"A profiterole, cream puff (US) or choux à la crème is a choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, or ice cream. The puffs may be decorative or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of powdered sugar."
~ Wikipedia
... well, I ... took the basic recipe of a cream puff, and altered it to make regular cream puffs as well as savory puffs.
Here are some photos I've borrowed from various sources (... google images...)
(credits go to: FoodNetwork)
(credits: Google Images)
Here's the basic recipe and directions I would use for a sweet cream puff pastry dough:
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 stick of butter (half a cup) ... doesn't really matter to me if it's salted or unsalted, you can't really taste the difference either way
4 eggs
YIELDS: at least 36 puffs
Directions for basic dough:
Boil 1 cup water and butter.
Add in all the dough at once, stir until you form a ball of dough
** PLEASE use a non-stick pot of this, will save you lots of frustration
Wait about 5 minute for the dough to cool down a bit, stir in the eggs, one at a time.
Now, when you add the egg, the dough will come apart, and the mixture will look like it will never come smoothly together. Persist, beat in one egg at at time, fully incorporating each egg into the flour. Repeat process with the rest of the eggs. I find that this portion is particularly easy with an electric mixer, and much harder by hand. But hey.... if you're going to eat these... you might as well workout beforehand... (just kidding, they're high calorie at all, especially since they expand so much)
Anyway, drop these balls onto silpat mats or buttered baking sheets in rounded tablespoons (or whatever shape you like, but circles cook more uniformly). I personally have purchased a "cookie dough" scooper-- basically a mini ice cream scooper. It's high quality, and will last me a very long time. Space the balls at least 1 inch apart, as they will expand when baking.
Bake in a pre-heated, 400 degree oven for aprox. 20-23 minutes. Keep in mind all oven temperatures vary, so keep an eye out on your profiteroles at the 19 minute mark, and make adjustments as necessary.
After baking, take them out, poke a tiny hole (i like to poke mine at the top, so I can pipe the filling into them....) in them to release the steam from cooking so your profiteroles do not become soggy on the inside. Let rest/cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before adding filling. At this point, you can go on to make the filling as your profiteroles are cooling :)
** You also have the option of slicing your profiteroles in half and fill them that way instead of piping them into the puff, all up to you!
FILLING
There are endless possibilities for fillings. Sweet, savory.. sour? I don't know.
Basic whipped-cream filling:
- HALF packet gelatin (you can find these in supermarkets for super cheap.... and you get multiple packets in a box
- 1 small container heavy whipping cream
- any flavorings you want to add-- don't add ANYTHING liquid, as it will take away from the cream texture of the whipped cream, and the whipped cream won't hold shape
- powdered sugar, if you like.... or not
Directions for filling:
Whip the crap of your whipped cream using whipping attachment. If you're whipping by hand, I hope you're ready to whip a good 10-15 minutes (I actually don't know, I've never done whipped cream by hand... :X) When you get medium peaks (cream doesn't hold shape very well), add in the half pack of gelatin, as well as any sugar/flavors, and then continue beating on high until you get stiff peaks.
Put your filling in a piping bag... and fill your puff pastry with cream :)
For one of mine, I filled with sweet cream, added some fruit garnish and chocolate on top. I personally thought I messed up a little and made it slightly too sweet (for my personal liking), but I brought it in to work and people seemed to (hopefully) enjoy it.
I also made some savory puffs. I followed the above directions precisely, except my flour blended consisted of things like:
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Salt/garlic salt
Chives
Bacon
Onions
.... anything you can think of.
If you want to add cheese, add it at the very end, after you've stirred in all your eggs. Baking time stays about the same, but keep an eye on it.
The whole process is easy-peasy. DO NOT be intimidated by its fancy... looks. If you tried making profiteroles, let me know how it turns out! Be creative, have fun, and enjoy the deliciousness you end up with. Spread the love by sharing with others :)
(If you have any questions about what I've written, don't hesitate to ask!)
Here: parmesan cheese and chive puffs, with cream puffs:
I also recently bought a juicer. With more time spent sedentary at my desk for like 8+ hrs... I need to get off the college diet and be more conscious about what I'm putting into my body. I'll talk about my juicing routine in a later post.. but here's a photo of a typical juice:
It looks nasty, but it's delicious.
Next, I will be talking about some ideas I have for Breast Cancer awareness month. The office is holding a fundraiser, and I'd like to share some ways you can help in your own way, as well :)
- Lisa
heqicrystaldesigns@hotmail.com
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