Croquembouche

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Croquembouche
Croquembouche wedding cake.jpg
Croquembouche wedding cake
Origin
Place of origin France
Creator(s) Antonin Carême
Details
Course served Dessert
Type Choux pastry
Main ingredient(s) Profiteroles, chocolate, caramel

A croquembouche or croque-en-bouche is a French dessert consisting of choux pastry balls piled into a cone and bound with threads of caramel. In Italy and France, it is often served at weddings, baptisms and first communions.

Name

The name comes from the French phrase croque en bouche, meaning "[something that] crunches in the mouth."[1]

Presentation

A croquembouche is composed of profiteroles piled into a cone and bound with spun sugar. It may also be decorated with other confectionary such as sugared almonds, chocolate, and edible flowers. Sometimes it is covered in macarons or ganache.[2][3]

History

The invention of the croquembouche is often attributed to Antonin Carême.[4] Early 19th century cookbooks mention a dish called croquembouche which is savory.[5]

In popular culture

On March 6, 2009, alumni of the Pune-based Maharashtra State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology entered the Limca Book of Records after creating India's biggest croquembouche. It was recorded as 15 ft (4.5 m) tall.[6]

Croquembouche was one of the spoiled desserts that Gloria serves to the WJM news team and program director in "A New Sue Ann", the Season 5 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In a take-off on All About Eve, Sue Ann's show is hijacked by Gloria Munson (Linda Kelsey), who prepares a segment on French pastry. Sue Ann lets Gloria make the mistake of using unrefrigerated cream.

On 8 June 2009, Season 1 Episode 37 "5th Pressure Test Elimination" of MasterChef Australia (series 1) four out of eleven contestants baked a croquembouche made by Adriano Zumbo in 2 hours and 15 minutes. This challenge was repeated in the following seasons of the series. On 1 September 2014, Season 5, Episode 15 of the reality TV competition MasterChef, three out of the final six contestants baked an entire croquembouche in 90 minutes for their Pressure Test.

In the November 15, 2015 episode of Last Week Tonight, aired days after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, host John Oliver, in a defiant celebration of French culture, referred to the croquembouche as a "French Freedom Tower."[7]

See also

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, December 2005, s.v.
  2. Tacey Rosolowski, "Dessert time"
  3. Croquembouche Delicious Magazine
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Grimod de La Reynière, Néo-physiologie du gout, p. 565
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/vive-john-oliver

External links