Daring Bakers Challenge: Pièce Montée

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.

Assembling this pièce montée made me feel just a bit like a French pastry chef. Part of the fun of the Daring Bakers group is that we get to make many different recipes that some of us have only dreamed of making (or never dreamed of being able to complete)! A pièce montée is a dessert that I’ve admired on other blogs and in cookbooks, but never would have attempted under my own pretenses. Yet here it is, my latest masterpiece!

A pièce montée, also referred to as a croquembouche, is an architectural feat of pastry. Cream puffs are built into a cone shape, cemented together with chocolate or hard caramel. They can reach great heights and serve as a backdrop for some astoundingly beautiful sugar art. Mine, however, is more humble.

I was excited to try spun sugar. Admiring many a croquembouche wrapped in delicate strands like spiderwebs inspired me to try it myself. To my surprise (and relief), it was remarkably simple! The trick is letting the caramel cool to just the right temperature. Then you have a small window of time before the caramel gets too hard.

Use a skewer, a fork, chopsticks, or any other utensil to scoop the caramel out of the pan. As it drizzles off the utensil it will start to form delicate tendrils of sugar. Move the utensil in the desired pattern around the croquembouche to wrap it in sugar. This simple method produces a stunning result.

While melting the butter for the pâte à choux, I discovered a new galaxy. I’m sure that there are all kinds of delicious creatures living in this butter galaxy. In fact, I know they’re delicious, because I ate quite a few of the resulting cream puffs!

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

This challenge consisted of three components: pâte à choux (cream puff pastry dough), crème pâtissière (pastry cream), and caramel glaze used to hold the structure together. We were encouraged to be creative with the pastry cream flavors, so I chose to incorporate raspberries.

I made the full batch of pastry cream, and a half batch of pâte à choux. This yielded 8 puffs, generously filled with cream.

Raspberry Crème Pâtissière
Yield: enough to fill 8-10 cream puffs

1 cup whole milk (I used half & half)
2 tablespoons corn starch
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raspberries (fresh or thawed frozen), mashed

Dissolve the corn starch in 1/4 cup of the milk. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of milk along with the sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the egg yolks, into the corn starch mixture. Pour about 1/3 of the heated milk into the corn starch mixture, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs.

Return the remaining milk mixture to a boil. Whisking constantly, pour the hot egg mixture into the saucepan in a slow stream. Continue to whisk until the cream has thickened and come to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, vanilla extract, and raspberries.

Pour the cream into a metal/glass/ceramic bowl and press some plastic wrap directly onto the surface. This will avoid having a skin form over the cream. Place in the refrigerator immediately and chill until ready to use. I chilled mine overnight before continuing.

Pâte à Choux
Yield: approximately 28 puffs

3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 425°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, combine water, butter, salt, and sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour until completely incorporated.

Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the batter dries slightly and starts to pull apart. There will be a thin layer of dough coating the bottom of the pan. Don’t scrape the dough off the bottom of the pan.

Transfer the mixture to a heatproof bowl and stir for about a minute to cool the mixture slightly. Add one egg. I added a cool egg straight from the fridge so that it wouldn’t cook when adding to the hot mixture. The batter will be loose and rather chunky. It may look like the egg won’t blend in, but keep stirring.

It will magically become a smooth batter soon enough.

Add the remaining eggs, one at a time, incorporating each one completely before adding the next. You may not need the last egg if the batter seems to be getting too liquidy.

Transfer the batter to a pastry bag with a large opening or plain tip. Pipe mounds 1 inch high, 1 inch wide, and 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Use your fingertip dipped in water to gently flatten any “hats” that formed while piping the choux. The tops should be gently rounded.

Brush the choux with egg wash and place the baking sheets into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, or until puffy and just starting to brown.

Lower the oven temperature to 350° and continue to bake for 20-25 minutes. They should be deep brown in color and dried out. If they are underbaked, they may collapse after being removed from the oven. When the choux are finished baking, remove them from the baking sheet and cool them directly on a cooling rack.

For best results, use the choux right away. However, they may be stored overnight in an airtight container.

Just before you assemble the pièce montée, fill the choux with pastry cream. Transfer the cream to a pastry bag with a circle or star tip. Pierce the bottom of each choux with the pastry tip and squeeze in the cream.

Prepare all of your ingredients and tools to assemble the pièce montée: filled choux, serving plate, bowl of ice water (hot sugar burns!), and utensils to spin the sugar (I used a double-pronged skewer). It may help to practice stacking your choux (before filling them) to figure out which pieces fit together best.

Hard Caramel Glaze

1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine the sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan, stirring until the mixture resembles wet sand. Heat over medium heat without stirring until the sugar melts in the middle and starts to bubble and smoke. Stir the sugar and continue heating, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar has liquefied and is amber in color. Remove from heat and use immediately.

Keeping a bowl of ice water nearby, carefully dip each choux into the sugar mixture and begin to build the pièce montée. I found it easiest and safest to just dip the bottom of the choux in caramel and place it on the tower. Drizzle a tad more caramel on top of the choux, using a metal spoon. Continue building until the desired height and shape are achieved. If the sugar hardens or gets difficult to work with, return it to the stove over medium heat for a minute or two.

To spin sugar around the outside, I used a double-pronged skewer. The sugar should be slightly cooler than the temperature used for dipping the choux. You’ll be able to tell when the sugar has cooled to the point of “spiderwebbing” – that’s my technical term for it. If you dip the skewer in the pan of sugar and pull it back out, a glob of sugar will fall off and thin strands of sugar will dangle from the skewer. Circle the pièce montée with the skewer, pulling the sugar strands around in circles to wrap the tower.

Serve immediately. It won’t last long, anyway.