Gingerbread Gremlins Christmas Tree Croquembouche

 
 

Happy Holidays, everyone! I know this is a little late, but I figure, it’s always the season for Gremlins cookies. With all my friends vaccinated, we decided to re-instate our traditional Christmas party, and for the occasion I decided to make my first croquembouche. For those unaware, a croquembouche is a tower of cream puffs, held together with caramel. It is traditionally made in a conical shape, so it makes a great Christmas Tree-Like centerpiece. Of course, because I’m me, I decided to add some gingerbread gremlins to my tree to give it some nerdy flair. You can gind my go-to gingerbread recipe right here. And to see how to create these gremlins and mogwai, plus the croquembouche they adorned, here is the video recipe over at the Sugared Nerd Youtube page:

 
 

Croquembouche

(adapted from Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz)

Craquelin

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar

  • 1 cup flour

  • food coloring (optional)

Pâte à choux

  • 7 tablespoons butter

  • 1/2 cup whole milk

  • 1/2 cup water

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 cup flour

  • 5 large eggs

Eggnog Pastry Cream

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • 1 cup egnog

  • 4 large egg yolks

  • 1/4 cup flour

  • 1/4 cup cornstarch

  • 1/3 cup sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

  • 1 tsp vanilla

Caramel

  • 2 cups sugar

  • 1/2 cup water

To make the Craquelin (can be made 3 days ahead)

Using a stand or hand mixer, combine the sugar and butter until well-combined. Add the flour and mix by hand until crumbly, then use hands and knead until the mixture comes together into a dough. Add food coloring, if desired, and continue to mix and knead until the dough is a uniform color. Sandwich the dough between two sheets of parchment and roll out to 1/8” thickness. Cover and chill until ready to use.

To make the pastry cream (can be made 3 days ahead)

In a heat-proof bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Add flour, cornstarch, salt, nutmeg and vanilla and continue to mix until homogeneous. Heat milk and eggnog in a small saucepan until it starts to simmer, then lower heat and remove a cup of hot milk. Slowly add hot milk to the egg mixture while whisking thoroughly. When all of the milk has been incorporated, add the egg mixture into the saucepan while whisking (be careful not to do these steps too quickly, or you may end up with scrambled eggs). Continue to heat the mixture on low until it has thickened and can coat the back of a spoon. Once thickened, remove saucepan from heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a heat-proof container. Allow pastry cream to cool, then cover with plastic wrap pressed to the surface to prevent a skin, and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the Pâte à choux

Preheat oven to 425°F. Put the butter, milk, water, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan and heat until butter is melted and mixture has started to bubble. Add flour all at once and mix until it comes together in a dough. Continue to cook and stir for an additional 3 minutes. Transfer dough to the bowl of a stand mixer.

With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Dough will appear curdled as you are mixing, but continue and it will come together into a soft, smooth dough after the last egg has been added. Transfer the pâte à choux to a pastry bag, snip off the end, and pipe dough in 1” mounds. Top with a 1” round of your craquelin and bake, immediately lowering the oven temperature to 375°F. Back for 30=35 minutes, rotating the pans after 20 minutes. When puffs are a deep golden brown, turn off the oven and open the oven door, leaving puffs inside for 15 minutes before removing.

When they’re cool to the touch, pierce the bottom of each puff with a sharp knife. At this point, you can continue assembling your croquembouche or store the puffs in airtight container for up to a day.

fill and assemble

Transfer the pastry cream to a pastry bag with a small round tip. Fill each puff through the hole in the bottom.

To make the caramel, put the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and heat over medium high, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Stop stirring and brush the sides of the pan down with water. Continue heating until the caramel is a golden amber color. Transfer to a heat-proof container.

Carefully, dip each cream puff into the caramel and place on plate or cake board. For this part, you can use a foam craft cone wrapped in parchment as support, or you can make your structure free-standing. Place 12 cream puffs in an even circle. (you may want use more or less depending on how many cream puffs you end up with - for example, if you overbaked or underbaked some. Remember each layer will use 1 less cream puff, so add and count to make sure you’ll have enough. In other words 12+11+10+9…etc., meant we needed about 80 cream puffs. Continue dipping and placing cream puffs on top of & between the cream puffs from the previous layer, forming a cone shape. When your cream puffs have reached the top of the cone, you can use the same caramel to dip and attach your gingerbread cookies. You can also use a fork to make caramel floss around the croquembouche, by dipping into the warm caramel and swirling around the whole structure, which can help your cookies stay in place.

Step back, admire your handiwork, and then get ready for the “oohs” and “aaahs” from your party guests. But don’t wait too long to eat - nothing good comes from feeding after midnight.

GremlinsHead Nerd Gracedessert, cookies, cream puffsComment