How to make
Croquembouche is a French cone-shaped festive desert made from small éclairs filled with cream or other filling. They are secured with caramel and wrapped in caramel threads. It's not too hard to make, even though it looks like it.
Pour the water into a pot, add the butter, a pinch of salt and put it on the stove. When the water boils, add the flour mixed with the baking powder all at once. Stir, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the eggs, one after the other, by mixing vigorously, until they are homogenized in the batter. Line a large baking pan with baking paper.
Fill a piping bag with the eclair dough and start making small eclairs on the paper. Leave some space between them, since they will puff up when baking. Bake the eclairs in a preheated oven at 360°F (180°C), until they aquire an appetizing color. Cool the finished eclairs on a wire rack.
With a wire whisk, briefly beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the flour and milk. Homogenize and flavor with the vanilla and lemon peel. Place the pot on a heated hob and stir, until the eclair cream thickens. Cool it.
Using a piping bag, fill the eclairs with cream. Melt the sugar and water, until a light caramel is obtained. Arrange a circle of eclairs on a suitable plate or tray, by sticking them together with drops of caramel. Make the eclairs into a pyramid.
Dip a fork into the liquid caramel and pull out threads, which you can twist around the pyramid of éclairs. Sprinkle with sweet pearls, coarse sugar, or other sugar figurines to your liking. Your Croquembouche dessert is ready!
