Caramel Glazed Cherry Profiteroles, and an attempt at croquembouche

If I may paraphrase This American Life, the crucial ingredient in a Fiasco is an ambition reaching just beyond capability.

The first three steps of this recipe all worked out well, but at the last it became a fiasco that ended in me losing an inlay in caramel, and ruching to the dentist.  (Everythin is alright now)

The goal here is to make a cherry pastry cream filled profiterole, with a caramel glaze on top, and then assemble them into a tall, hollow, cone.

Step one, Pastry Cream (night before):

Add 1/3 cup sugar to 600ml (~2 and 1/2 cup) whole milk and bring to a boil.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the following until an even pale yellow:

6 egg yolks

4tbspns corn starch

1/4 tspn salt

1/3 cup sugar

Add to this egg mix 50ml (~3tbspn) creme d'cassis or another fruit flavored liqueur (I used Trader Joe's raspberry wine), and 100ml (~1/3 cup) strong cherry juice.  I made this by cooking and sieving frozen cherries.

While rapidly whisking pour 1/3 of the hot milk mix into the egg mix, then add the egg mix back into the milk and return to the stove over medium heat.

Stirring constantly, heat the mix until it begins to thicken and bubble and then for 2-4minutes more.

Transfer to a new container, let stop steaming (5min) cover with clingfilm or parchment paper to prevent a skin forming and put in the fridge.

***I originally added the cherry juice to the milk directly, but it caused curdling, and I lost a lot of the milk proteins***

Step Two, Choux Pastries (night before):

6 large eggs

375ml water

190g whole wheat four or 210g white flour

150g butter

Bring the water and butter to a boil.

Add all the flour, remove from the heat and stir together, then knead with a spatula until it is smooth and glossy (~2min)

Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each egg before adding the next.

Using a piping bag of a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off, make 1.5inch circles spaced out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 415F for 15min then lower the temperature to 350F and bake for another 10-15minutes until firm and beginning to brown.

Cool on a wire rack completely, then store in an airtight container overnight.

***These were very fluffy, but nt spherical, which was either caused by using pastry flour or whole wheat flour.  Next time I might add some bread flour.  One the other hand, they were very soft and delicious.***

Step 3:  Assembly (2 hours before eating):

Place the choux pastries in a 350F oven for 5minutes to dry them back out, and then let them cool for 10 minutes.

Using a pastry bag with a metal tip, fill 40 choux pastries with the pastry cream.  Do not re-mix the pastry cream, as this will break it apart.

Make caramel on the stove:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup creme d'casis or other fruit liqueur

Boil until 300 degrees, swirling occasionally (do not stir) or until caramel colored with distinctive caramel smell.

Remove from the stove and swirl until it start to cool (1-2min)

Wipe excess filling off outside of each profiterole and dip the top half in the caramel then set aside. 

You need to work quickly here.  While the caramel is warm you will get a nice thin layer, but as it cools you'll get too much on each profiterole. 

At this point I had a very nice, pretty, delicious dessert.  I recommend stopping here.

Step 4, optional: 

This is where it all went wrong. . . .

If you want to make a croquembouche you make a cone by stacking concentric rings of pastries, cementing them together with caramel.

When I tried this I had three problems: 

1) It collapsed.

2) It was hard to retrieve an individual profiterole.

3) there was too much caramel on the profiteroles.

It think a better alternative is to just make an attractive stack of the profiteroles, and probably won't try for the croquembouche in the future.

Behold the sad caramel mountain:

Fun changes to try next time:

Any fruit flavoring could be used for the pastry cream

You can mix the pastry cream with an equal volume of whipped cream before filling to get a different texture of filling

You can glaze with melted chocolate, colored icing, or a softer butter caramel.