Profiteroles

What they are:

Little balls of choux (pronounced shoo) pastry filled with either ice cream, whipped cream or custard (also known as mini cream puffs).

Why I love them:

• They're sweet and small and you can pop them in your mouth in one go.
• They are versatile-you can fill them up with anything. Ice cream, whipped cream, etc.
• All the ingredients required to make choux pastry (the shell) are what I consider kitchen staples- butter, flour, eggs, water, salt, sugar. Nothing fancy.
• They are easy to make. Coming from a person who used to approach baking with a sense of trepidation, I can tell you that the only scary thing about choux pastry is its name.
• They can be made ahead of time- I sometimes keep my unfilled choux buns in the freezer in an airtight container. To thaw, I simply place them in a preheated oven (around 120 C) and let them sit there until they are hot and crispy. This usually doesn't take that long. I would say, about 5 minutes. But don't just take my word on this because not all ovens are the same. Please check from time to time.
 

Ingredients for the choux pastry:

Note: This recipe is from the book Baking by Martha Day. I tweaked it up by 2 ways (read previous post to find out why):

• I added 5 eggs instead of 4 as stated in the book.
• I stirred the fat-water-flour mixture for 3 minutes on   medium  heat to dry it out before adding the eggs.

240 ml water.

115 g butter (cut into small squares)
145 g plain flour.

4-5 eggs (check the consistency first, sometimes you don't need to use all the eggs)

1/4 teaspoon salt.
2 teaspoon sugar.

Recipe yields:

About 45 small puffs. This may vary according to the size of your puffs

Preheat the oven at 220 C

Place the water, sugar, salt, butter in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil (there must be bubbles all over the liquid not only at the edge).

Once butter has melted and the mixture has come to a boil, get the pan off the heat and  dump the the flour into the liquid, ALL AT ONCE. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture vigorously.

Return the pan to the heat. Continue stirring for 3 minutes (check out my choux tips in previous post).

Take the pan off the heat to cool off the  dough. You  want it to have a lukewarm feel before you put in the eggs, ONE AT A TIME, mixing well after each addition. The mixture will initially curdle and  you probably think you've done something wrong, but don't worry and just keep stirring. Eventually the dough will absorb the egg, leaving you with a shiny pastylike dough.

Now comes my favourite part: shaping the choux pastry.  Fill a piping bag (with a 1.5 cm nozzle attached to it) with the dough and gently squeeze small blobs of it (about 1 1/2 inch wide) on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper, making sure you leave 2-inch spaces in between them (yes they will grow bigger) Alternatively, you can just use  teaspoons to shape the dough.

With the tip of your finger, lightly wet the top of the the dough. This is to prevent the puffs from burning.

Place in the oven . Bake at 220 c for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 200c.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Once cooked, pierce each puff to release the steam from inside the choux. This is to prevent your puffs from getting soggy. Let the puffs cool on a wire rack.

Now,the filling.

Depending on your mood and what is available in your kitchen, you can fill your puffs with any of the followings:

• Ice cream- storebought ice cream is  the easiest and quickest option.

• Chantilly cream- this is simply whipped cream that has been sweetened and flavoured with vanilla. Just whisk (using an electric mixer) about 2 cups of whipping cream with 2 or 3 tablespoons of sifted (to avoid clumps) icing sugar and  a teaspoon of vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fill the piping bag with the cream and pipe into choux buns. Profiteroles filled with chantilly cream are often served with chocolate ganache. The most basic chocolate ganache recipe only requires 2 things. Whipping cream and chocolate (dark, milk chocolate, whichever you prefer). How much chocolate and cream to use? I guess this is up to ones preference. I don't know about everyone else, but I always make my ganache using equal ratio of cream and chocolate (1 cup each).  To make: Bring the cream to a boil, remove it from heat, then add the chocolate (chopped or if you don't want to bother yourself with this, just use chocolate chips instead). Stir until everything's incorporated. Let it cool for about 5 mintues before drizzling it all over your profiteroles.

• Custard

I usually fill my puffs with custard, and my favourite so far is this sugar burnt custard. After trying many recipes, I think it's the best. What you do basically is just add some caramelized sugar into your already cooked custard and stir until everything's incorporated.  The burnt sugar gives the custard a smoky richness that just makes the whole thing taste better. Try it! If you don't like it, then next time  just omit the burnt sugar. This will leave you with the basic custard commonly used to fill choux pastry.

Burnt Sugar Custard

Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess.

6 egg yolks.

80 g castor sugar.

40 g plain flour (can be substituted with cornflour)

250 ml milk.

250 ml double cream ( I use whipping cream)

1 tablespoon vanilla.

2 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon water.

First, warm the milk in a saucepan/pot. While waiting for the milk, whisk the sugar with egg yolk  until creamy. Add the flour and mix until everything is incorporated. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring at the same time, then transfer the whole thing back into the saucepan/pot. Place it back on the heat (low) and constantly stir until the custard thickens. Off the heat and set aside.

Now,put the 2 tablespoons of sugar in a pan and add to it, the water. Place the pan over high heat until  the sugar melts and turns into this dark brown liquid. Once this is achieved, pour it into your custard, making sure that you  stir the mixture at the same time, until everything blends in. Let the custard cool before filling you puffs. To fill: spoon the custard into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle. Pierce the side of the puffs and pipe in the cream.

You can serve your puffs whichever way you like: plain or sprinkled with icing sugar.  Personally, I feel that the burnt custard cream goes really well with this toffee sauce, also by Nigella Lawson. Again, I have made some adjustment to the recipe, as I felt that it was too sweet.

Toffee sauce.

120 g butter.

6 tbspns Muscovado sugar (can be substituted with brown sugar)

3 tbspns Caster sugar.

4 tbspns double/ whipping cream (you can use milk instead)

6 tbspns golden syrup.

 

Place all the ingredients except the cream into a  saucepan and place the saucepan over medium heat to allow the butter to melt and the sugar to dissolve.Let the mixture bubble for a few minutes, before adding the cream/milk (add more if it's too thick). Cook for another 2 minutes. Let it cool slightly before drizzling it over your cream filled profiteroles. Excess sauce can be stored (covered) in the fridge and usually last for about 1 month. Reheat before use, and serve warm.

Additional notes:

• Filled puffs must be stored in the fridge and consumed within 2 days.
• Don't know what to do the egg whites? Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for several days to a week so that they will liquefy and use them to make macarons. That's what my next post will be on. So stay tuned!