Profiteroles

Profiteroles

Lulu Grimes shares the secret behind light, crisp profiteroles with a crème pâtissière filling and rich chocolate sauce

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Plus cooling

Method

  1. Put 150ml water and the butter in a pan and bring to a simmer, until the butter is completely melted. Turn up to a boil. Sift the flour onto baking parchment, then shoot it off into the pan. Quickly add the sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Turn heat down, but keep beating until the mix turns smooth and glossy and starts to pull away from the walls of the pan. Tip into a bowl.
  2. Once the mixture has cooled slightly, beat in the eggs a little at a time. you might like to start with a wooden spoon then continue with electric beaters once the mix is less stiff. It should be smooth and stretchy and fall easily off a wooden spoon. If it reaches this stage before you've added all the eggs don't add the rest as it will be too runny to pipe.
  3. Heat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment, put a medium nozzle into a piping bag and spoon in the pastry mix. Pipe out 30 small heaps of pastry about the size of a pound coin. (If you don't have a piping bag put the mix in a strong plastic bag and snip the corner off, or use a teaspoon to portion it out). Wet your finger and press down the tip on each one. Bake for 20 mins or until golden and firm. Make a hole in the base of each with a skewer and leave to cool.
  4. Meanwhile, make the crème pâtissière. Put the cornflour and sugar in a bowl and stir in the eggs to make a paste. Add the split vanilla pod to the milk and bring to a simmer. Fish out the pod and scrape any remaining seeds into the mixture. Pour onto the egg mix, stirring, then return the lot to the pan (clean any milk solids off it first) and stir over a low heat until the mixture thickens. Pour into a bowl and cover with cling film (to stop a skin forming). Leave to cool.
  5. Once the profiteroles and filling are cool, put the crème pâtissière into the bag and pipe into the balls. Arrange them in dishes or a bowl and pour over the chocolate sauce.
Try

Three ways to serve profiteroles

Fill with softened vanilla ice cream and pour over hot chocolate sauce. Stack them and pour over some caramel, instead of the chocolate sauce, to make a mini croquembouche. Stir chopped white chocolate into the crème pâtissière whilst it is still hot and use white chocolate to make the sauce for the topping.

Per serving

473 kcalories, protein 9.4g, carbohydrate 45g, fat 29.6 g, saturated fat 15.5g, fibre 0.7g, salt 0.21 g

Recipe from olive magazine, July 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • 17 September 2010

    Yvie commented on this recipe

    What can you use frozen whites for?

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  • 27 November 2010

    Lucie rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 05 December 2010

    Jenny commented on this recipe

    Use the egg whites for pavlova, they freeze well, i've done it on a number of occasions.

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  • 13 March 2011

    SamanthaH rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    The flavor was right, but the consistency was totally off. Two medium sized eggs for the choux was way too much and my mixture became too runny to pipe after adding just over one, so it wasn't too pretty. That and the custard didn't set right (probably a fault of my own, though). It was a disaster. A delicious disaster which I just tossed in a bowl with custard and ate without the frills, but a disaster nonetheless!

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  • 10 July 2011

    Beppie1 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Great, made sure I used very small eggs and it was fine, had to double the mix though for 6 of us.

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  • 16 December 2011

    michelle b commented on this recipe

    Quantities do seem to be small.

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  • 28 December 2012

    patchybear rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Never made these before, people say choux pasty is very difficult to make however overall I found the making quite easy. I halved the recipe to make 15 however ended up with 12 rather tiny profiteroles. I piped each one when cooled with chocolate orange extra thick cream left over from christmas. But was a good easy to follow recipe so 4stars

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Plus cooling

Ingredients

  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
  • 60g plain flour
  • 2 eggs , lightly beaten
  • chocolate sauce, made by melting 100g dark chocolate with 3 tbsp golden caster sugar and 125ml double cream

FOR THE CREME PATISSIERE

  • 3 tbsp cornflour
  • 3 tbsp golden caster sugar
  • 1 whole egg and 2 yolks (freeze the whites)
  • 400ml milk
  • 1 vanilla pod , split
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Per serving

473 kcalories, protein 9.4g, carbohydrate 45g, fat 29.6 g, saturated fat 15.5g, fibre 0.7g, salt 0.21 g

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