How to make profiteroles

Profiteroles are a delicious dessert that are slowly becoming popular again. They are small little pastries with a crunchy exterior, a chewy exterior with a cream filling and a chocolate shell to boot. They can be combined to make profiterole towers, an attractive alternative to cakes. Sound like a challenge you’d like to take on? Here’s how to make the three elements that make a profiterole: The choux pastry, the chantilly cream and the chocolate shell. The recipe makes 32 pieces of profiteroles

Choux Pastry

Choux pastry is the most essential part of a profiterole. You may not be able to make it right the first time around, but you will after a few tweaks and practices.

Ingredients

• 185 ml water
• 75 g unsalted butter
• 100 g plain flour
• 3 large eggs
• Pinch of salt

Procedure

1. In a sauce pan, mix water, butter and salt. Put on low to medium heat and heat until the butter melts. Bring to a simmer, and once you’ve reached that simmer, remove from the heat.
2. Slowly add in the flour to the mixture using a wooden spatula. Once you’ve put all the flour in, beat the dough vigorously (Tips on how to knead dough). What will start out as a crumbly texture will eventually form into a smooth ball.
3. Put the pan back on to low heat and continue to vigorously beat it for around 30 seconds, enough to dry out the dough. Take the dough off the heat and put it in another separate bowl. Leave to cool until slightly tepid.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
5. Put the dough in a mixer and use a whisk attachment to beat in one egg at a time. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Put aside a tablespoon of egg white for glazing later.
6. Put the pastry dough in a piping bag.
7. On a baking sheet, put a sheet of baking parchment on top. Pipe a glob of dough about 2.5 cm across and 1.5 cm high on the parchment paper. Space two inches between each dough blob.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out and insert a toothpick in the side to let out steam. Brush egg white on the top and pop back in the oven for another three minutes for a shiny finish.
9. Let cool. Once cooled, use a bread knife to make “caps” by slicing into the upper 1/3 of the pastry, but not removing it entirely. Leave a bit to keep the cap on. Put aside.

The hard part’s over! Let’s move on to what makes profiteroles even more special: The cream filling and the chocolate shell.

Creme Chantilly Filling

Ingredients

• 200 ml double cream, chilled
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Procedure

Creme chantilly filling is very flexible. To make your chantilly filling even more special, add some crushed berries like raspberries, strawberries or blueberries for a more colorful profiterole.

1. Clear some room in your refrigerator to enable to fit a food mixer.
2. Using a whisk attachment, whisk your cream until soft peaks form.
3. Once the soft peaks form, add the sugar and vanilla. Whisk until stiff peaks form.
4. Transfer the filling to another bowl, and chill some more until ready to use.

Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate sauce is always an additional delight to a profiterole, but you can easily enjoy your pastry without it. You can also use a shortcut in the form of Hershey Chocolate Shell, which instantly hardens to a chocolate shell once applied to food.

Ingredients

• 1 x 10 g dark chocolate, 70% chocolate
• 25 g unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 100 ml water

Procedure

1. Break the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and combine with the unsalted butter.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, in very gentle and low heat. Once melted, slowly mix in the sugar.
3. Add the water in a thin stream and mix until combined.
4. Keep the chocolate sauce heated until the profiteroles have been assembled.

Assembling the Profiteroles

This is the last step in achieving your profiteroles. This is a generally fun activity with your friends and family.

1. Put the cream chantilly filling in a piping bag. Slightly open the caps of the profiteroles and pipe in the filling. Fill enough just until when you feel a slight resistance. Put the caps back on.
2. Do this for all the profiteroles until they all have fillings.
3. Use a spoon to coat the profiteroles with chocoalte sauce.

Arrange the profiteroles nicely on a plate. With some powdered sugar and some berries, you could make something look really professionally made. Enjoy!