Croquembouche (puff, Christmas Tree)

Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 20
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 16 glace cherries, halved

Recipe

• 1 to make puffs:preheat oven 400f.
• 2 bring water, butter,sugar & salt to a roiling boil in a large saucepan.
• 3 add flour all at once, stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan clean. remove from heat.
• 4 beat in eggs, one at at a time with a wooden spoon until paste is shiny& smooth drop pastry by well rounded teasp, 1 1/2" apart on 2 ungreased cookie sheets bake 35 minutes or until puffed and golden.
• 5 cool on a wire rack.
• 6 prepare carmelized sugar:.
• 7 heat sugar & lemon juice in a heavy medium sized skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon until the sugar is melted and light golden brown.
• 8 do not let it burn remove from heat.
• 9 putting it together:.
• 10 place 14 puffs in a 9" circle on a platter.
• 11 fill in the center of the circle with about 5 more puffs.
• 12 working quickly and carefully dip the bottom of remaining puffs in the carmalized sugar (don't let it touch your skin), one at a time and place each on top of the base puffs in a slightly smaller circle fill in the center with puffs.
• 13 continue making each circle smaller to form a tree shape.
• 14 drizzle the remaining sugar over the tree and decorate with the cherry halves you may refrigerate for 1-2 days.