Croque en Bouche de Luxe

This luxurious Croque en Bouche is a tower of cream puffs filled with vanilla pastry cream, drizzled with caramel, and adorned with spun sugar.

Ingredients - Serves 8

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour and stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball.
Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract.
Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe small mounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
In a separate saucepan, heat milk over medium heat until steaming.
In a bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually whisk in the hot milk.
Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool. Transfer the pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
Using a skewer, poke a small hole in the bottom of each cream puff. Pipe the pastry cream into the cream puffs through the hole.
Arrange the cream puffs in a tower on a serving platter, drizzling caramel sauce between the layers.
Decorate the top of the tower with spun sugar.
Serve immediately and enjoy!