The name comes from the French phrase croque en bouche, meaning '[something that] crunches in the mouth'.

[1] A croquembouche is composed of (usually cream-filled) choux piled into a cone and bound with spun sugar.

[2][3] The invention of the croquembouche is often attributed to Antonin Carême,[4] who includes it in his 1815 cookbook Le Pâtissier royal parisien, but it is mentioned as early as 1806, in André Viard's culinary encyclopedia Le Cuisinier Impérial, and Antoine Beauvilliers' 1815 L'Art du Cuisinier.

In Viard's encyclopedia and other early texts (e.g., Grimod de La Reynière's, Néo-physiologie du gout), it is included in lists of entremets—elaborate dishes, both savory and sweet, that were served between courses during large banquets.

On 6 March 2009, alumni of the Pune-based Maharashtra State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology entered the Limca Book of Records after creating India's biggest croquembouche.