Croquembouche

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This is NOT I REPEAT NOT an "easy" recipt. They made it even more difficult by using gelantine to make the cream filling. You can use any old pudding recipe or even a box of cooked pudding. Then beat your whipping cream and add 1/4 of it to the pudding (after it has cooled. After incorporating the small amount of whipping cream, gently fold in the rest. The caramel is not easy. It takes a few burned fingers to get it right. Please be very, very careful with it. Also, croquembouche has a very short life after making it. On a rainy day, the sugar can melt and you have a pile of soaking cream puffs. But when you get it right, you have a spectacular dessert!

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When I saw this in Food Network Magazine, I just knew I had to try making it for Christmas. I didn't anticipate exactly how difficult it would be, however. I ended up having to make the cream puffs twice because the first batch didn't puff up. I feel like a few of these reviews were a bit harsh on this recipe. The only thing I would say is that you HAVE to follow the recipe EXACTLY. For example, on my first batch, I didn't cook the flour mixture for the length of time it said because it looked done to me. But for the batch that turned out, I made sure I timed it perfectly. The only super difficult part, in my opinion, was the spun sugar. I'd never worked with it before and it was harder to work with than I thought. BE CAREFUL. I actually burnt my finger on the molten caramel. The custard was delicious and I added some cinnamon to both the vanilla and chocolate just to give it a little extra something. Everyone loved them. Overall, I think the recipe is just delicious.

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I made this for my holiday dinner party and they were delicious! The filling was yummy and not too sweet (I broke the custard a bit but ran it through a sieve and it was just fine!. The next day I made the puffs and since I was preparing many things I managed to burn the tray on the bottom rack so I whipped up another batch (that's how quick they are and those came out wonderfully, nice and big! Assembling the cream puffs was tricky but beautiful! I found that when the burnt sugar cooled off a bit the sugar spun more easily. I would make these again!

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After years of searching for a great cream puff recipe, I finally found one!! I didn't have time to build the tower, and I used a different filling, but the actual puffs were divine and WORTH THE EFFORT!

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Like the previous reviewer, this recipe was a waste of time, money, and effort. I wasted 4 hours in the kitchen yesterday making a recipe that was not presentable to my guests. I have made cream puffs before with a different recipe and this recipe did not successfully produce edible puffs.

Cream filling = turned out quite tasty and not too sweet.

Pastry puffs = I made this twice since the first time was a complete runny disaster that had to be discarded. The second time the consistency was thicker but when they came out of the oven, they looked like cookies. The puff did not puff into round balls. Rather, they were flat discs.

Now I have a huge bowl of filling that I don't know what to do with.

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I saw this and just HAD to make it. I'm no stranger to making desserts, and this one looked time-consuming but worth it. If only I could get those 4 hours of my life back that I spent making this recipe. The main problem? There are too many steps and too many variables. There are a myriad of things that can go wrong, and unless you time this perfectly or just have an entire day to waste on this, you will find yourself wishing you hadn't started this recipe about 4 steps into it. And all that hard work? Yeah, that'll be used up to make mediocre tasting cream puffs and bland caramel.

There are a number of painful things I'd rather do than make this recipe again, including - but not limited to: watch Twilight and New Moon back to back, read through an entire Megan Fox interview, try to understand why anyone would willingly go see Chipmunks: The Squeakel, or go buy a Glenn Beck book.

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Absolutely the most elegant and fantastic dessert. It is time consuming but worth it. Follow the directions explicitly. It is a crowd pleaser and oh so good. A perfect holiday dessert.