I haven’t made profiteroles for quite a few years now, I blame this on my daughter, in a nice way though! She decided on France as her country for her GCSE Food Technology. I must admit I admired her for this as most of the others chose Italy or India. I think she loves baking puddings as much as I do, so one of her chosen recipes were profiteroles. You can image in the run up to baking this recipe she tested it time and time again, with subtle changes and additions to improve it. She’s just finishing her A levels at the moment, so you can see it’s quite a few years since we’ve had profiteroles!
A lot of people seem to be put off by choux pastry, but I must admit it is quite enjoyable to make. First the oven was put on to preheat at Fan 200°C and two baking trays were lightly greased.
To make the pastry I measured 55g butter and added this to 150ml water which I had put in a pan. These were gently heated together until the butter had melted, it was then slowly brought to the boil. Once boiling the pan was removed from the heat and 65g sifted plain flour was added all at once and beaten together until the mixture had formed a soft ball. The pan was put back over the heat and the dough beaten for a further minute.
After allowing the dough to cool for approximately 5 minutes, two large eggs which had been beaten were added in small amounts, with the mixture being beaten well between additions. After the last addition of eggs, beat well again until the mixture is a smooth and shiny paste.
Spoon the mixture into a piping bag which has been fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe small rounds onto the prepared baking trays. This should make approximately 20 profiteroles. Leave room for them to spread. A tip my daughter gave me was to lightly press any points from piping down with a damp finger (dip your fingertip in a bowl of water) so that the profiteroles are nice and round.
Bake the profiteroles in the oven for 10 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to Fan 170°C. Cook for a further 10 minutes after which time they should be well risen and a deep golden brown. I was amazed at just how much they had risen. They looked good! Remove from the oven and make a split in the bottom of each one for the steam to escape, otherwise you’ll end up with soggy insides! If you like the centres really dry then pop them back into the oven (Fan 160°C) for a further 10 minutes. After this cool them on a wire rack.
Once cool it was time to fill the profiteroles. Whip together 300ml of double cream and spoon into a piping bag. Gently fill the profiteroles with the cream using the split made in them to allow the steam to escape. It was quite a warm day when I made these (yes we do have a few of these in England!) so the profiteroles were popped into the fridge whilst I made the chocolate icing.
50g plain chocolate was put into a bowl which had been set over a pan of simmering water, together with 15g butter and 2tbsp water. Once the chocolate and butter had melted the bowl was removed from the heat and 75g sifted icing sugar was added and beaten in until the icing was smooth. Each profiterole was dipped into the chocolate and left to set. I did have a small amount of chocolate icing left, so this was poured into a jug just in case anybody required extra.
These were absolutely delicious, everybody enjoyed them and they had all been eaten within minutes of placing them on the table. I know I will definitely make these again – I’ve missed them in the last couple of years!
As for the jug of icing – my daughter ate the whole lot with a spoon – greedy…
Self Raising Flower 
These look so good! I’ve only made profiteroles once, about 7 or 8 years ago, they worked perfectly and were delicious but I’m too scared to make them again in case the first time was a fluke!
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Go on, make them! This recipe definitely works. They puffed up incredible and were so light. I know what you mean though, my daughter had a few failures when she practised for her GCSE! Thank you for your lovely comment!
Jan
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