Beauty, Bakes and Blah

Creamy Custard Profiteroles drizzled with Toffee sauce

I decided to bake up some Profiteroles, most of you must already know about these little heavenly puffs, but for the benefit of those who don't; 

Profiteroles are made from Choux pastry and you would use the same pastry if you were making eclairs. Choux is a very light and airy pastry that virtually anyone can make because it is not as fussy as other pastries and requires no real pastry making skills, that's whats so great about it, it is truly an amateur bakers dream come true! They go perfectly with cream or custard fillings, but one could always get creative and add ice cream or whatever you please. 

So here it is, the tried and tested Profiterole recipe + Troubleshooting... Enjoy ♥

Ingredients

Choux Pastry

• 125 ml water

• 60 g butter

• 125 ml (70 g) cake flour

• 1 ml salt

• 2 extra-large eggs

Custard Filling

• 500 ml milk

• 80 ml (65 g) sugar

• 45 ml custard powder

• 15 ml butter or margarine

• 3 ml vanilla or lemon essence 

• 125 ml fresh cream 

Toffee Sauce

• 4 x 55 g Bar One chocolate bars, coarsely chopped

• 60 ml milk

Method

For the Pastry:

1. Heat water and butter in a small, heavy based saucepan until the butter has completely melted, thereafter bring mixture to the boil.
2. Once mixture begins to boil, turn off the heat immediately. With one hand add flour and salt while stirring quickly with the other until a ball forms in the middle and the dough comes away from the sides of the saucepan, this process happens fairly fast, less than a minute. 
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes,
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until the dough is smooth and glossy.
5. Place heaped teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking tray or pipe out rounds roughly 3 to 4 cm wide. 
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 200° C for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180° C and continue baking for 15 minutes. 
7. Once baked the puffs should be golden and crisp, remove from oven,pierce to release steam and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. 

For the filling:

1. Heat milk in a medium heavy based saucepan. 
2. Combine the sugar and custard powder and add some of the heated milk to it, mix well.
3. Add to the hot milk in the saucepan and boil until it starts to thicken, stirring continuously.
4. Remove from heat and add butter and essence. Mix well and set aside to cool completely.
5. Once custard is cooled, whip cream to soft peak stage and gently fold into cooled custard mixture.
6. Using a piping bag or metal spoon fill each puff with the custard cream. 

For the sauce:

1. Place chocolate pieces and milk in a heavy based saucepan and melt over medium heat. Stir constantly until chocolate is melted and sauce is smooth. Pour over puffs and serve immediately. 

Troublesh0oting

My tips for flop proof profiteroles

• Choux pastry is meant to be light and airy. The pastry dough contains a fair amount of water and this creates steam in the oven, it aids the pastry in getting the desired puffed look once baked, for that reason, DO NOT OVER BOIL YOUR MIXTURE! it is important to salvage as much of the moisture in the pastry dough as possible. 

• Do not add the eggs to the dough too soon after removing the dough from the heat, or you will end up with scrambled eggs!

• You may use a greased sheet pan, silicone mats or parchment paper to bake the pastry.

• I prefer piping the pastry out but spooning the mixture works just as well, it wont be as perfectly formed, but that's perfectly okay!

• Do not over bake the pastry, it drys out and crumbles.

• Do not forget to pierce each puff to release steam and prevent sogginess once removed from the oven. 

• make a small incision in each puff and pipe the custard in,its so much simpler than struggling with a spoon!  

• I tried the toffee sauce over the top and it was magnificent, my only regret is that once cooled the chocolate becomes a bit chewy and tends to get stuck in your teeth so you will have to eat them immediately if you want them at their best.

• I recommend topping the profiteroles with a chocolate ganache instead. Its just as delish and wont turn chewy the next day (if the profiteroles survive that long! lol)

• Finally remember that if you have a thermo-fan (convection) oven, the temperature is usually reduced by 10° C and/or the baking time is adjusted. 

That's a wrap! I hope you enjoy them, please feel free to post comments and let me know how they turn out! 

Ciao!