What is a Croquembouche?
The name croquembouche may be unfamiliar to most Filipinos and even its looks and concept may be new to Filipino consumers. But this architectural dessert’s popularity dates back to the late 1700’s in Western Europe, France. So what exactly is a croquembouche?
Antoine Carème is the famous pastry chef who popularized this pièce montèe that conceptualizes profiteroles or cream puffs. Croquembouche means “crunch in the mouth” and it holds its definition by mounting cream puffs in a canonical-shaped tower with melted caramel. The classic croquembouche is known to be plain, simple, and minimal. However, despite its simplicity, it is a traditional centerpiece of a celebration mainly in weddings, baptisms, and first communions.
Considering that croquembouche is a confectionery masterpiece, we took this advantage to create an elegant piece that elevates the beauty and deliciousness of cream puffs in a more modern and fashionable way possible while still adhering to the art of pièce montèe.
What is Our Croquembouche?
We want to create an identity for croquembouche in our modern age here in the Philippines. Our croquembouche are made with a touch of our own vision and originality to revolutionize this unique dessert as a piece to enjoy in moments of celebration. Everything from aesthetics, to the creamy texture of the cream puffs, all are made with great attention and passion for joy.
Before we can start constructing this masterpiece, we first must bake the heart and foundation of a delicious croquembouche – Cream Puffs. It is the first and most crucial step in order to make it to the top of the tower. Although cream puffs may look like just a piece of bread, it is an art that needs precise measures and procedures for it inflate and have the right texture, size, and flavors.
The art begins with quality ingredients. If croquembouche was a painting, the paint would be our ingredients. It starts with an image, procedure, technique, and details. We only intend to delivery quality and products that are worth to construct and we use the finest ingredients to make that happen. Here are the highlights that these ingredients contribute:
Japanese Cake Flour
There are hundreds of types of flour in Japan that are tailored for different kinds of uses. We utilize a specific cake flour for its fine texture to create an airy, thin, and soft cream puffs.
French Butter
Butter is the most essential ingredient in making puff pastries or in any kind of pastry. French butter is cultured which means that the cream from the milk is fermented then churned. It has more butterfat and less water than the standard butter and this gives it the strong distinctive flavor and firm texture compared to others and it contributes a lot to the aromatic flavor of our cream puffs.
Organic Eggs
Organic eggs are free from any antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, and other substances that can potentially alarm any health concerns. It is important to us that the eggs we use are nurtured with organic substances especially since eggs are a crucial ingredient for pastries.
Vanilla Beans
Cream puffs are all about flavors and the best part is its cream filling. In making our diplomat cream, we use whole vanilla beans to intensify the custard cream’s flavor.
Callebaut's Belgian Chocolates
One of the best chocolates in the world. Belgium chocolates are classified to have a midrange of flavors. Not too sweet and not too less. This balance is complementary to our cream puff’s rich and classic flavors. It doesn’t overpower the pastry and cream which makes it the best toppings for our profiteroles.
Japanese Cake Flour
There are hundreds of types of flour in Japan that are tailored for different kinds of uses. We utilize a specific cake flour for its fine texture to create an airy, thin, and soft cream puffs.
French Butter
Butter is the most essential ingredient in making puff pastries or in any kind of pastry. French butter is cultured which means that the cream from the milk is fermented then churned. It has more butterfat and less water than the standard butter and this gives it the strong distinctive flavor and firm texture compared to others and it contributes a lot to the aromatic flavor of our cream puffs.
Organic Eggs
Organic eggs are free from any antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, and other substances that can potentially alarm any health concerns. It is important to us that the eggs we use are nurtured with organic substances especially since eggs are a crucial ingredient for pastries.
Vanilla Beans
Cream puffs are all about flavors and the best part is its cream filling. In making our diplomat cream, we use whole vanilla beans to intensify the custard cream’s flavor.
Callebaut's Belgian Chocolates
One of the best chocolates in the world. Belgium chocolates are classified to have a midrange of flavors. Not too sweet and not too less. This balance is complementary to our cream puff’s rich and classic flavors. It doesn’t overpower the pastry and cream which makes it the best toppings for our profiteroles.
Puff Pastry
The puff pastry dough is made by mixing milk, butter, and water over medium heat. Once boiling, flour is added and it is continuously stirred until the liquid is mostly evaporated. The mixing proceeds with eggs until the dough smoothens and is ready to pipe. The dough follows a strict and timely process to make where every second counts. Once ready, it is shaped into little domes and placed into a preheated oven. If the procedure is done correctly, it should be able to grow and inflate the puff to create a hollow inside for the cream. After baking, we proceed to making the cream filling.
Diplomat Cream Filling
Diplomat cream is basically just a combination of custard cream and whipped cream. It makes the cream have a more smooth, delicate, and creamy texture. This cream filling is the core layer of our delicious cream puff.
The custard cream is made in two parts. The first part is the mixture of flour, sugar, egg yolks, and milk. This is mixed until everything is smooth and free of any lumps. The second part is boiling the milk. To keep the milk from being scorched, it is stirred continuously until it boils. The first mixture is poured into the milk as soon as it starts to boil and in this step, time cannot be wasted. The mixture is stirred vigorously as it can burn quite easily and it will thicken as it mixes. Vanilla beans are then added and when the custard has reached it’s proper consistency, it is ready to take off the heat and pour onto an ice bath to cool. The custard is then mixed with whipped cream and our diplomat cream is done and ready to be filled inside our puff pastry.
Making The Croquembouche
With just cream puffs and caramel, anyone is already able to make their croquembouche. Here in croquembouche Factory, we are taking it as our own pièce montèe masterpiece by making our own elegant designs using natural flavoring and toppings.
Aside from the regular plain cream puffs and melted sugar to build the tower, we are using a variety of real chocolates and toppings as well. Our cream puffs are coated with the best quality Belgian chocolates with dark, white, milk, and the latest ruby flavor. These couverture chocolates contain cocoa butter and it requires to be tempered in order for it to set and harden.
Tempering is a process of re-establishing the cocoa butter crystals once it’s melted so that it would have a smooth and more crunchy texture that won’t melt easily by the touch of your fingers. These chocolates must be tempered in a specific process in a specific temperature. These temperatures range from 100 – 118° F (37 – 48° C) depending on the flavor of the chocolate. We mold these chocolates into our cream puffs and accessorize it with edible confectionery toppings.
Once all the cream puffs are set and designed, we carefully place them around a circular base (cookie) and a cone with caramel or chocolate, depending on the theme. Each puff is strategically mounted on each other making sure that everything sits in between to ensure its weight would be held and supported. We continue this procedure until we reach the very top. The last piece of cream puff indicates that the croquembouche is done, but we don’t usually stop there. We add a few extra confectionery touches like almond dragees or fondant flowers.
In Croquembouche Factory, we don’t use any type of preservatives or food coloring aside from our fondant flowers to achieve the image, quality, and colors that we want. We firmly believe that happiness comes from everything naturally attained and we want to show that through the process of making our croquembouche. Each croquembouche takes about 6-12 hours to complete starting from the baking up to the stacking of cream puffs, depending on the size and flavors. Our services are here to bring joy and amazing new experiences to you and the people involved. After all, croquembouche is a cake that celebrates new openings and chapters of our lives and we would be delighted to take part in it.