Profiteroles, in simple terms, are known as cream puffs. They are definitely as delicious as eclairs, my love for profiteroles are well beyond words, when I start with one, I rarely stop till the very last one. and I had huge expectations of the ones that I was going to make today.
As always, I prefer chocolate with high cocoa content, this time was no different, but I was going to make use of the valrhona chocolate which I bought during my last trip to Los Angeles. Something tells me that the profiteroles are going to be fab-bulous!!
It was much easier to make as compared to the eclairs that I attempted the last time, maybe it was because I had experience in making the choux pastry so it was quite a breeze this time. But nevertheless, my arm was quite tired from the stirring of the pastry cream over the stove. But, it was definitely worth the hard work.
The profiteroles turn out great, the choux pastry rise beautifully, little golden brown of balls. When paired with the bittersweet pastry cream, it was heavenly... I had one, then two, then three, until I lost count. It was better than I expected, another great baking recipe!
Choux pastry recipe can easily be found on the internet, most recipes do not differ much but I used the recipe that was given on the Tartelette blog and it was great. As for the chocolate pastry cream, nothing beats the Pierre Herme recipe. The puffs taste great with ice-cream too, it is really up to individual on what kind of fillings he/she prefer.
CHOUX PASTRY PUFFS (Makes abt 40)
85g all-purpose flour (sifted)
75ml (1/3 cup) water
75ml (1/3 cup)whole milk
65g unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 375F (190 degrees C). Heat the water, milk, sugar and salt till it boils, gradually pour in the sifted flour with a wooden spoon, stirring continuously, be careful not to let the mixture burn. The mixture is ready when it comes away from the sides of the saucepan, which would take around 2 or 3 minutes.
Transfer the mixture into a mixer and beat at a low speed to cool it down. Add in the eggs one at a time, lastly the egg white. Beat till the mixture is well-combined, it should have a sticky and thick consistency. Place mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a round pipe. Pipe quarter-sized puffs about an inch apart, the puffs do expand quite a little.
Bake for 15 minutes without opening the oven door, the puffs should rise and turn golden brown, do not take the puffs out too early as it will deflate when they are not baked enough. Puffs should feel firm and hollow within. When done, allow the puffs to cool before filling them with cream.
CHOCOLATE PASTRY CREAM
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch (sifted)
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate (melted)
2 1/2 tbsp (40g) unsalted butter (room temperature)
Bring the milk to boil in a saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
When the milk has come to a boil, whisk in a couple of tablespoons of the hot milk into yolk mixture before gradually pouring in the rest of the hot milk while stirring continuously. This is to prevent yolk mixture from scrambling, if the yolk mixtures do scrambles, strain the mixture before returning it to the saucepan.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and whisk vigorously until the mixture comes to a boil. Keep up with whisking for another 1 or 2 minutes and stir in the melted chocolate. When the mixture is well-combined, remove from heat.
Scrap pastry cream into a bowl and set it in a ice-water bath to stop the cooking process. Remain stirring the mixture to keep it smooth. When the cream has cooled to around 140F (60 degrees C), remove from the water bath and stir in the butter bit by bit, divide the butter into 3 or 4 portions.
Return cream back to the ice-water bath, stirring it from time to time till it is completely cooled. Cover the cream mixture with a cling foil and store in refrigerator if it is not to be used immediately.
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