Patembouche (aka Cookie Dough Ball Tower)

I hinted I was experimenting with dough balls today on twitter, but you probably didn’t see this coming!  

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Taking dough balls to another level…literally. Details further down…

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FIrst off…it snowed today! I can’t believe it’s already snowed twice before Christmas this year…that doesn’t usually happen here in the South. The snow didn’t end up sticking. I’m hoping for a good snow storm in January or February though. 🙂

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The snowy day was perfect for baking!

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I made dough balls for a party later.

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While the dough chilled, hubby and I threw together a quick meal of soy corn dogs, peas, and…

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…mac and cheese.

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Then it was time to get my dough ball on…

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…I mean…make sure the dough balls were cooked properly. Yeaaaa. 😉

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Snow days are also good for hot tea. Ginger tea for me this afternoon.

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Yogi tea quote of the day: “Uplift everybody and uplift yourself.

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So, what do you get when you combine a tray of chocolate chip cookie dough balls (click for recipe) and melted chocolate?

You get a Pâtembouche!

Ever since seeing the fabulous croquemcake on Willow Bird Baking, I’ve been wanting to try a croquembouche. I haven’t quite gotten around to this baking project just yet, but I did come up with another idea. What else is round and could be stacked into a tower? Dough balls, of course!

So why “pâtembouche”? Well, croquembouche means “crunch in the mouth” and dough balls are not crunchy. But, “pate” is French for dough, so literally a “patembouche” is “dough in the mouth.” I think I actually like “cookie dough ball tower” better, but pâtembouche sounds more fancy. 😉

PS I just googled “pâtembouche” and there are no search results. I just made up a word…yay! lol

To Assemble Your Pâtembouche

Step 1: Bake a double batch of chocolate chip dough balls

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Step 2: Melt remainder of bag of semi-sweet morsels (leftover from the 1 cup removed for the recipe) in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval until chocolate is smooth and melted.

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Step 3: Play with your food. I played around stacking my pâtembouche sans chocolate to see how I wanted it to stack. Once I had a strategy for creating the tower, I was ready to go.

Step 4: Outline the foundation circle. I used the largest, flattest dough balls for this layer. I used 6 and spread them into a circle with the dough balls just touching.

Step 5: Begin dipping the dough balls into the melted chocolate and carefully place onto plate to “glue” into place. Continue with bottom layer. Continue with a second layer. I used one less dough ball than the previous level as I went up.

NOTE: Don’t be too skimpy with the chocolate after the first layer. The chocolate is your glue and if you don’t use enough, the dough balls won’t set into place as easily.

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Step 6: In between stacking layers, place pâtembouche into the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.

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Step 7: Continue dipping dough balls and stacking, slowly tapering as you increase each level till you just have one dough ball on top. Remember to repeat Step 6 to help dough ball structure set.

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Eventually you will have this!

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Not only is it delicious, but it makes for a pretty cool display too. I think this pâtembouche would be an easy and impressive treat to take to your next special event, if you’re looking for ideas.

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I think I know what I’m going to do with the leftover chocolate too. 😉

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After finishing my pâtembouche, I got dressed and put on make-up to head out for two parties.

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The first party was to celebrate our friend Ashley’s latest achievement – completing all of her actuary exams. Go Ashley!

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Ashley’s friends set up a surprise party at her house complete with a Mexican buffet from her favorite local Mexican restaurant – Salsa’s.

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I found a neat compartmentalized plate, perfect for the girl who doesn’t like her food to touch. lol

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After the champagne toast…

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…we headed to Jen and Jeff’s house for a bloggie pot luck.

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I debuted my pâtembouche.

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Digging in. I was hoping to not have to bring any dough balls home. Luckily, this turned out to not be a problem.

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Jen’s dog was a ball of fun.

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Ooh and I even got to meet baby Liam. What a cutie pie?! I think I need some more QT with him!

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Don’t you love Caitlin and Kristien’s matching Christmas sweaters?

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Oh and what party isn’t complete without a fun challenge.

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Jen, Caitlin, and Nicole took the Cinnamon Challenge. Check out this funny youtube video of general cinnamon challenges (not ours). We didn’t have anything that dramatic happen, but it was fun. 🙂

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Nicole is the cinnamon challenge champ! Woohoo!

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It’s sleepy time in the Chic house. G’night! 🙂

26 thoughts on “Patembouche (aka Cookie Dough Ball Tower)”

  1. It looks like you had a fun time at the Christmas party! The cookie dough tower is a cute idea for Holiday get togethers 🙂 It looks pretty impressive too! xoxo

    Reply
    • You too!? I thought I was one of few. There should be a name for people like us. lol There are some foods I’m ok with touching, but usually I prefer them apart. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Oooooohhh! I LOVE the tower. I was already going to make cookie dough balls for a party tonight and when I saw this post this morning I was like… “I have to try this!” I get so many good ideas from you! Thanks, Diana! Hope you are starting to have some relaxing vacation time, finally! Merry Christmas!

    Liz

    Reply

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