hhgregg FINE LINES

When my children were young, they attended a French school in California. Their teacher, Madame Jolivet-Johnson, was delightfully strict and adhered to the standards of international schools. Yes, every 6-year old should write in cursive and carry a callier for his schoolwork, no nasty American backpacks at this ecole.

But even Mme. Jolivet cut loose on the holidays and offered every traditional treat, from an orange and candy left in a child's shoe from Père Noël to a towering croquembouche for dessert.

A croquembouche can be any size, limited only by your engineering skills. It consists of a carefully built tower of cream puffs, "glued" together with caramalized spun sugar. Translated, croquembouche means "crunch in the mouth" and the spun sugar is indeed crunchy.

Though creampuffs are not particularly difficult to make, and they can be frozen, but every minute counts at this time of the year.

Here's the trick: Order as many creampuffs as you'll need from your bakery. Figure two or three for each serving. I prefer a smaller sized creampuff. Refrigerate until ready to build the croquemboche. Happy Holidays!

You'll need about 4 dozen small creampuffs for the tower. Serves 10 - 12.

Caramel "Glue"

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Heat the ingredients in a small nonreactive saucepan over low heat. Pick up the pan and swirl it around several times until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes until the syrup turns a medium amber color. Swirl occasionally to color evenly. Remove from heat and set in ice-water bath for a few seconds to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Dip a creampuff halfway into the caramel and place on a serving plate. Form a ring with 9 creampuffs, each one touching the one adjacent to it. Repeat with more puffs, creating a graduated tower 6 layers high. Use on cream puff for the top.

As a finishing touch, make another batch of caramel with 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons corn syrup. Using a candy thermometer, cool the caramel to 250 degrees and use a fork to spin the sugar around the outside of the pyramid. Voila! Dessert is served.