Croquembouche

Method

1. 1 Make choux pastry dough from water, butter, and flour, then pipe 24 small balls and bake at 190 degrees for 22 minutes.
2. 2 Cook the pâtissière cream from milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla for 6 minutes, then let it cool for 1 hour.
3. 3 Pump cream into each cream puff through the hole in the bottom, pumping until you feel resistance.
4. 4 Cook 100g of sugar until it turns into an amber caramel color, then dip the bottom of each piece in the caramel and arrange them into a cone shape.
5. 5 Make it quickly before the caramel hardens — caramel acts as both the glue and the crispy crust, so it can't be replaced with cream.

With an appliance

• Air fryer 2 hr 40 min

  Instead of step 1: lightly spray oil around the dish, use a steam cooker at 205 degrees for 14 minutes, rotating the tray at minute 7. The strong airflow shortens the cooking time by about one-third compared to a conventional oven and sears the surface faster.