Croquembouche (Puff, Christmas Tree) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

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

Preparation

To make Puffs:preheat oven 400f.
Bring water, butter,sugar & salt to a roiling boil in a large saucepan.
Add flour all at once, stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan clean. Remove from heat.
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.
Cool on a wire rack.
Prepare carmelized sugar:
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.
Do not let it burn Remove from heat.
Putting it together:
Place 14 puffs in a 9\" circle on a platter.
Fill in the center of the circle with about 5 more puffs.
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.
Continue making each circle smaller to form a tree shape.
Drizzle the remaining sugar over the tree and decorate with the cherry halves You may refrigerate for 1-2 days.