Gluten Free Croquembouche

Gluten free profiteroles

Have you ever tried making choux pastry for profiteroles or eclairs? It’s one of those things that a lot of people avoid, as it can be tricky… but in the Thermomix it’s easy as pie! (Well, pie pastry’s easy in the Thermomix too, but that’s another story.)

I prefer to make gluten free profiteroles – they’re light and fluffy, and no one has ever complained that they weren’t made of wheat flour. Oh, actually, one person did complain, but she never actually tasted them so I didn’t worry about that… Some people are funny. You say something’s gluten free, dairy free or naturally sweetened and they run a mile! Well, with this recipe I proved that the gluten free, dairy free version is just as good as, if not better than, the wheat and dairy version. Try it, and see what you think.

I first posted this recipe in May 2010, so here’s the original story, complete with some awful photos of my first attempt at a croquembouche, which I hope to update soon! I have added in some photos of my most recent batch of profiteroles and pastry creme, but they never made it to a croquembouche, so now I’ll have to make it AGAIN to get photos of that! What a pity…

I decided to have a go at a Croquembouche for my Dad’s birthday – it didn’t turn out exactly as I’d pictured it (a bit lopsided) but it was fun, and very yummy. The filling was absolutely delicious, even with my tweaking to make it gluten free, dairy free and naturally sweetened. Next time I think I’ll use the filling in a chocolate meringue pie – that would be scrumptious!

The original recipe was from the Thermomix recipe blog, but I changed it because I didn’t want to use wheat flour or sugar or butter… I checked the recipe and decided it was ‘tweakable’, and thought, “Okay, haven’t got much time, got to make the profiterole dough and let it cool before adding the eggs, pipe it onto the trays, cook them, slit them open, let them cool and dry out a little in the oven, make the chocolate pastry creme, pipe it into the profiteroles, make the caramel, dip the rolls in it and stack them in a cone shaped tower, and drizzle with the caramel then decorate somehow… no problem, I can do this in an afternoon, even if I do have ten kids here today!”

Well… unfortunately, profiteroles don’t work so well with wholemeal spelt flour and cornflour and ghee, so the first batch was a bit flat. (Don’t worry, the kids ate them with jam and thought they were lovely!) Start again… uh oh, run out of eggs! Don’t worry, hubby is coming home from work and will pick up eggs on the way. Oops, he forgot! Maybe the neighbour’s chickens have laid? Nope. Okay, dash off to town to get some more…
The second time round I decided to make gluten free profiteroles from a recipe I’d used before and knew would work! It’s based on one from ‘Friendly Food’ (the recipe book from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit). So I ground up some rice in the Thermomix and began again – this time they worked. Yay!

Time was running out – I’d made the chocolate pastry creme, and a caramel/toffee out of Rapadura, but now I had no time to let the rolls cool in the oven – too bad, just had to slit them and start piping in the chocolate. It worked pretty well. I dipped them in the caramel syrup and started stacking – hmmm, this is harder than I thought! Didn’t make it too high because I was scared it would all come tumbling down in the car on the way to the party! Anyway, I managed to get it stacked, drizzled it with caramel, then rummaged in the cupboard for some birthday candles to decorate it with… not very fancy, but it would have to do.

We managed to make it to the party only a few minutes late, and although it did cave in a little on one side as I drove madly trying to make it on time, Dad still loved his ‘birthday cake’ – so all’s well that ends well. I’m afraid it doesn’t look very professional, but it tasted good!  So for those of you who’d like to have a go at a gluten free, dairy free, naturally sweetened Croquembouche – here’s the recipe! Have fun 

And the caramel to finish it off… make this when you’re ready to put it all together.

Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!

Now to put it all together…

“Dip profiteroles, one at a time, into caramel and arrange in a circle on a parchment-lined serving platter or baking sheet, using the caramel to glue them together. Continue building the Croquembouche by dipping and “glueing” another, smaller ring of profiteroles on top of the first one. Continue the process until the classic cone or tower shape has been achieved. Lightly drizzle the remaining caramel over the Croquembouche to form a cobweb of spun sugar. Affix sugared almonds, metallic dragées, or flowers for decoration if you like.”
(Thermomix recipe blog)

Enjoy!