Choux pastry is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, éclairs, Frenxh crullers, beignets and goungères. It is usually baked but for beignets it is fried. In Spain and Latin America, churros are made of fried choux pastry, sugared and dipped in a thin chocolate blancmange for breakfast.
A profiterole or a cream puff is a French dessert (choux à la crème). A choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, custard, or ice cream. The puffs may be decorated or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of powdered sugar.
Today I will be showing two recipes in one. I will guide you how to make these profiteroles with pastry cream filling and covered with chocolate. As I explained this is just one version on how to make (fill and cover) these sweet bites, so feel free to use your imagination and create more versions of it !
Method for choux pastry :
Place water, butter, salt and sugar if you’re using in a saucepan over medium heat
Cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until butter melts and mixture just comes to the boil
Add all the flour to the butter mixture at once and use a wooden spoon to beat until well combined
Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball and begins to come away from the side of the saucepan
Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly
Whisk the eggs in with the wooden spoon, one after the other until the mixture just falls from the spoon but still holds its shape
Preheat oven to 200°C and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
Spoon 25-30 teaspoonsful of the mixture onto tray, about 3cm apart. Alternatively, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1.5cm-diameter plain piping nozzle to pipe the profiteroles onto the baking tray
Wet your index finger and flat the peak of each profiterole (if you’re using a piping bag)
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the profiteroles are puffed and golden
Remove from oven and turn the oven off
Using a skewer or a small knife, pierce the base (or top) of each profiterole to release the steam
Return the profiteroles to the oven and leave them for 15 minutes to dry out
Remove the profiteroles from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool
Method for Profiteroles :
Melt some quality dark chocolate and add a bit of sunflower oil, set aside
Pierce the back of each profiterole
Put pastry cream into a piping bag and fill the profiteroles
Deep each profiterole into the melted chocolate bowl and place them into a wire rack
Transfer them into a baking sheet and you can drizzle some melted white chocolate on top (optional)
Photography by Eranda Janku, unless otherwise stated
