I Don't Do Christmas... But I Made a Croquembouche!

[@MarjolaineB]

Hey there, French viewer input here 😊 As I was watching your video, I discovered that the "piece montée" is called croquembouche, which is funny to me, because if you're gonna use a French term to name the thing, why not just call it pièce montée 😅 Throughout our tiny country, there are many traditional Christmas pastries, depending on the region. But I've never heard anything about the croquembouche being one of them. The croquembouche is in fact THE wedding pastry in France. Instead of a plastic base, the structure of a croquembouche is made of nougatine, which is also edible, and which I personally find delicious! Traditionally, the newly weds chop off the top of the croquembouche together, just like you Americans do with the wedding cake. It can be a real challenge because caramel covered choux are not that easy to chop off. 😂 It is also served at the reception of a christening or a communion. The crème pâtissière that fills up the puffs (choux in French) is often prepared with a touch of rhum and vanilla, which gives it a nice flavor. Because of how it's made, the croquembouche is a very versatile pastry, and rather than sticking to the traditional "Christmas tree" shape, pastry chefs come up with fabulous designs. The most impressive one that I've seen with my own eyes, was a croquembouche shaped in the form of a couple of swans, under a heart shaped arch. And it was soooo delicious! It is a very challenging pastry to make, because the caramel is very sensitive to heat and moisture in the air, and the construction can be quite massive (three puffs per guest). There. If you read this, I hope it will have entertained you to learn a little more about what the croquembouche is to us French people. 😊

[@MarjolaineB]

Oh, and yes, the profiteroles are indeed filled with vanilla ice cream, and served with a hot chocolate sauce on top of them. 😉

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Oo so I had never heard the term "piece montée" until a couple days ago when I was watching the Bake Off Professionals and they had to make one! Yeah, it's like croquembouche is just a subgenre of piece montée... interesting that that one specific design got it's own name! Thanks for sharing that info, I loved reading it!

[@ciloucoud]

As another French viewer, I completely second Marjolaine's explanation. Croquembouche sonds weird to me, could be the name of a Disney's cat cartoon character 😅🤣🤣🤣 I saw a sailboat designed pièce montée once and a giant M shaped one for the christening on a child named Michaël. 😊😘

[@rusted_ursa]

This is the funniest voice over I've ever heard in a Christmas video.

[@margaretkaraba8161]

Pfeffernusse. They're a spiced shortbread type cookie with papper added. They were my Dad's favorite. Or you could do gingerbread cookies/cake - of various types (I love parkin cake - which is a ginger/molasses/oatmeal cake common in northern UK - it's supposed to be unctuous).

[@nuriagiralt617]

So fun! I love making them for New Year's Eve parties. BTW, the typical celebration that it goes with in France is a wedding 🤓

[@Eneri-z9v]

12:38 to 12:43 You remind me of a cute cat watching wildlife from the vantage point of a living room window 😂😊.

[@shia2734]

Voting for a christmas log over here for this year! Also, It's wonderful hearing someone say "meh, I got bored" xd I feel represented for once.

[@arrowwishes8766]

Me and my soon to be baby girl are hungry for treats now....yum..

[@dagwoodspott2199]

AWESOME !!! Don't put yourself down I think that looked mouth watering ;) Happy holidays ;) Thanks for sharing ;D

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Thank you!

[@dominiquebilodeau2225]

Move over Julia, I want you to have a cooking show! ❤❤❤😂

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Aw thank you!!

[@angelwhispers2060]

Just for reference croquembouche are usually made inside of a cone these days it's usually a big sheet of acetate or plastic sprayed with cooking spray inside to help be able to get the caramel crusted profiteroles out

[@runvidr]

"Little poo mounds." Seriously, I'm 12.

[@maudline]

Get you a woman who can have a spreadsheet for cremes but still have absolute chaos in baking 😂😅 Seriously though, it looked delicious and I will save this video with your tips for when I’ll try to bake one 🎄 and since I’m writing (and watching) this in July it should give juuuuuuust about enough time to prepare for next year (yes.. next) 😅

[@yesemesfin8023]

It helped me a lot, thanks

[@valerielehl9245]

Awesome, but I would lack the patience and just make the cookies and cream puffs.

[@EphanyasisOwleyes]

It actually has vintage colors to it

[@AprilDesignsSMD]

Yule log?

[@allie9855]

Not Christmas time 😂but I thought this was super impressive!

[@rebekahpope4875]

I think you should make a kransekake next year!

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Ooooo I'm definitely looking that up!

[@magswilliams-fuller8879]

Mildly confused by milk in choux pastry, and egg washing. Also pretty sure choux buns and profiteroles can both be filled with all sorts of fillings savory and sweet and the difference between the two names is simply the size.

[@FutureCatNZ]

Yeah, I've never egg washed choux pastry - I may have been making it wrong for the last 40 years 😅

[@ciloucoud]

For next year, if you want to stay in the French Pastries theme, you could make a Bûche de Noël I'll let you google it and do your research. Philippe Etchebest (he's a French multi Michelin's stared chef who happened to be the french "Gordon Ramsey chef" in our own kitchen Nightmare show) made a orange flavored one with a mascarpone option (instead of a crème au beurre) that you might like. I don't know if KZbin will let me link the video but here it is, you can turn the subtitles on and have KZbin translate them to English. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqSTlnZtjbuXea8&ab_channel=PhilippeEtchebest There's a link in the description box for the ingredients list I guess Google translate would be your friend ! Oh, of coure it's metric so it's all grams and litres 😬 xxx Cilou (I'm the person with the linen DMC threads)

[@heathernolan902]

Ridiculously cute and comfy vibe you’ve got going on in this video 🩵 I’m still only watching the planning portion and I want to go bake something AND I wish I could grow lemon tree 🍋

[@heathernolan902]

Ok! Made it through without baking. This is whimsically wonderful! Also, I realized gluten free choux exists and that me and my teen are going to make this - if she wants to or not 😂