Consider a Cream Puff Tree for Your Holiday Dessert Table

If you're looking for a visual stunner for your holiday dessert table, consider a cream puff tree or croquembouche. This French pastry, which literally means "crunch in the mouth," is a tower of cream puffs glued together with caramel. Traditionally, the cream puffs are stacked without using a mold, but a foil-covered Styrofoam cone makes things a lot easier.

As with many other dishes, Eastern Europeans have adopted the croquembouche and you can find it at chi-chi hotels throughout the region. Modern versions are filled with chocolate pastry cream and "glued" with melted chocolate. Others are festooned with fresh fruit. But this is a traditional croquembouche recipe from a Wilton Industries baking class that looks difficult but really isn't. Just follow these steps for how to make a croquembouche and you should be good to go.

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