Daring Bakers' Piece Montée

My very first impression about this challenge was eagerness. I have seen too many beautiful Croquembouches on the net and magazines, all I can say is that I was waiting for the right event to trigger me into baking it. I needed that twitch to get it going, and this challenge has done just that.

Thanks to Cat for hosting this month’s challenge – Piece Montée. Piece Montée, which means literally “mounted piece” is even more well known as “Croquembouche”(crunch in the mouth). It has been a wonderful learning experience. Not to forget the burning experience whilst playing with caramel. Well, maybe one should get burnt before he or she could master the art of caramel thoroughly.



And thanks to Sue Sparks of Munchkin Munchies and Katie Yoon of Katie's Something Sweet who constantly amaze me with their decorated cookies. You guys should go and check out their blogs.... breathtaking! So for this challenge I tried to incorporate decorated butterfly cookies into my Croquembouche. I do hope the cookies will go well with the profiteroles.



The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a Piece Montée, or Croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.



Next weekend will be an exciting weekend with a bazaar taking place near my residence. As T had suggested, we took a booth to sell cakes, like what we did a few months ago. Learning from our previous experience in dealing with the heat, we are going to prepare big containers filled with ice cubes to function as a emergency refrigerator, in case there are melting cakes again. And I will definitely avoid any cakes that will involve buttercream. It is totally heat disasterous. Instead, I am thinking of chocolate ganache or something more heat friendly. Will start baking this Friday as it is an official public holiday. With 2 free days I hope to do the baking well this time.

Will be right back with the coverage about the bazaar… For now enjoy Croquembouche. It is actually not as complicated as everyone would imagine. Give this glamorous dessert a try and rest assured that you might want one for your next birthday!

PIECE MONTEE - CROQUEMBOUCHE



1. Vanilla Crème Patissiere

Ingredients:
For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Method:
- Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
- Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
- Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
- Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
- Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

2. Pate a Choux
Yield: About 28



Ingredients:
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Preparing batter: Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
- Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
- Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
- As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
- It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
- Piping: Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
- Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.



- Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
- Baking: Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
- Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.
- Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.
- Filling: When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

3. Hard Caramel Glaze

Ingredients:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Method:
- Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

4. Assembly of your Piece Montée



Method:
- You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.
- Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your -glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).
- When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!