Vegan Red Velvet Croquembouche

This is our vegan red velvet croquembouche! We wanted to make something special for each other for Valentine’s Day. We had also been waiting for a special occasion to make a vegan croquembouche. So we thought about how we could make a croquembouche more Valentine’s-y. Our solution was to make it red velvet flavored and to decorate it with a few caramel hearts. 😍 To make it even cuter, we added somewhat of a sweet game-like element to it. Some of the cream puffs are filled with pink-colored white chocolate pastry cream. Whenever someone bites into a pink cream puff, you earn a kiss from the other person. That’s just how we decided to make it fun for ourselves, you can omit the pink pastry cream if you’d like.

This vegan red velvet croquembouche is a variation of our vegan cream puffs and chocolate pastry cream recipes. The white chocolate we used for the pastry cream is the super delicious vanilla bean white bars from Charm School Chocolate.

Make sure to check out the recipe notes for additional information and tips.

If you try this recipe, leave us a comment below to let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you!

Vegan Red Velvet Croquembouche

Little Lighthouse Baking Co.

A vegan red velvet croquembouche. Each cream puff is filled with white chocolate pastry cream and topped with caramel.

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Prep 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Cook 1 hour hr

Rest 2 hours hrs

Total 4 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine French, Vegan

Servings 36 cream puffs

Equipment

• silicone semi-sphere molds (recommended)

Ingredients  

White Chocolate Pastry Cream

• 120 grams vegan white chocolate (about 2 candy bars)
• 2 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ cup sugar
• ⅔ cup Just Egg
• 6 tbsp vegan butter

Red Velvet Cream Puffs

• ½ cup water
• ½ cup unsweetened soy milk (plus 1 tbsp)
• red gel food coloring (as much for desired color)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 7 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Just Egg
• ½ cup unsweetened soy milk (to mix with the Just Egg)

Caramel (Twice the amount below to make both batches of caramel)

• 113 grams granulated sugar (1 cup + 2 tbsp)
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 ½ tbsp corn syrup

Instructions 

Make the white chocolate pastry cream.

• We recommend making the pastry cream the day before, only because there are so many steps in the rest of the recipe.
• Do this step first to avoid running around to get it together when the time comes! Place a medium or large sieve over a mixing bowl. Set aside the butter in one tablespoon pieces.
  
• Add the white chocolate, soy milk, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt to a small sauce pan. Mix until the chocolate dissolves and leave the mixture to simmer on medium heat. It will simmer pretty quickly, in a few minutes.
  
• In a small or medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and Just Egg. Mix with a whisk until evenly combined.
  
• Once the milk mixture has started to simmer, slowly whisk in half of it into the Just Egg mixture.
  
• Next, slowly whisk in all of the mixture from the mixing bowl back into the pot with the remaining milk mixture. Whisk continuously on medium heat to cook and thicken the mixture. It should be thick enough to see the streaks of the whisk in it.
  
• Turn off the heat. Scoop the mixture from the pot into the sieve you prepared earlier. Using a rubber spatula, press it through the sieve to get rid of any lumps in the mix. Don’t forget to scrape the outside bottom of the sieve to get any of the mix that collects there.
  
• Mix in one tablespoon of butter at a time while the mixture is still warm. The butter should melt and incorporate into the pastry cream.
  
• Pour some of the pastry cream into a smaller bowl. We used about 1 cup of it to make the pink pastry cream.
  
• Mix in red or pink gel food coloring until you acheive the color that you want. Place both pastry creams into seperate piping bags and allow to cool in the refrigerator.
  

Make the choux dough.

• Prepare and gather the ingredients for the choux pastry. Using the second listed amount of soy milk, mix it together with the Just Egg. Set aside for later.
• Combine the water, soy milk, vanilla extract, sugar, cocoa powder, red food coloring, and butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. Mix it with a whisk until the cocoa powder, butter, and red food coloring dissolve. Then leave it for a few minutes until it starts to simmer. The amount of food coloring you add is up to you. Keep in mind that the color will lighten slightly after mixing in the Just Egg mixture later.
  
• Once the liquid ingredients begin to simmer, carefully add in all the flour. Turn the heat to low. Continue to mix until the flour is incorporated and no white flour spots remain. The mix will thicken into a dough and almost form a ball. It should come off the sides of the pan easily. This shouldn’t take more than about 3 minutes.
  
• Scoop the dough out of the pan and into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Avoid using a plastic bowl as the dough will be hot. Smash the dough down and flatten it to help release the heat. Leave it to cool for a few minutes. Alternatively, you can mix the dough over some ice or some ice packs to help it cool more quickly. You can also mix the dough for a few minutes in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
  
• Once your dough is just barely warm or room temperature, add in the Just Egg mixture a few tablespoons at a time. The amount is up to you. We’re just trying to avoid mixing a ball of dough sitting in egg soup—that would be more difficult to mix! Mix it with the rubber spatula and allow it to fully incorporate in between each addition. The final consistency should just barely run off the spatula and look pipe-able. Add more soy milk a tablespoon at a time if your mixture is still too thick.
  
• Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Prepare the baking tray.

• Using a small circular cookie cutter, trace 36 circles with pencil onto the sheets of parchment paper you will be baking with. We made 24 on a half sheet baking tray, and 12 on a quarter sheet baking tray. The cookie cutter we used had a 1.75 inch diameter. Our croquembouche tower requires 28 cream puffs. This recipe makes 36 in order to have a few as back up. If you would like to use them all, make the base layer using 8 cream puffs, instead of 7.
  
• Flip the sheet of parchment paper over so that the side that you drew on is facing downward.
• You can pipe or dab a small amount of the choux mixture onto each corner of the baking tray underneath the paper. This will help keep the paper from sliding around as you pipe.
  
• Scoop the choux mixture into a large piping bag with a 1/2 inch opening or smooth tip. You can also split it between two ppiping bags.
• You can close the narrow end of the bag towards the tip with a tie. And then place it inside of a tall glass. This makes it a bit easier to fill the bag.
  
• Keeping the tip very close and parallel to the tray, squeeze continuously and pipe the mixture until it almost fills the circle. While still squeezing, slowly pull the tip away from the tray to make a small round mound. They should be a little more than 1 inch tall. This vegan choux recipe doesn't puff up the same way as non-vegan versions do, which is why each one requires so much mixture. There should be enough mixture to make about 36 puffs. 
  
• Wet the tip of your finger and gently flatten the little pointy tips that form on the ends from piping. If your mounds are really pointy or uneven on the top, try to smooth them into a round shape. This will make the caramel domes look nice and even when you dip the puffs in the caramel later on.
  

Bake.

• Place the tray in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 45-47 minutes. Do not open the oven at all until the last few minutes of baking. The pastry needs consistent heat for the moisture to turn to steam and cause them to rise. You can check on their color in the final few minutes of baking.
• NOTE: Bake for closer to 47 minutes for a more hollow center and crisper outside. This is what they looked like about halfway through baking.
  
• Once the cream puffs are the desired color, turn off the oven. Leave the tray in for about 10 minutes. Keep the oven door slightly open to allow the cream puffs to continue to dry out while slightly cooling.
  
• Remove the tray from the oven. The cream puffs will still be warm. I use a metal skewer first to make a small hole spaced on the bottom of each puff to allow any remaining steam to escape. Then use a small sharp knife to make the holes a little bit wider by rotating the knife after inserting the tip into each hole. The cream puffs can deflate and soften slightly if left to continue cooling without making the holes.
  
• Grab the piping bag with pastry cream that is resting in the refrigerator. Insert the tip of the piping bag into the hole on the bottom of each cream puff. Carefully squeeze the pastry cream into the puff. You will feel the cream push back a bit when you’ve filled each hole with enough of the pastry cream. Wipe off any excess cream from the hole. Repeat with each cream puff.

Make the caramel and dip the cream puffs.

• Pour the sugar, corn syrup, and water into a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir it briefly to mix it together and then leave it to boil without stirring it. Watch the mixture until the caramel turns an amber color. If using a dark pan, test the color by dipping the tip of a spoon into it. If the caramel goes beyond an amber color it will start to smoke and taste burned. Once ready, turn off the heat immediately.
• After you have filled all the puffs, you can begin dipping them in the caramel. You can keep the caramel workable and liquid by periodically turning the heat back to high again for a minute and then back off. You can also pour the caramel into a microwavable heat resistant glass container or measuring cup. You can microwave the caramel for a few seconds to make it more liquid again. Very carefully grab a cream puff by the bottom, then dip and rotate the top into the caramel. Then place it upside down into a small sphere mold. Or you can just place them down right-side up, but the hot caramel might run down onto your fingers. Repeat until your molds are filled. 
  
• You can pop the molds into the freezer for one minute to quickly harden the caramel so that you can remove the cream puffs from the mold to make room for the remaining ones. Once all the cream puffs are dipped in caramel and hardened, you can begin assembling the final dessert.
  
• TIP: Once you're done dipping all the puffs into the caramel, fill the pot with water and leave it to boil on high heat. The caramel will dissolve into the water and make cleaning up much easier later.

Final assembly.

• Make a second batch of caramel.
• On a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, arrange 7 of the cream puffs into a circle. Take one, dip its side in caramel, and place it back in the circle. Tilt it very slightly inward. Repeat with each one in the circle.
  
• Now that you have a base, continue grabbing cream puffs and dipping their side into the caramel and then stacking them onto the ones below.
  
• The next level should have 6 puffs, followed by 5, then 4, 3, 2, and finally 1 at the top.
  
• Finally, take a fork, dip it into the caramel and wait for the dripping caramel to make a strand. Make circles with the fork around the cream puff tower allowing the strands of caramel to attach to the cream puffs. You can repeat dipping the fork into the caramel and making strands until you have an amount that you are happy with.
  
• We added extra decorations made of caramel, but they're not necessary. We made the hearts by applying butter onto metal heart-shaped cookie cutter and then pouring caramel into them.
  

Notes

• We used 28 out of the 36 cream puffs in our tower. There’s always a chance for something to go wrong with one of them, especially when you’re working with caramel. If you’d like to use up all of the cream puffs, make your base layer using 8 cream puffs, instead of 7.
• About vegan white chocolate: Good vegan white chocolate is not so easy to come by. We love the taste and quality of Charm School Chocolate’s equivalent of white chocolate. We have made the pastry cream before using another brand of white chocolate that contained tapioca starch. It turned out pretty disgusting. We use tapioca starch in our kitchen when we make any nut-based vegan cheeses. It thickens and becomes stretchy and a bit gummy when heated. These are great qualities that we appreciate in vegan cheese, but definitely not pastry cream.
• The vegan butter we used in this recipe is Earth Balance buttery sticks. Also, everyone’s oven is different, so your choux may take more or less time to bake than what is written in the recipe.

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