microwave proof bowl. Place in the microwave for twenty seconds. Stir using a metal spoon. Place the bowl (minus the spoon) back in the microwave for another twenty seconds. The mixture should have melted slightly. Stir until the rest of the lumps have melted through. The residual heat should be enough to finish melting the other lumps.
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Grab a filled profiterole and dip the bottom of it into the chocolate. Press the profiterole chocolate side down onto the very bottom mold.
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Keep doing this process until you have completed a row of profiteroles. Try to keep them tight together.
- Very carefully transfer the croquembouche to the fridge for ten minutes so the chocolate has time to harden. It may seem tedious to do one row at a time. It is important to take your time with this assembly process. Rushing leads to errors and errors leads to a deformed sad croquembouche.
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When the chocolate has hardened it is time to move onto the next row. Dip the puffs in the chocolate and adhere them to the mold. There will be small gaps. That will be solved later in this recipe. Complete a second row. Again, place the croquembouche in the fridge for several minutes so the chocolate can harden.
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I bet you can see where this is going. Keep dipping the puffs, placing them in a row and setting them in the fridge until you have a fully covered croquembouche. You may need to melt more chocolate as you run out.
Decorating
- The next step is to take care of those little gaps that appear in between the profiteroles. We will be used a pink and white ombre icing.
- Grab a small bowl and add several tablespoons of icing. Add several drops of pink gel food colouring. Mix well.
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Roll out a piece of cling wrap. Make sure both sides and weighed down with something. Spoon out a thin line of the pink icing. Spoon out some white icing on the other side.
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Roll the icing up in the clingwrap so you can see the two colors. Make sure the end is open so the colors can come through.
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Fit a piping bag with a small star piping tip. Place the icing into the piping bag. Squeeze so the icing comes out of the clingwrap and into the piping bag and you can see the colors.
- Pipe some of the icing into those holes that show the mold underneath. Add some little sugar flowers on top of the icing if you wish.
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Melt a large handful of chocolate buttons. Tip the chocolate over the top of the croquembouche allowing the chocolate to drip down the sides.
- The final part is to create the spun sugar. The sugar threads melt quickly. They need to be made close to serving.
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Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan over a medium heat. Do not stir as it will cause the sugar to crystalize.
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Bring the mixture to a boil.
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Keep boiling until it reaches a lovely amber color.
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Leave the sugar to cool down very slightly until you can get a spoonful of the mixture and tip it into the pan. You should eventually be able to see tiny threads forming.
- Place a piece of baking paper onto a large tray.
- Get a spoonful of the caramel and let it drizzle so you and see a thin constant drip form.
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Move the drip so it falls over the baking paper. Carefully but quick swish the threads over the paper so it forms like a net.
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Keep dipping and swishing until you have a decent piece of spun sugar. Gently lift it off the paper and place onto the croquembouche.
- Keep this process up until you have covered ¾ of the croquembouche. I prefer to not cover the whole thing so that come of the profiteroles are on show too.
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The spun sugar will start to dissolve so serve it quickly.
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Serve, devour and enjoy. Congratulations you made an epic croquembouche.
