Profiteroles Recipe

Whether you’re looking for the perfect choux pastry recipe or how to make profiteroles from scratch, this recipe has you well and truly covered.

To make these profiteroles isn’t too hard, with a little time and effort you’ll have yourself a batch whipped up in no time. People can be put off making these when they realise they have to make the pastry from scratch, well not any more. The recipe I’m about to share with you will change your mind about making choux pastry forever.

If you’re not sure what a profiterole is, well…  It’s a choux pastry bun (depending on where  in the world you are depends on what you know this pastry as. The most common names are choux and pate a choux, it’s basically the same thing), which is filled with anything from a whipped cream through to a custard, pastry custard or ice cream and is finished with a chocolate topping. What’s not to love about these?

To make the pastry, you’ll want to start by placing the water, salt and butter over a medium heat until it’s melted. You can then take it off the heat and add in the flour, stir until its combined then return it to the heat, constantly stirring until the bottom of your saucepan has a coating of flour. You can then transfer the pastry to a stand mixer or mixing bowl of choice and stir that until its cool enough for your to add your eggs, you will know when you’ve achieved this stage as you will be able to touch the bottom of your bowl without it being too hot. You can then gradually add your eggs, a bit at a time as you may not require all of the egg (or you may require more, it all really depends), the best way to tell if your pastry is done is to get a good amount on the beater and see how long it takes it to fall from the beater back into the pastry, if its between 3 and 5 seconds, you’re good to go.

Place the choux pastry into a piping bag with a piping tip which is about 1cm in diameter, then start piping small amounts onto your lined baking tray (I was able to pipe around 14 on a standard sized baking tray, so I’d recommend lining at least another 2 so 3 in total), if you want to make less then then the amount I ended up with, feel free to half the recipe or double if you need more. Once you’ve got them piped onto your lined trays, don’t forget to get rid of any peaks on top of them by dabbing them down with a damp finger, then you can give them the egg wash which will help them colour. Bake them off in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, before you open the door and release any steam that was built up in the oven. Close the door and bake for a further 10 minutes, this will ensure that they are hollow inside and well coloured and crisp on the outside. Once removed from the oven, allow to cool briefly on the baking tray before transferring them to a cool rack to cool fully.

Whip up a batch of sweetened whipped cream or whatever you’d like to fill them with whatever you’d like to (custard, pastry cream or ice cream will also work well), transfer the whipped cream into a piping bag with a plain tip nozzle and place in the fridge if you don’t intend on using it straight away. Make sure you fill as many profiteroles as possible, the make a batch of the chocolate topping. To make the topping is easy, place all of the ingredients into a small saucepan an allow them to melt, keep stirring them together until it becomes smooth and glossy. Dip the tops of your choux buns into the topping and that’s it. Super simple and yummy recipe.

Ingredients :

Choux Pastry:

• 300ml Water.
• 125g Butter.
• 150g Plain flour.
• 4 Eggs.
• Pinch of salt.

Bake at 200˚c/390˚f for 30 minutes (20 minutes, release the steam from the oven and then bake for a further 10 minutes at the same temperature). Allow to cool before filling and finishing.

Filling –

300ml Double cream.
30g Icing sugar.
1 tsp Vanilla (bean paste or extract will work well).

Topping –

65g Butter.
30g Sugar.
65g Golden syrup.
125g Dark Chocolate

Methods:

• Before you start the mixing process
• To make the choux pastry, place the water, butter and salt into a medium saucepan and place over a medium heat until its melted, stirring them together well.
• Remove from the heat and add in the flour, mixing in the flour in until its full incorporated. Return to the heat and continuously stir it to cook the flour out. You’ll know once the flour is cooked out as the bottom of your pan will have a layer of the flour/pastry there, once you’ve achieved this, take it off the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.
• Mix the choux pastry on a high speed to cool it down. This takes a couple of minutes to achieve.
• Once you can touch the bottom of you bowl, start to add your eggs. A little at a time until you reach a stage where the pastry takes between 3-5 seconds to fall from the beater – the amount of egg you need may depend, you may need more or less.
• Place the pastry into a piping bag with a 1cm plain tip nozzle and pipe out small amounts on the prepared baking tray, I got 14 but you should be able to get about 15 onto a standard tray. Press down any peaks using your finger which has been dipped into some water, then egg wash each of the choux buns to get a perfect golden brown on top.
• Place in the oven at 200˚c/390˚f and bake for 20 minutes, then open the oven door to remove the steam that’s built up, then place back in the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes then remove from the oven.
• Allow the choux buns to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
• Once your choux buns are cooled, you can fill them with your whipped cream and store them in the fridge until you are ready.
• The chocolate topping is really simple to make. Place all of your ingredients into a medium sized saucepan and allow them to melt together but remember to keep stirring them together until it becomes smooth and glossy.
• Dip the top of each profiterole into the chocolate topping and allow it to set before you serve and enjoy them.

Don’t forget, if you make anything using my recipes, feel free to share your creations with me over on Twitter and Instagram!