Piece Montee or Croquembouche - Daring Bakers challenge for the month of May 2010

Hi, friends hope you are all doing well, You must be wondering that I keep disappearing every month for a few days to enjoy my migraines and my Irritable, horrible moods, well, I am now 'touch wood' feeling better, I missed a lot of events, don't think I wasn't cooking , I think thats the only thing which keeps me going!!, But, I will never be able to do anything further than that, my kids take the photos upload them in my comp but that's it, I cannot do anything as I will not be able to watch the screen for a long time,  this Migraine has become a monthly problem,  God!!, how I wish this problem gets out of me soon.

Coming back to the Daring Baker's challenge, I finished my challenge on the 27th of May, but could never post it, As I had made one step of this recipe before, I was comfortable doing this.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers challenging was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cup Cake , Cat challenged everyone to make a Piece Monte'e or Croquembouche based on recipes from Peter Kump's baking school in Manhanttan and Nick Malgieri.

This month's challenge was ''Piece Mont'ee, which literally means ''mounted piece''.  It is also called Croquembouche which means ''crunch in the mouth'' !!, The Piece Montee is actually a large cone like structure made of Profiteroles (Cream filled Puff Pastries, which I have seen in Super Markets dipped in chocolate), It is served like this as a dessert in weddings!!, people pick them out from the structure and enjoy it, there are loads of Videos you should definitely watch to know and how it is done.

PIECE MONTE'E OR CROQUEMBOUCHE

For the Piece Montee to mount there are three steps involved, first you have to make the Vanilla Creme pattissiere, Pate a choux and the glazing.

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE VANILLA CREME PATTISSIERE (Half batch)
1 Cup (225ml) Whole milk
2 tbsp Corn Starch
6 tbsp (100gms) Sugar
1 Large Egg
2 Large Egg yolks
2 tbsp (30gms) Unsalted butter
1 tsp Vanilla

METHOD:
Dissolve Corn starch in 1/4 cup of milk, combine the remaining milk wit 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 coninuing whisk.
Cream thickens and come to boil, Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla
chill until ready to use.

FOR CHOCOLATE PASTRY
Dissolve 1 and 1/2 tsp instant expresso in 1 and 1/2 tsp boiling water, whisk into pastry cream wit butter and vanilla.

PATE A CHOUX
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 or 175 ml water
 6tbsp (85 gms) Unsalted butter
1/4tsp salt
1 Cup (125gms) All purpose flour
4 Large eggs
1 tbsp Sugar

METHOD:
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 stir 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 with a wooden spoon, 1 minute to cool slightly .
Add 1 egg at a time , the batter will appear loose and shiny, like a buttered mashed potato, keep adding eggs one at a time reapeating the same process, until all the eggs are incorporated.
Meanwhile keep your pastry bag ready with a round tip 1'' apart, I just piped the pastry without any tip 🙂 I think that is why my pastry was quite big!!,
Bake the choux at 425 degree F/200 degree C, until well puffed and urning lightly golden in colour about 10 minutes, Lower te tempratrue to 350 degree F/180 degree C and continue baking until well golden coloured 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.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your Piece Monte'e.

HARD CARAMEL GLAZE:
1 Cup (225g) sugar
1/2 tsp 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 center begins to smoke.  Begin to stir sugar, Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber colour.  Remove from heat immediately, and use it immediately.
Assembling your Piece Montee: Lay out the 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, make a pattern stick them together and start from the bottom layer and build it upwards like a zigsaw puzzle, seeing which pieces fit together.
Once ready to assemble dip the top of each choux in the glaze and start assembling on the sheet. continue dipping and arranging the pastries in usisng the glaze t hold them together and build up.
Once done, I poured some more chocolate glaze on to of it and allowed my kids to enjoy by decorating with what ever they want.

You can take an other look at my Croquembouche..................

My Verdict: It was simply delicious so my kids declared and wanted me to make it again!!, but they did not like the caramel glaze as they found it quite sticky!!, So next time minus the caramel glaze I am going to do this again, My eldest said it was so delicious and said it tasted like the Eclairs, I had to tell her that it was the same choux pastry!! which I have used to do this, Loved it, thanks Cat for this lovely challenge!!....
c u soon...., take care......

I would also like you if you are interested in doing this check out Audax Artifex's blog for some wonderful tips and important things which you need to understand and keep an eye when you want it to turn out perfect. He is a great baker and a very creative one at that, and check out on other daring bakers for their lovely creations and feast your eyes with such creativity you will be awed to see.......