Petite Croquembouche

At the moment I am really into eating bits and pieces, like little tapas or Japanese style izakaya dishes. There are always two great components to this style of eating – sharing the experience with friends and trying many different flavours. Of course if you want to try many different things it is better if they are small, hence my current obsesseion with miniaturising everything. So last month it was mini sliders, and this month for my next feat of miniturisation, I have shrunk a classic French cake – the croquembouche!

Ingredients

Makes 8

• For the profiteroles
• click here to find the ingredients and method for the pastry

• For the filling
• 100g Mascarpone
• 100ml Cream, whipped
• 1tsp Pure ground vanilla

• For the caramel
• 2½ cups of sugar
• 2/3 cup of water

Method

• For the profiteroles
• 1. Follow the method outlined here.
• When piping out the profiteroles pipe to a smaller diameter of approx 20mm to 25mm. keep in mind that the final petite coquembouche will be made up of four of these profiteroles.
• When baking the smaller profiteroles, adjust the cooking times to 7 minutes at 200°C followed by 12 minutes at 180°C.

• For the caramel
• 1. Pour the sugar into a medium pot, carefully add the water, take a spoon and carefully run it through the sugar to wet all the sugar.
• 2. Bring the mixtrue to a simmer over a medium heat, once simmering brush the sides of the pot down with a wet pastry brush.
• 3. Simmer mixture for 15 to 20 minutes until it is a light golden colour.

• For the final assembly
• 1. Using a small syringe-type piping tip, pipe a little filling into each profiterole. If the tip is very fine you may need to add a little more cream so you can pipe the mixture.
• 2. To form the petite croquembouche arrange 3 profiteroles in a triangle shape on a piece of baking paper, carefully add a little blob of caramel to stick them all together, then carefully place another profiterole on top forming a pyramid shape. Repeat with the remaining profiteroles.
• 3. Drizzle caramel off the end of a spoon over the little pyramid shapes in a spiral motion try to make caramel as wispy as possible.