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... ;-)

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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 :D



First, the Profiteroles:

1.  Grind rice in a dry Thermomix bowl on speed 9 for a minute (or until fine):
- 250g arborio or white rice

     Remove rice flour from bowl and set aside.

2. Cook in Thermomix bowl at 100 degrees for 10 minutes:
- 500g water

3.  Add and mix on speed 5 until mixture thickens and leaves sides of bowl:
- 190g macadamia oil
- the 250g rice flour
- 120g tapioca starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder

    Transfer dough to a bowl and leave to cool completely.  (Oil may separate a bit - don't worry, it will whip back in with the eggs.)

4.  Preheat oven to 210 degrees. 
     Once mixture is cool, return to Thermomix bowl, turn to speed 5 and add eggs one at a time, beating well as you add each one:
- 6 eggs

5.  Spoon or pipe blobs of dough onto lightly greased or papered trays.  (They are probably neater if piped, but I was running out of time, so I used a spoon.)  Sprinkle with water to aid rising.

6.  Bake until risen and starting to brown, about 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 190 degrees for another 10 to 15 minutes, until cooked.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  Split and fill with thick custard or Chocolate Pastry Creme.

Chocolate Pastry Creme:


1.  Grate in Thermomix on speed 8 for a few seconds:
- 100g dark, dairy-free chocolate, chopped roughly (eg. 70% cocoa Lindt, or if you're lucky enough to have some, 65% cocoa Valrhona chocolate!)

2. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 7 minutes at 80ºC on speed 4 (or until thick):
- 8 egg yolks
- 90g Rapadura
- 70g gf cornflour
- 25g raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder, preferably organic)
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 500g rice-cashew milk (based on rice-almond milk but with raw cashews instead of almonds; or use your preferred milk)
- 50g ghee or coconut oil

3.  Place into heat proof bowl, cover with a cartouche of baking paper and refrigerate until use.

(This is enough crème to fill approximately 40 profiteroles.)

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

Rapadura Caramel for Profiteroles

1.  Stir together in a saucepan over medium high heat:
- 2 cups Rapadura
- 1/2 cup water
     Stir until granules are dissolved, brushing down insides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water.  Allow syrup to simmer until it's a dark caramel colour and has the consistency of syrup.  I just drip a bit into a cup of water to check if it's ready - if it forms a pliable ball of caramel, it's ready; if it spreads out, it's not.  (But you can use a candy thermometer if you want - it needs to reach 130 degrees C.)  Don't let it burn!!!

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!