How to make profiteroles

How to make profiteroles

How to make profiteroles

8 December 2014

How to make profiteroles

The basis of a good profiterole begins with the crisp and light choux pastry. Make sure not to pipe the cream filling into the profiterole too far in advance as the pastry will go soft. The shell of a profiterole can be made in advance and either stored in an airtight container or even frozen. If you decided to freeze the choux buns, don’t forget to thaw them first (ideally on a wire rack) and then add to the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp up.

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 200°C/ gas mark 6
2
Onto a lightly oiled baking sheet, use a spoon or piping bag to make walnut-sized dollops of the choux paste, leaving some space between them to allow for them to puff up during cooking
3
Use your finger of a teaspoon dipped in warm water to smooth out the top of each profiterole slightly, removing any peaks
4
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the tray around and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the buns are nice and golden
5
Remove from the oven and use a skewer to pierce a small hole in the bottom of each bun. Return the buns to the baking tray, holes upwards, and cook for a couple more minutes in the oven - this helps to dry out the choux pastry and creates a stable crust for the profiterole
6
Remove from the oven and leave the buns to cool on a wire rack
7
Whip some double cream until medium peaks form, then spoon the whipped cream into a piping bag with a 5mm plain nozzle. Place in the fridge if not piping immediately
8
Pipe the cream into each choux bun through the hole
9
Stack the profiteroles on a plate and pour over some chocolate sauce. Serve immediately with a pot of any extra sauce on the side.

Uses

Tom Aikens chooses Chantilly cream to fill his profiteroles, while Paul Heathcote takes it a step further and flavours the cream with passion fruit pulp. The chocolate sauce for Geoffrey Smeddle’s recipe is a relatively simple combination of melted chocolate, water and sugar, or for an even more indulgent dessert, serve your profiteroles with this hot ganache recipe.

Profiteroles make a really simple show-off dessert, served with a rich chocolate sauce and maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Once confident with this method, have a go at making Chocolate éclairs, or Martin Wishart’s Savoury choux buns.

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