Profiteroles

I've been wanting to make profiteroles for the longest time ever. I had never made them before and the technique seemed so different from other things I had baked. I just love those quirky little tips you get when it comes to making certain things, like knowing that the macaron batter is ready when it slides off the spoon like a ribbon. Or in this case, when a wooden spoon stands upright in the choux pastry. And I think the part I was most looking forward to injecting the custard cream into the little spheres. What I didn't realize however was that I wouldn't know when I had injected enough pastry into each profiterole. But I just kept on squeezing it in. Surprisingly these are extremely simple to make and really fun, too. I think my favorite time is watching them rise in the oven. They go from tiny little spoonfuls of batter to puffy little dough balls. Like magic!

Ingredients
for the choux pastry:
50g unsalted butter
90g plain flour, sifted twice
3 eggs, lightly beaten
for the filling:
375ml milk
4 egg yolks
90g caster sugar
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
for the topping:
110g dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoons vegetable oil

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 210C. Place the butter in a large pot with 185ml of water and stir until butter has melted and mixture is reaching a boil. Remove from the heat and quickly beat in the flour and then return to heat until mixture comes together and leaves sides of pot. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl and gradually add the egg, one tablespoon at a time, beating well throughout. Beat with a wire whisk until mixture is thick and glossy and a wooden spoon stands upright in the center of the mixture. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto two lightly greased baking trays, leaving room for spreading. Sprinkle with water (steam helps profiteroles rise) and place in oven for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the custard. Put the milk to boil in a pan. Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Whisk in the flour. Pour the hot milk slowly onto egg mixture, whisking constantly throughout. Return milk and egg mixture to pan, stir constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Let boil for around one minute, while stirring constantly and then stir in the vanilla essence, transfer to a bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and leave to cool in a refrigerator.

Once it's cool, place the mixture into a piping bag and with a 1.5 nozzle, gently pipe cream filling into the sides of each profiterole. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and oil in a bowl over simmering water. Once profiteroles are filled, dip the top of each one in the melted chocolate to coat the top half. Leave to set.

Best served cold, in my opinion.

What I did with the leftover filling and chocolate topping...