Profiteroles - Choux, Whichever Shape You Like The Best!
In the 70s & 80s, chocolate profiteroles were once an everyday choice for the dessert connoisseurs at any reasonably priced fooderie that served a steak.
However, that was when you could get a grey steak for 75p at a Bernie Inn. That sounds such a long time ago now. Where has the time gone to? Thank goodness eating places are a little better at cooking steaks now.
But the question I need to ask is, are you an eclair, a cream puff, beignets, churro, funnel cake or a traditional profiterole kinda person?
Maybe savoury tickles your fancy.
Parmesan, mustard and ham, roasted garlic and rosemary, cream cheese and smoked salmon or if you’re feeling a little more adventurous, caviar, white truffle oil and finely sliced onion.
All of these things you can make out of a simple choux pastry recipe, and all of these will guarantee you get a wow from whoever you’re gracing with these beauties.
A one stop recipe for sweet and savoury has got to be an impressive thing, with myriad fillings to choose from, it’s only going to be your imagination that stops you.
Once you’ve made the pastry, cooked and cooled it, you can freeze and take out to fill with your fantasy filling whenever you need, making it an ideal make ahead dinner party addition.
I worked out that you could probably have something with choux pastry in every course of a light meal for the ladies who lunch, or friends, remember those days before lockdown and isolation.
Canapés? Easy. I’d choose to add lots of parmesan to the mix, pipe them a little bigger than a hazelnut and once cooked, fill with a smoked salmon, chive and cream cheese mix.
Main course, a warm choux pastry with a hot creamy tuna filling sprinkled liberally with a tangy goats cheese and my oven dried tomatoes for an extra burst of flavour.
Dessert, well, for me, always profiteroles filled with my custard and cream filling, a crisp toffee topping and a yummy chocolate sauce.
….And breath.
I wanted something sweet and I didn’t want just one shape either. I went for a plain choux pastry piped in three different shapes,
A flatter plate shape (As a base for lots of filling and more profiteroles), the cream puff of profiterole shape and a couple of small finger shapes just to use up the left over dough.
I filled them with a custard and cream mixture and topped it all off with a toffee glaze and a little sugar work
The pictures turned out rubbish, so forgive those, and trust the recipe and the instructions.
Obviously, you don’t have to use my filling, try anything that makes you smile or that your family will love.
You certainly don’t have to make as many of these as I did, I doubled the mixture to make sure that I could get enough of the dough to pipe the plate shape.
If you don’t want this, just use the amount of ingredients as written, you should get about 12 choux buns from one lot of ingredients, depending on the size you pipe.
Enjoy Your Sweet Life
Really bad photo, but my mouth is still drooling!
What You Need
50g butter – softened and cut into small pieces
65g plain flour
2 large eggs
150ml water
For the filling
300g Custard – See Tip Box
200g Double cream
The flour has been added and mixed well until the mixture comes away from the edge of the pan
Toffee Topping
200g Castor sugar
Straight out of the oven
How It’s Done
Preheat the oven 200c
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
Place the water and the butter into a medium sized saucepan and bring the mixture to a soft boil.
Once the butter has melted, take the mixture off the heat and add the flour to the mix (add it all at once).
Beat continuously and vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture all comes together into a smooth paste and comes away cleanly from the edges of the pan-see the picture
Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and let cool for 10 minutes.
With the mixer on medium, add the eggs and mix until they are all combined and you have a smooth and creamy dropping consistency dough - See Tip Box
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag- See Tip Box
If using a disposable bag, cut off a little bit of the end and pipe onto the prepared baking sheet the desired shapes.
For the shapes in the picture– Onto the prepared baking sheet, pipe a circle making the mixture flat – See Tip Box
Pipe the remaining into profiterole shapes or use a spoon and place dollops onto the non-stick parchment paper – about the size of walnuts.
Cook for 10-15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 180c and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is a golden brown and dry.
Remove from the oven and gently push a sharp knife into the underside to let the steam out.
Leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
Mix together the double cream and the custard until its form and fluffy, thick enough to be piped into the puffs.
Once this is done, transfer it to a piping bag and pipe into the puffs.
Trick to fill a bag,
Toffee Topping
Pour the castor sugar into a shallow sauce pan. Heat the pan, very gently, on a low to medium heat until the sugar melts and turns a golden brown – See Tip Box
Very, very carefully, dip the top part of the filled profiterole into the hot sugar. Be very careful not to get any on your fingers, if not sure, use a fork.
Place the covered puffs, toffee side down onto none stick parchment to cool completely.
If you are making the whole thing, put the remaining cream onto the round flat profiterole and level off. Place the round puffs around the edge of the circle, toffee side up.
If there is any left-over toffee, dribble it over the parchment and cool completely. When cooled, peel off and decorate the top of the dish.
Loo at all that crunchy toffee
Tip Box
Dough – When mixing the dough, there are two critical times. The first when the flour has just been added and it has to be incorporated. Make sure that you keep mixing until all the mixture starts to come away from the sides of the pan. The next is when adding the eggs are added. It will look as though the mixture has split, don’t panic. Just keep mixing and it should a come together until you get a dropping consistency
Piping bag – If you don’t have a piping bag, and you want to pipe your profiteroles, you can use a sandwich bag. Fill the bag (don’t over fill) and cut the corner of the bag to make a DIY piping bag.
Piping Flat – When piping the circle, you will need it to be flatter than the rest of the puffs. Make sure that the piping bag is close to the surface so that the dough stays relatively flat.
Circle shape - To get a circle shape, draw the circle size you want, onto the surface of the baking parchment
Toffee – When heating the sugar for the toffee, don’t stir it, just shake the pot gently to mix. Don’t take your eye off it either, it can go from golden brown to black and bitter very quickly.
Custard – I used ready-made custard.
I started to eat these and then remembered i had to take a picture. OOppps
