vickichowder: CHOCOLATE

MINI CROQUEMBOUCHE

I would not try to claim that I excel at cooking, but I am rather confident in the kitchen. A particular area in which I can confidently say that I am horrible is my sense of direction.

When one of my girlfriends and I are together, we turn into Dumb and Dumber. In addition to a decreased sense of direction which is already rather absent, our common sense tends to evaporate when the two of us are alone.

Filled with chestnut puree

After leaving our friends house one day to go grocery shopping, I attempted to cross the intersection, but she insisted that the direction Sobeys (the grocery store) was on the current side of the street and to the left. So I listened to her, believing that my sense of direction was incorrect as usual.

But it didn't feel right, and I had us stop and cross the lights because it turns out that both of us were wrong! Not only did we have to cross the lights, we also had to walk towards the right side. Yet in the moment, we were both so sure that ourselves were going the right way...

In the kitchen, I doubt less and become so much surer of my choices. Which is a good thing since the duration of my days are split amongst spending time 1. doing assignments, studying, 2. going to the gym, or 3. cooking in the kitchen.

Well here is a dessert I am sure of. You can make it with just three components:

~ Ingredients ~

Creampuffs
Pastry cream or pudding
Chocolate

~ Method ~

Getting puffier

I
Fill your cream puffs / profiteroles with the pastry cream or pudding using a pastry tip until its full. Put them in the fridge so the filling sets and doesn't soak into the puff (making them soggy you don't want soggy puffs right?)

Alternatively, you can buy frozen pre-filled profiteroles (like the ones that come in a big tub from Costco)

I piped chocolate pudding into raspberries before chocolating them onto the croquembouche

II
Divide your cream puffs into a plate of pretty ones and not so pretty ones (like people, you know that there will always be ones that are less good looking, but you never want to be the first to say it. But now you can discriminate the ugly ones, point them out, and say it out loud.)

Lack of natural lighting in the kitchen

III
Arrange a layer of 6-8 puffs in a circle on a plate, then attach more puffs on top with melted chocolate, using one or two less puffs for each additional layer. Save the nicer looking ones for the top layers.