While I have been making them for some time now they are quite simple to perfect if you can get the choux pastry right. The main thing to remember is to follow the measurements and cooking times precisely.
Here is a recipe I keep coming back to for it's simple ingredients and thorough instruction.
Choux pastry:
20g butter
1/4 cup (60mL) water
1/4 cup (35g) plain flour
1 egg
1. Preheat fan forced oven to 220oC and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Combine butter with water in a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Add flour; beat with a wooden spoon over heat until mixture comes away from the base and side of saucepan and forms a smooth ball (see 'deadly cream puffs' blog for a picture of what this looks like).
3. Transfer mixture into a small bowl; beat in egg with electric mixer until mixture becomes glossy.
To cook:
1. Gather 1/2 a teaspoon of mixture and use a second teaspoon to scrape it onto the baking paper lined tray, leaving a 2cm radius between each mound.
2. Place the mixture in the oven for 7 minutes before turning the temperature down to 190oC to cook for a further 10 minutes.
3. At this point, check the edges of the pasty for over-browning and if satisfied with their progress, cook for a further 3-5 minutes. Some people like to take them out and pierce each one to relieve any steam but this can make them shrivel if they have not set properly yet.
4. Take them out of the oven and pop each pastry case onto a cooling rack to cool completely. If not using the same day, store in an airtight container overnight.
I quadrupled the mixture to make around 60 profiteroles making sure each measurement was exact. There have been times when duplicating this mixture has not worked for me so precision of quantity and cooking times is essential!
Patisserie cream filling:
To fill 60 profiteroles (Divide his by 4 if only making 1 batch as per the quantity delivered above).
2 x 600mL thickened cream
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
6 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cornflour
1. Warm the cream and vanilla essence in a saucepan on a low heat.
2. Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and sifted cornflour in a large bowl. Add the warm cream mixture and mix to combine before returning to the saucepan.
3. Continually stir the mixture with a wooden spoon over a medium heat until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon.
4. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, lining the top of the patisserie cream with cling wrap to stop a skin forming. Place in the fridge for a few hours or overnight if possible to let the mixture set.
To fill the choux pastry puffs, spoon the patisserie cream into a piping bag with a 1cm diameter opening. Find or make a small hole in the side of the puff and squeeze in the filling until it almost spills out.
To finish, coat the top half of each cream filled french puff with your favorite chocolate!
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