I’m
told if you’re precise with measuring your ingredients, choux pastry
can’t go wrong, and – so far – this promise has held up! For the choux
mix, I’ve recommended the Leith’s recipe here and the chocolate sauce is
from Felicity Cloake. The hazelnuts are all me!
Makes about 18 profiteroles
Choux pastry
85g butter
220ml water
105g plain flour, sifted 3 times
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
Cream filling
600 ml whipping cream
Chocolate Sauce
150 g good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
50 ml whipping cream
2 tsp golden syrup
Knob of butter
Pinch of salt
Sprinkling of hazelnuts
- First, heat the oven to Gas Mark 6/ 200°C.
- Sift
the flour three times with a pinch of salt. Put the water and butter
into a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. By the time the water is
boiling, the butter should have completely melted. Once boiling fast,
tip in all the flour and beat fast with a wooden spoon. It will begin to
combine so that it leaves the sides of the pan and has a glossy finish.
- The
mixture needs to be cool before the eggs are added so that the heat
from the mixture doesn’t cook the eggs. You can speed this up if you
wish by spreading the mixture out onto a cool plate.
- Beat
the eggs and, when the mixture is cool, add the eggs a little at a time
and beat vigorously. This is important to get air into the mixture as
it is the steam from the air that allows choux pastry to rise; there are
no raising agents. The mixture is ready when it has a soft dropping
consistency – you may not need all of the eggs.
- Prepare
a baking tray with some greased baking paper and dollop about a
teaspoon of the mixture at a time, leaving room for the profiteroles to
grow in size – about 3 cm apart should do.
- Cook
in a heated oven at Gas Mark 6/ 200°C for 20–30 minutes, until golden
brown. It is important that they are not too pale as otherwise they will
become soggy later on.
- Prick the underside of each profiterole with a skewer and make the hole big enough for your cream nozzle or piping bag.
- Turn
the oven off and put the profiteroles back in for 5 minutes, hole-side
up. This will allow the middle of the profiteroles to dry out.
- When
cool, whip the cream and fill the profiteroles. This dessert is best
eaten as it is made but the pasty will keep out of the fridge to be
filled with cream as a later point. Putting choux pastry in the fridge
will make it soggy so it’s best only to fill those you are about to eat!
- For
the sauce, put chocolate and cream into a small pan and cook on a low
heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted into the
cream.
- Stir in the syrup and then butter. The butter will give the sauce a nice gloss.
- Pour the sauce over the cream-filled profiteroles and sprinkle hazelnuts on top. Yum!