Profiteroles – the dark art of choux pastry

Who doesn’t love an eclair or a profiterole? Shiny crisp pastry with a magical hollow centre filled to bursting with cream or custard then dipped in chocolate. Pastry comes in many forms and the difference is in the ratio between butter, flour and liquid. This one variation (the ratio) makes the difference between a luxury flaky pastry, layered puff pastry or the buttery goodness of shortcrust.

Choux is one that seems impossible unless you are really skilled and so lots of people are too scared to try. The following recipe if followed to the letter will work; I promise.

Apologies for the quality of the photo I was cooking dinner and shouting instructions to my daughter as she made these.

Ingredients

125ml water

50g butter

50g plain flour

1 large egg (have a spare one as the quantity of egg needed can be changeable)

500ml cream

chocolate of choice ( avoid white as it is tricky to work with plus too sweet – I used dark)

Equipment

Bowl, wooden spoon, oven tray, greaseproof paper, pan, piping bag, hand (balloon) whisk

Method

1. Weigh out the flour and place in the middle of a folded peice of greaseproof paper or just paper and put to one side.
2. In a pan pour the water and add the butter. Bring to a rolling boil. A rolling boil is when every bit of the surface is bubbling, the choux will fail if the water is not hot enough. When the water is bonkers bubbling, ensure that you have a wooden spoon to hand. The next step is the vital bit
3. Tip the flour straight into the centre of the boiling water, take the pan off the heat and IMMEDIATELY start beating well with the wooden spoon. It will combine and then should hopefully start to come away from the sides and form a dough in the centre of the pan. You can put it back on the heat for a couple of seconds whilst beating if there is still wetness at the bottom.
4. Tip the dough into a bowl and leave to cool to room temperature.
5. Preheat your oven to 180 fan and place greaseproof paper on an oven tray. If you have a piping bag get this ready
6. In a small bowl crack the egg and beat with a fork.
7. When the dough has cooled, slowly beat in the egg A BIT AT A TIME. The mixture will look curdled to start with but then will start to change to a thick paste. Keep beating, do not be gentle at this point. Keep adding the egg until it is a slow dropping consistency. To test this hold the wooden spoon with some mixture up above your bowl, it should stay on the spoon for a count of three seconds before dropping off.
8. It should just need 1 egg but you may need to add a tad more.
9. Fill piping bag and then pipe small rounds onto your tray, leaving gaps between them. Wet a finger with water and gently pat down the tops of each round. Fill half a glass of water and just after opening the oven door, tip this into the bottom of the oven to create steam. Place your choux in oven. These should take approx. 20 minutes.
10. When golden and hollow, take out turn upside down and prick a small hole in the bottom of each one. Place in the now turned off oven with the door open to dry out. Then cool.
11. Using a hand whisk, whisk the cream until soft peaks form. You want it to hold its shape but you don’t want it to be on the verge of turning into butter. A hand whisk is hard work but will prevent you from whisking it too far. Put to one side.
12. In a microwavable bowl, place the chocolate broken up. Blast in the microwave, checking every ten or so seconds and stirring. Chocolate can sieze really easily so ensure you stir every check and remove fully when there are still solid bits in as residual heat will melt these.

    

13. Clean out piping bag if reusable or get a new one and fill with your cream. Take each choux bun and carefully poke a hole in the side just big enough to fill with cream. Pipe cream in the centre of each one.
14. Carefully dip each bun in the melted chocolate
15. Enjoy.

These can be filled with all manner of gorgeousness, the variations are up to you. If you scale up the mix then ensure you keep the ratio the same. No guessing or judging when it comes to baking. Love the food, respect the science.