Profiteroles

My kids have been begging for these for a while now, so with a burst of Saturday morning energy I made a small batch. Just three basic steps of making vanilla pastry cream for the filling, pate a choux as the crispy hollow pastry and the chocolate ganache sauce to dip them. When the shape of these pastries are round they are called profiteroles but if they are made into longer shapes then they are called eclairs. These are really good when dipped into caramel sauce also.

Pate a choux

1 cup water

3.5 oz butter

3/4 cup flour

4 whole eggs

1. Bring water and butter to a simmer, add flour and stir well.
2. after 2 minutes of stirring and cooking on low heat, start adding eggs on at a time off the heat.

3. When all eggs have been added, place mixture into a piping bag with a #8 tip (large)

4. Pipe out 30 round balls onto sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake at 400F for 30 min then let dry out in the turned off oven.

They will be golden brown with hollow centers.

Ganache

4 oz chopped dark chocolate

4 oz heavy cream

1. Bring cream to a bowl, add to chocolate.

2. After 2 minutes, stir till smooth.

Pastry Cream

2 cups whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or bean

1/3 cup cornstarch

4 egg yolk

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon butter

1. Bring the milk, sugar and vanilla to a boil.

2. Mix the corn starch with the egg, break up any lumps.
3. Add a splash of hot milk to egg mixture (tempering) then add the egg mixture back into the milk, while stirring.
4. When the mixture thickens take off the heat and stir in the butter, let cool and put in a piping bag with a small tip.

To assemble: stick the pastry cream tip into the pastry and careful fill with the pastry cream, then dip the tops in the chocolate ganache. Keep chilled until ready to serve.