croquembouche

pressed for time, but with my heart set on a croquembouche for my 30th birthday, i decided to pull a sandra lee and make it semi-homemade. with a little creativity and 45 minutes to spare, you too, can have a fancy croquembouche. happy tasting!

my birthday croquembouche

courtesy of: missi

serves: 8-10

puff pastry:
- 75 glazed munchkins from dunkin donuts


cream filling:
- 2 pkgs instant vanilla pudding
- 2 c milk

1. combine pudding and milk in an air-tight container with a tight fitting lid. shake vigorously to combine and let sit 5 min.

2. fill a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and inject approximately 1tsp into one donut hole. repeat step until all donut holes are filled.

*since the donut holes are glazed, i didn't see it necessary to coat them in the traditional hardened caramel. instead, i left them "naked" and used other means to stack them into a cone shape...

assembly:
- 1 styrofoam cone
- 75 toothpicks

1. once the donut holes are filled, use toothpicks to attach them to a styrofoam cone. 75 donut holes will cover a medium sized cone.

ta da!

sugarwebs:
- 1 c sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1. prepare an ice-water bath. bring all ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, washing down sides of pan often with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. cook, without stirring, until sugar dissolves; 5-6 min. raise heat to high and cook, swirling pan to color evenly, until syrup is amber, about 3-5 min. remove caramel from heat and set bottom of pan in the ice bath to stop the cooking process. slightly cool.

this was once a wire whisk

sugar web application tools:
- wire whisk
- wire cutters
- turn table

1. while caramel is cooling enough to distribute, set the assembled croquembouche on a turn table for even distribution of the caramel sugar web and use wire cutters to snip apart a wire whisk {see above photo}. this will allow wispy strands of caramel to be added easily {see photo below}.

with a turn table, i spin the croquembouce instead of my whisk.

because moister will cause your caramel to become tacky, please serve within 2 hours unless you live in arizona, then serve within 6.

eat your heart out, sandra lee!