Sunday 1 November 2009

Profiteroles

Profiteroles, a simple dessert for your 70's themed parties. They are not hard at all to make and still tastes as good today as they (assumably) did back in the days. The base is a choux pastry, which was invented back in 1540 by a chef called Panterelli, and can also be used for making éclairs. Furthermore, you can choose to fill them with cheese for an hors d'euvre.
Ingredients:
Choux pastry
60 ml milk
100 ml water
75 g plain flour
1/2 tsp brown sugar
pinch of salt
50 g unsalted butter
2 medium eggs
Chocolate sauce
100 g good quality dark chocolate
1 tbsp butter
70 ml milk
Cream
200 ml whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or seeds of one vanilla pod)

Heat the milk and water and melt the butter in it. Add the sugar and salt.

Add the flour and stir vigorously.

It will eventually stick together like a ball. Take it off the heat.

Beat the eggs lightly (I'm making a double portion, hence 4 eggs).

Add the eggs bit by bit while stirring. Make sure the pot is not too hot or the eggs will cook.

It should end up like a shiny dough like this. Let it cool off a bit further.

Put the dough in a plastic bag and cut off a small corner.

Squeeze out small balls on baking paper. You can also make paterns or long sticks for éclairs.

Dip your finger in water and tap the point down or it will brown and burn.

Bake them at 200º for 18-20 minutes until they have risen and look golden brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate sauce. Melt some dark chocolate, butter, milk and a pinch of salt in the microwave for 1 minute. Take it out, stir it, put it back in and give it a bit more. Take it out and stir it until all the chocolate is disolved.

Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla. Put it in a piping bag.

Inject the cream into the profiteroles.

For presentations, place 4 profiteroles in a small pyramid, sprinkle some powder sugar over them and a spoon full of the chocolate sauce. Add a few fresh berries for decoration.

2 comments:

Kavey said...

They look absolutely gorgeous!

David Skytte said...

Thanks, but wait until you taste them....