Daring Bakers: Piece Montie

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Wow..ok, so I'm really glad that I don't bake for a living. While the group I'm in is called the "Daring Bakers", I'm really quite a timid baker. I love the idea of baking, but the execution just scares the hell out of me. Luckily, I have a great sense of humor and find most things funny.

This challenge started off badly, with me being so scared to do this that I stalled so long I'm 2 days late in posting, b/c I just now made the darn thing. The creme patisserie was easy peasy and I got a little cocky. The choux batter/dough was relatively simple, but when it came to piping it, it was kind of runny and they flattened out instead of staying perky and round. As I bent over to put the cookie sheet filled with the uncooked choux, the parchment paper made a break for it and slid off into the bottom of my oven, accordioning itself. I grabbed the edge of it and tried to unfold it and place it back on the cookie sheet. Some of it was still wadded up and some was not. I did have a second sheet with about 6 or 7 choux on it, so that went in the oven as well.

I lost about a 3rd of them, and most of the rest were dramatically deformed. But once you fill an ugly puff with delicious creme and then dip it in melted chocolate and stack them in an interpretive pile and glob the rest of the melted chocolate on top, if you can stop laughing long enough to give one a try, you will be quite pleased with the results. We (hubby and daughter and I) all thought they were quite tasty and I'll certainly try making this again. I learned a lot from this experience. The best thing I learned is that even if I mess it up, the earth is not going to come to a standstill. AND...it doesn't matter what it looks like if it tastes good.

sooooo.... ready for the picture? You have my permission to laugh. It's ok, I did.

We took 2 photos in the hopes that it might have a "good" side. It did not. I did, however, use a lovely vintage cake plate. That's gotta count for something, right? lol

Can't wait til next month....

peace (and chocolate cream puffs)

Deb