Wednesday, June 19, 2013
By Meredith Goad mgoad@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
(Continued from page 1)
As chef Mitch Gerow proves with this finished product, croquembouche makes a spectacular dessert for the holiday table.
Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
Gerow drizzles the “cage” of spun sugar over his clementine-cream-stuffed profiteroles.
Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
TIPS FROM TIFFANY
TIFFANY WHITE, production supervisor in the bakery at Whole Foods Market, offers her top five tips for making a croquembouche:
• To give shape and structure, make a paper cone out of plain poster board covered with wax paper.
• To make pate a choux all the same size, it is easier to use a small ice cream scoop than a piping bag.
• Make pate a choux ahead of time so you can dry them out.
• The spun sugar is done at our bakery with a special whisk that is cut off, but at home, it is easy and efficient to use a bunch of bamboo skewers gathered together with an elastic band.
• If this is your first time making spun sugar, try it out ahead of time to reduce your stress level.
HINTS FROM HORNER O'SHEA
SHANNA HORNER O'HEA, chef/owner of Academe at the Kennebunk, admits she's no croquembouche expert per se, but she has lots of experience with pastry cream and pate a choux, the light pastry dough used to make the profiteroles (cream puffs). Here's her advice for getting through those steps in the process:
• Make sure you give yourself lots of time and patience. Although the profiteroles and pastry cream are relatively straightforward, the caramel and assembly can be intimidating.
• Do not even attempt the spun sugar garnish on a humid or rainy day, and when flinging strands with fork, remember to fling forward and not back. I had a memorable floating island dessert request where I was trying to rush and flung the sugar back at my bare neck: Rather painful. The best idea is to do this in a clean vegetable oiled or non-stick spray sink -- away from the body!
• Instead of making one large tree, you could do individuals for a party with three on bottom and one on top. With the spun sugar, it will be very dramatic and maybe not as scary for building.
•
Salvage all that great caramel you're making that is stuck to the bottom of your pot. Add 1 cup of heavy cream to the pan over low heat and let the caramel melt in. Then add 1/2 cup of creme fraiche or sour cream. This makes a great caramel sauce, and it will last for weeks in fridge.
FOR THE
PROFITEROLES:
1 cup water
6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of salt
6 ounces flour
4 eggs
2 egg whites
Bring water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil in a heavy sauce pan. Add flour all at once at boil. Reduce heat and continue to beat with a wooden spoon until a firm ball of dough is formed, approximately 5 minutes.
Transfer dough to a stand mixer and let cool for 5 minutes.
On low speed with a paddle, incorporate eggs slowly. When dough is homogenized and glossy, spoon or pipe 1-inch balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake at 420 degrees for 5 minutes. Rotate and bake 5 minutes. Rotate and reduce heat to 325 degrees. Cook until golden. Test by checking for airy center.
Pierce each puff to release steam.
FOR THE CLEMENTINE PASTRY CREAM:
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 cup corn starch
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons clementine zest
In a thick-bottomed sauce pan, stir together 1/4 cup sugar and milk. Bring to a simmer. In separate bowl, whisk together yolks, egg, sugar and cornstarch. Slowly incorporate into simmering milk and sugar, being careful not to curdle eggs. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in butter one pat at a time. Finish with vanilla and zest.
Cool with a butter wrapper directly on top to prevent a "skin" from forming.
Fill puffs with cream and assemble into a pyramid. A skewer stacked with puffs is a good starting point.
Whip a sugar cage over the pyramid.
TO MAKE THE SPUN SUGAR:
Heat 1-1/2 cups sugar and a splash (about a tablespoon) of water to 307 degrees. Use a wet pastry brush to remove crystals from the side of the pan. Remove from heat and cool on an ice bath. When sugar turns hard when stretched, whip strands over the puffs to complete the croquembouche.
Decorate the cage with lavender buds from last summer's garden.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
Tweet
 |
||||||||||||||
 click image to enlarge
Gerow assembles the ingredients for croquembouche and consults his recipe book. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer |
 click image to enlarge
Chef Gerow adds butter to the pastry cream mixture. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer |
 click image to enlarge
Gerow injects pastry puffs with cream. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer |
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 click image to enlarge
Tiffany White's version of croquembouche. Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer |
||||||||||||||
Copyright ©2013 MaineToday Media, Inc.
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Maine Yellow Pages
Facebook
Twitter
Further Discussion
Here at PressHerald.com we value our readers and are committed to growing our community by encouraging you to add to the discussion. To ensure conscientious dialogue we have implemented a strict no-bullying policy. To participate, you must follow our Terms of Use.Questions about the article? Add them below and we’ll try to answer them or do a follow-up post as soon as we can. Technical problems? Email them to us with an exact description of the problem. Make sure to include: