Profiteroles - Recette du jour

Another favorite

A brief history

Profiteroles first appeared in France in the 16th century and are thought to have been created for Catherine de Médicis.

Made from a warm pastry (choux) they are generally filled with fresh cream, custard or ice cream and are traditionally served with a hot chocolate sauce.


Traditional Profiteroles

Preparation : 30 mins
Cooking time : 25 minutes + 10 minutes for the filling

Ingredients :

For the choux pastry :
65g of flour
1 pinch of salt
150ml of water
50g of butter
2 beaten eggs

For the filling :
300 ml of fresh double cream
30ml fresh milk
3 tbs of sifted icing sugar

For the chocolate sauce :
175g of plain chocolate
20g of butter
45ml of water
45ml of golden syrup
1tsp of vanilla essence

Method :

Starting with the pastry:

1) Sift the flour and salt twice.
2) Put the water and butter into a saucepan, heat slowly until the butter melts, then bring to a brisk boil.
3) Remove from heat and put in all of the flour in one go.
4) Stir briskly until the mixture forms a soft ball and leaves the sides of the pan clean.
5) Remove from the heat and allow to cool down.
6) add in the eggs gradually, beating hard until the mixture is smooth, shiny and firm enough to form soft peaks when lifted by a spoon.
7) On a greased baking tray, spoon or pipe out 20 equal amounts - leave plenty of room between each one.
8) Bake at 220° for about 25 minutes until golden and well puffed up.
9) Remove from the oven, make a small slit in the side of each one and return to the oven (with the heat switched off) for about 5 minutes to dry out. Cool on a wire cooling rack

For the filling (about an hour before serving) :

1) Whip the cream and milk together until softly stiff. Stir in the sugar.
2) Half the puffs and fill with the cream.
3) Pile in a pyramid shape in a shallow serving dish
4) Serve with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

For the Sauce (about 10 minutes before serving) :

1) Break the cocolate into small pieces.
2) Place in a small pan with butter, water and golden syrup
3) Heat gently until chocolate has melted - remove from heat, add vanilla essence, stir to mix - serve immediately.

Alternatives : Use vanilla ice cream or a thick custard for the filling, you could also make a toffee sauce instead of / as well as the chocolate one.

Equally for éclairs, instead of making ball shapes, pipe long (15cm) lines and follow the same filling procedure as for profiteroles.

As an hors d'oeuvre you could also substitute the classic sweet filling for a savoury one - Salmon mousse with tiny slices of smoked salmon wedged in ... foie gras ...any vegetable mousse ... mushroom sauce ...