Taste & Create: Profiteroles

***Taste & Create is a fabulous monthly blog event 

in which participants are randomly paired off 

to choose and prepare a dish from their partner's blog. 

 If you'd like to join us, please email me at 

cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com for more information!  

We'd love to have you.**

For the December/January Taste & Create event, I was paired with Hannah of Bright Palate. It didn't take me long to decide on her Profiteroles with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream and Butterscotch Sauce. However, it did take me a long time to make it!!  Sorry, Hannah.

I fell in love with Profiteroles in France, and ate as many of them as my stomach could handle after sumptuous dinners and bottles of wine.  Each time, they were served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

I originally planned to make Hannah's Vanilla Pastry Cream, but the Butterscotch Sauce just didn't appeal to me at all, so I planned to substitute some type of chocolate sauce.  After mixing up the choux pastry for the profiteroles, I sort of lost my ambition for mixing the pastry cream, (and washing all the pans and bowls associated with it!), so I decided to use vanilla ice cream instead.  If you're feeling ambitious, by all means follow the link above or below and make her vanilla bean pastry cream, or you could make Julia's Crème Pâtissière, which likely has the same amount of stirring but perhaps less dishes.  ;-)

My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary the other night, and I had made some chocolate-orange liqueur truffles, which we all know is just ganache that's slightly shaped and coated with cocoa.  I decided I'd use some of the ganache I hadn't gotten around to shaping, microwave it gently to soften it and use it as a topping for the profiteroles.  I added a little more cream before microwaving to loosen it up a bit, next time I'll just make it specifically for the profiteroles and a thinner mixture from the start.

My dough scoops were a little bigger than golf balls, so my profiteroles were generously sized.  I accidentally turned the timer off during the baking at 425 degrees, but they turned out just fine.  I ended up baking them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees at the end, and they were perfect, just keep an eye on yours.

Profiteroles

From Bright Palate, who originally adapted it from Ratio 

Choux pastry
Yield: About 20 profiteroles

1 cup water
1/2 cup/1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 scant cup flour
4 large eggs

Note: The choux pastry can be baked immediately once it’s cooked on the stovetop, or refrigerated for up to a day before baking.

Preheat oven to 425. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, tin foil, or silicone liners.

 In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Turn down the heat to medium, add the flour, and stir rapidly. As you stir, the dough will pull away from the sides of the pot. Continue stirring for another minute or two to continue cooking the flour and cook off some of the moisture.

Take the pot off the heat and let it cool slightly, a few minutes - it should still be warm to hot. Stir in the eggs rapidly, one at a time. It will take a few seconds of vigorous stirring for each egg to be incorporated. You can also use a standing mixer or electric mixer: transfer the dough to a bowl and mix in the eggs one at time.

Spoon golf-ball-sized portions of the dough onto the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake for 10 to 20 minutes longer.

Taste or cut into one to judge its doneness: it should be airy inside and not too moist.

To assemble:
Slice each profiterole in half. Place a dollop of ice cream or pastry cream on the bottom half and sandwich with the top half. Spoon chocolate sauce over the top.

***Visit Taste & Create to see what everyone else has made this month!***