It is my daughter’s birthday today. She is a smart, sweet and very caring girl. She also has very diverse and sophisticated palette. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wants for her birthday, she said,” Mom, can I have profiteroles instead of a cake this year?”.
This is what prompted me to make the profiteroles today. I had watched Anne Burrell make these on one of her shows and had scratched down her recipe, this is my take on her recipe. The ingredients are very simple, yet the result is a fancy pastry.
Profiteroles is a french pastry made with a french pastry dough, Choux Pastry.
Choux pastry is an easy to make versitile dough. You can make many things like eclairs, cream puffs using this dough. It is light and airy and is perfect for filling it up with whipped cream or ice cream.
Profiteroles
Equipment needed:
Food processor, a pot, wooden spoon, whisk, pastry bag with a large tip
Ingredients:
1 cup of milk
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup flour
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
For the filling:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp powdered sugar
1 1/2 shot of espresso
For the chocolate sauce:
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 shot of espresso
Method:
Take a sauce pan. Heat milk and butter till the butter is melted. While the mixture is heating, get the food processor ready and the eggs cracked in a bowl/cup. As soon as the butter is completely melted, add flour all at once and cook on low flame for about 2 mins. When the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat.
Transfer the hot mixture to the food processor and start it on a low speed. Add one egg at a time to the hot mixture and keep processing till a nice homogenous mixture. The dough will be sticky but don’t worry.
Preheat the oven to 425 F
Fit a pastry bag with a large tip, I have used a large star tip but round works just as well.
Fill the mixture in a pastry bag.
Take a baking tray lined with parchment paper. If you get pointy tips, with wet finger you can just gently tap it down.
Pipe some mounds on the parchment paper. The first time I made these I made them too flat, I would recommend making them taller so you can fill it up with a scoop of ice cream easily.
Now bake these in the oven for 20 mins. Once the baking is done, let them sit in the hot oven for another 7-10 mins. Take them out and let them cool.
I have seen some recipes where you bake them in a high heat oven like 425 for a few minutes, which helps form the crust and then bake in lower temp like 375 for 12-15 mins for it to cook through from inside.
Once these are cooled,you can cut a slit and they are ready to be filled with some yummy cream or ice cream.
For the filling:
Take a little bit of cream and make sure that all the sugar and the espresso are dissolved well in it. Now add the remaining chilled whipping cream and whip till you get a nice and firm cream.
In the meantime, in a microwavable glass bowl take the chocolate chips. Melt them according to the package instructions, mine asked me to heat it at 50% power for a min and then in the increments of 15 secs there on, stirring each time. Alternatively, you can also use a double boiler to melt the chocolate.
Once the chocolate is melted, add the espresso and cream to make a smooth chocolate sauce.
Now comes the fun part…
Take a puffed pastry and fill it up with the coffee whipped cream.
Drizzle with chocolate sauce and dust with some powdered sugar.
Yummy profiteroles are ready to be gobbled up.
Note:
If you are using a whipped cream for the filling, instead of making a cut in the pastry, you can just poke a hole and fill up the cream.
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