One reason I haven't made them is that they're very much a birthday or other celebratory item - heaps of cream and piles of chocolate sauce mean it's almost the only time people will throw guilt to the wind and stuff their face with melty, forgiving profiteroles. In fact I often think the choux pastry is an incidental item in the whole setup, to dupe people into thinking they're eating some sort of socially acceptable dessert rather than just...err, chocolate and cream.
Choux pastry might indeed be acting as some sort of cover-up for glorious face-stuffing here, but it does add a certain je ne sais quoi in taste terms, as well as for presentation's sake - it's a lot easier to stack cream and chocolate when there's pastry involved.
To prove how much easier it is than it looks, I will reassure you that this recipe comes from year 8 Home Economics lessons. I don't remember any disasters either!
Ingredients:
Choux pastry
65g plain flour and a pinch of salt
150ml water
50g unsalted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Sauce
175g dark chocolate (preferably at least 40% cocoa solids)
15g unsalted butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
Filling
150ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas7 (200C fan oven). Sift the flour and salt on to a sheet of greaseproof paper (or I sometimes sift it on to a baking tray or similar).
2. Heat the water and butter gently in a saucepan until the buttery melts, then bring to a rapid boil.
3. Quickly add all the flour in one go and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball and leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture into a clean bowl. Leave it to cool for 10mins (it helps to spread it around so it cools quicker), then very gradually beat or whisk in the eggs - it's best to use an electric whisk if you have one. Important: keep a close eye on your mixture, as you may not need to add all the egg. What you're looking for is a smooth, glossy mixture with a smooth piping consistency.
You'll probably know when it's ready - think of the consistency of....toothpaste! Maybe slightly firmer, but it'll really start to shine at this stage, which is a good indication.
5. Dampen two baking sheets with cold water - filling them and tipping out the water is a good way to do this.
6. Spoon the choux mixture on to baking sheets in about twenty even heaped-teaspoon sized blobs. If you divvy up the mixture as evenly as you can and assess the size, you'll have a frame of reference for next time.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until well risen, golden brown and super-crisp. Do not open the oven for the first ten minutes or so of cooking, otherwise the choux buns will sink.
7. Remove the buns from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack. At this stage pierce each bun with the tip of a small, sharp knife to allow steam to escape (stopping them from getting soggy).
Leave to cool completely.
8. For the filling, whip the cream and icing sugar until the mixture holds its shape - you can do all sorts at this stage. Put no icing sugar in at all, put more in, put vanilla extract in, even lemon extract and put lemon curd on top instead of chocolate (I just invented that right now - try it and let me know!).
9. Slice each bun in half, but without cutting right through. You can pipe in the cream filling if you like, but I prefer to use a teaspoon to pile it in. Yum.
10. Arrange the buns in a spectacular pyramid if you so wish, or leave them as individual ones, or however you wish!
11. To make the chocolate sauce, place all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl and microwave on 80% power, 1 minute at a time until more or less melted. Beat until smooth.
12. Cool for 15minutes and pour over buns. Of course at step 11 you could've used white chocolate, or milk chocolate, or made toffee sauce instead, or whatever you like! You can definitely be creative with the presentation. And let's not forget that chocolate eclairs also use choux pastry as their base...
A Profiterole is no Rocky Road, but I like that both items have a similar air of sharing about them and they always feel like a luxurious treat.
While I've been writing this post, I've been mainly listening to Laura Marling and Maximo Park. Music and baking are fine friends.
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