Profiteroles

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been busy - cooking. This post is about profiteroles - something that I have tried and tested MANY times. It is an absolutely delectable French dessert. So profiteroles are made of a ball shaped baked choux pastry and pastry cream (you can choose to fill with ice cream too).

The recipes I used:

Choux Pastry

Pastry Cream

Let's start on the pastry cream as we need to let it cool after cooking it. I normally make this cream using a whisk to stir - this is an effective tool to help you break away any clumps in the cream. For this recipe, if you're not a big fan of butter you can omit it (I have done this a few times when making pastry cream and it still tastes great). If the end result still has clumps I would suggest using a blender to whiz the cream until smooth (food processor and electric mixer are alternatives). 

If the cream is too thick - don't fret! Just add a table spoon of milk until you achieve your desired consistency. :) The plastic wrap over the cream is essential, otherwise you get an icky top layer of cream.

The next part to making profiteroles is the choux pastry. This is a tricky pastry to make (as with all pastries in my opinion!) and it needs quite a bit of attention. As a recommendation, if you read the recipe carefully before you start (this should be done for all recipes though!). 

Now, for all baking I use baking paper to line the trays - ever since I invested in baking paper I have never turned back. Don't worry if your profiteroles don't puff or puff then deflate because it is hard getting the consistency of the choux pastry correct. The consistency for each batch really depends on the size of the eggs so don't rush, take it slow - add the eggs bit by bit.

This was what my choux pastry looked like.. I don't bother to make them into perfect shapes because they all puff and end up looking the same :D

After 25 minutes...

After piercing each profiterole with a skewer, I put the tray back in the oven and left it ajar. This is a crucial step as it releases steam from the profiteroles - it minimises sogging after.

After I piped in the chilled pastry cream to my profiteroles (I used a piping syringe. Alternatively you may cut the profiteroles in half horizontally and spoon the cream into them.), I melted some dark chocolate using the double boiler method. The profiteroles were dipped into the melted chocolate and left on a plate to set. 

Scrumptious!

Bakerella