Gooey and rich chocolate profiteroles with a nutty crunch

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!