This well known pastry was first made by a chef of Catherine Medici of Florence who was Italian but moved to France in the year 1540. The dough was first called pâté a Pantanelli or Pantarelli after the chef himself. The pastry evolved and he now used name, choux pastry was given due to it’s unusual shape after being baked. ‘Choux’ is french for cabbage. The dough used for Profiterole can also be used to make other choux pastries such as eclairs. Don’t be scared off, try it yourself!
Rezept
Ingredients
Choux Pastry (notes)
- 100g Butter
- 240g Water
- 140g Flour
- 4 Eggs
Filling
- Vanilla Ice-cream
- Vanilla Custard
- Whipped Cream
Chocolate Sauce
- 250g dark Chocolate
- 240ml Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Simmer the butter until it is almost melted, then pour in the water.
- Mix in the flour and simmer for a minutes before removing it from the heat.
- Mix well until the dough resembles that in the picture below.
- Let it cool for 10 minutes.
- Add in the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly until the eggs are well incorporated.
- Fill the dough into a piping bag with a round nozzle.
- Cover a baking tray with baking paper. You can use butter to stick it down so it won’t curl.
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC fan.
- Pipe 2cm wide circles onto the paper. Pipe on the same spot without moving the nozzle.
- Place the tray in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Take the tray out and prick the pastries with a sharp knife.
- Place the tray back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes.
- Leave the shells to cool while you prepare your filling.
- Once the shells are cool, fill them with whatever filling you choose.
- Melt the chocolate on low heat in a water-bath.
- Mix the heavy cream into the chocolate.
- Pour the sauce over the profiteroles.
- If you want, you can dip them in chocolate instead. You can then dip them in chia seeds like in the picture below.
Notes
Choux pastry: This pastry looks quite tricky and it is definitely a step up from your average lemon loaf or banana bread. Profiterole are not too hard to make, though. There is not as much that can go wrong. It is actually fun to make.
