French Recipes : Profiteroles ( cream puffs)

Profiteroles

A profiterole, cream puff or choux à la crème is a pastry ball filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, or ice cream. The puffs may be decorated or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of icing sugar.

The original meaning in both English and French is unclear, but later it came to mean a kind of roll 'baked under the ashes'. A 17th-century French recipe for a Potage de profiteolles or profiterolles describes a soup of dried small breads (presumably the profiteroles) simmered in almond broth and garnished with cockerel combs, truffels, and so on. The current meaning is only clearly attested in the 19th century.

You can make a profiterole in smaller and bigger sizes or even the shape of an eclair, piped longways.

I love to make these in their small delicate shapes and fill them with fresh whipped vanilla flavoured cream, then stack them all into a piramide shape and drizzle over some warm melted chocolate so all the roles have a good amount of chocolate in each profiterole.

Ingredients

For the profiteroles

• 75 grams unsalted butter (cubed)
• 175 ml water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100 grams plain flour
• 4 eggs

For the hot chocolate sauce

• 200 grams dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
• 125 ml double cream
• 20 ml chocolate liqueur (or coffee liqueur)

For the centre

• 150 ml cream (whipped)
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Step 1:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C.
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Step 2:

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• Into a medium bowl sift the flour.
• Combine the butter, water and salt in a medium saucepan and heat gently until butter has melted, Bring to the boil and remove from the heat.
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• Step 3:
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• Add the flour to the butter mixture in one go and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. continue to beat until the mixture comes away form the sides of the saucepan.Return pan to a very low heat and beat for further 30 seconds to dry out the dough.
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• Step 4:
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• Beat in 3 eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl and add little by little until the dough is shiny and soft. 
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• Step 5:
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• Scoop the dough into a piping bag (I use a plastic snap lock bag and snip off the end) and squeeze out dough into 30 - 35 x 2.5cm mounds spaced apart to allow room for spreading.Bake for 20 - 30 mins or until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

• step 6:

• In small saucepan gradually heat the chocolate and double cream over a low heat stirring constantly.Pipe whipped cream into the centre of each profiterole by creating a little slit in the side of each. or if you don't have or piping bag just cut your rolls in half, fill with cream and stick the halfs back together.

Step 7:

Place your profiteroles and a serving dish, i prefer to make a piramide shape as it prevents them from rolling of whilst serving. Make sure your chocolate is warm but not boiling hot as this would make your whipped cream to runny inside the roles. 

Now from the pan drizzle the warm chocolate over the roles so they are all coverd in chocolate, now they are ready to serve.

Now in France they would say " Bon Appetite" whichmeans;

                                                       " Enjoy your meal"

where can we find France in the world?

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