The Croquembouche Challenge 2

Making a croquembouche has been by far the most challenging cooking project I have ever undertaken. When I had told people when I initially decided to do it I often got a got a response that seemed a bit apprehensive. Was it really going to be that hard? I mean its a few profiteroles stuck together right? right? WRONG!

It was actually the most stressful cooking experience of my life. The toffee was setting and the profiteroles were falling off, the custard was too thin and seeping out. It just seemed like everything was turning sour. I did it in two stages. I made the profiteroles in the morning and then waited for them to cool before filling with custard. The custard was too thin so i put them in the fridge to thicken and cool.

After about 20 minutes of starting the toffee mix I took them out and they were no longer seeping everywhere. I thought I could get a head start and started to dip the profiteroles in the toffee before it had started to colour. This was a mistake and it did not harden as needed it just became very chewy. I soon realised this and waited until the colour had changed before dipping the rest of them.

When the toffee is ready is when the time crunch starts to happen. You dont want to burn it but you dont want it to set so you need to work quick! I ended up abandoning dipping the profiteroles half way through and used the dipped ones on the bottom for it to be more solid.

When creating the croquembouche I basically glued a layer of profiteroles together in a circle with the toffee and built it up to a conical shape.

As you can see it is not perfect but I am quite chuffed for my first time!

What do you think?

The Most Dapper of all Jackets

I love a book that you are truly proud to have displayed on your shelf. My very first blog post was about a set of books by one of my favourite authors Margaret Atwood, I was lucky enough to receive this set of books for my 21st Birthday. Here I am more than a year later, those same books proudly displayed on a shelf in my room that I have stumbled upon a new set of books that match my Atwood set in appeal.

F. Scott Fitzgerald only wrote five full novels and various other short stories and poetry. Coralie Bickford-Smith has created some truly beautiful cover art for penguin.

The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned are the first of the six books that I have purchased.

Not only are they stunning they are relatively cheap! A simple search of the Book Depository (Both US and UK) found both of these for around $20AU each.

A definite recomendation for your bookshelf for both content and appeal.

The Croquembouche Challenge 1

Challenge 1 is down! I have completed the choux pastry whilst making mini eclairs and I think they were fantastic! they were a great consistency and fluffy and I had fresh tempered chocolate on hand (perks of working in food manufacturing) to finish them off!

Next challenge is the profiterole and then last stage is the finished product!!

Wish me luck!

If The Choux Fits

I am counting down the days until I finally head of on my European adventure and Iv set myself one final challenge.

JE FAIS UNE CROQUEMBOUCHE!!



Will I will be before I leave anyway. Step 1 is to get some practice making the Choux pastry. My first attempt will be tonight (night shift at work that involves me mostly wasting time but necessary to have someone there in case something goes awry) So in these many hours over the next three weeks I will endeavour to perfect my french patisserie skills until such point as I can produce a perfectly formed Croquembouche.

True Story