Sunday 24 March 2013

Profiteroles


Profiteroles are one of my favourite patisserie things to eat, because they are so light and fluffy, and then filled with chantilly cream + covered with chocolate sauce = heaven!

I always thought they would be really hard to make, because they look so professional, but after watching the Great British Bake Off week when they used choux pastry, I thought 'What the hell, I might as well try!' and they turned out really well.

Recently, we had some friends round, and so I decided to treat them to homemade profiteroles, and they were even better than the first time!
The recipe I used is the GBBO one, and it is so good!
Makes about 48 profiteroles, depending on how big you pipe them. (I think I made mine a bit too big...)

Ingredients:
1/4 tsp salt
75g butter, diced
175ml water
100g flour, sifted
3 eggs, room temperature, beaten


Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (400 fahrenheit.)
  2. Put the salt, butter and water in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has completely melted, but don't let the water boil or some of it will evaporate.
  3. Bring the mixture to a boil quickly, and add all the flour in one go.
  4. Remove the pan from the heat straight away, and beat furiously with a wooden spoon. (It will look a mess at first, but soon it will turn into a smooth, heavy dough.)
  5. Put the pan back on the heat, and beat for another two minutes, until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan in a smooth, glossy ball.
  6. Tip the dough into a large mixing bowl, and leave to cool until barely warm.
  7. Using an electric mixer, gradually beat in the eggs. Add enough egg to make a shiny, paste-like dough - to check it's ready, gently shake the a spoon with dough on it, and if the dough falls off easily, it's ready. If the dough is too wet it will spread out, rather than puff up, in the oven.
  8. Spoon the dough into a piping bag, and pipe mounds about 3cm wide and 2cm high - make sure they are spaced well apart. 
  9.  Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit.) Quickly open and close the oven door (to get rid of steam, then bake for a further 5 minutes.
  10. Remove the profiteroles from the oven, make a small hole in the side of them (to let out steam) and return to the oven for 3 or 4 more minutes. 
  11. Cool on a wire rack.

You need to fill the profiteroles with Chantilly cream, which is just vanilla flavoured whipped cream (use 250ml of whipping cream, 2 tbsp of icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract to make the right amount for this many profiteroles.) Whisk that all up in a chill mixing bowl, with a chilled whisk for the best results.

Fill a piping bag with the Chantilly cream, and pipe it into the profiteroles immediately - you will have to widen the hole you made in them for the steam, and pipe through that.

Now the best part - the hot chocolate sauce! The key to making this sauce really good is using good quality 70% cocoa solids, dark chocolate.

Ingredients:
100g dark chocolate, broken up
25g unsalted butter
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

  1. Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan, preferably non-stick, and heat gently.
  2. Stir  frequently until melted and smooth. 
  3. Keep the sauce warm until needed.

Hope you find this useful, and if you try it out, I'd like to know what you think!

Thanks for reading!
:)

4 comments:

  1. These look so yummy!
    http://thelipstickthegirlandherwardrobe.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmmm yum looks delicious!

    xx,
    mashasmumbles.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete