Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

---------------------------PUFFS (PATE A CHOUX):---------------------------
1 1/2 ea sticks unsalted butter 1 ts sugar
1 1/2 c water 1 1/2 c flour
1/4 ts salt 6 ea large eggs

-----------------------------------GLAZE:-----------------------------------
1 ea egg beaten with 1 tsp water 2 c milk, scalded
1 ea Pastry Cream (Creme Patissie 3 tb butter
6 ea egg yolks 1 ts vanilla
1/2 c sugar 2 tb cognac
1/2 c sifted flour 1 ea Pinch salt

----------------------------------NOUGAT:----------------------------------
2 c sugar 1 1/2 c toasted finely ground almond
1 ea Juice of 1/2 lemon

----------------------------------CARAMEL:----------------------------------
2 c sugar 2 tb corn syrup
2/3 c water

Use Pastry Cream (Creme Patissiere) for filling.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. To make the puffs, melt the butter in the
water with salt and sugar over low heat. Remove from heat and beat in flou
with a wooden spoon until completely mixed. Return to heat and stir
vigorously for 2 to 3 minutes. Mixture will form a mass, and a film will
form on bottom of pan. Remove from heat and, one by one, add eggs, beating
vigorously after each addition.
Using a pastry tube with 1/2-inch opening, form puffs on a buttered baking
sheet. Glaze each puff with the beaten egg and water, using a pastry brush
Smooth the top of each puff. Put in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from
oven and pierce each puff with a sharp knife. (This allows the steam to
escape so that the interior of the puff is not soggy.) Return to the oven
for 10 minutes more. Cool puffs on a rack. While cooling, prepare pastry
cream.
To make the cream, beat the egg yolks, gradually adding the sugar, until
mixture is thick and pale yellow. Beat in the flour. Add the hot milk in
dribbles, reserving 1/2 cup for thinning. Return to pot in which milk was
scalded, and stir mixture over high heat until it comes to a boil. It will
become lumpy first and then will smooth out with vigorous stirring. Be
careful not to scorch the bottom of the pot. The cream should be thick, bu
add milk if too thick to pipe.
Add the butter, 1 Tbsp at a time. Flavor with vanilla, cognac and salt.
Cool completely. Inject the pastry cream into the puffs with a
1/4-inch pastry tip.
To make nougat, melt the sugar with the lemon juice in a heavy pot. Do not
stir. Boil together until a thick amber syrup is formed. Stir in the
almonds and spread the mixture on an oiled marble slab while warm. Cut wit
a sharp knife into a round for the base, and into small triangles for
decoration. Keep nougat warm in a 250 degree oven. (It cannot be cut or
shaped if it hardens.)
To make the caramel, bring the ingredients to a boil over high heat. Do no
stir. Cover pan (allowing steam to dissolve any crystals that might form).
Uncover pan and boil several more minutes, until syrup is amber. Reduce
heat to keep syrup from hardening.
Dip the filled cream puffs, one by one, into the caramel syrup and arrange
on the nougat base, forming a cone resembling a pyramid. The caramel holds
the cream puffs together. Note: Assemble the croquembouche the day of the
party, as it cannot be refrigerated. However, the cream puffs, pastry
cream, and nougat can be prepared in advance.

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