Sweeter Than Sweet.

I

have an addictive personality. By that I don’t mean you’ll become easily addicted to me, no. I mean I become addicted to things easily. Things like sushi, diet coke and chocolate. I try something, and I want it. All. The. Time. So, I quite often don’t try things because I know they’re not good for me, and I don’t want to become addicted to them. I’ve never tried coffee. And up until about a month ago I’d never tried profiteroles.

I was having dinner with Liss and Lorraine when dessert rolled around and profiteroles somehow landed on our table {we ordered them, the chef didn’t throw them at us}. I went against my {very weak} will and tried them. And delicious is an understatement. I could have easily eaten the whole dish, but I didn’t.

I remarked at how delicious they were, and the girls assured me they were pretty easy to make. I looked them over {the profiteroles, not the girls} and wasn’t so sure. Lorraine suggest I give the Masterchef recipe a whirl, and so I did.

INGREDIENTS:
Choux pastry:
Water 425g
Milk 530g
Sugar 20g
Salt 20g
Butter 400g
Flour 530g
Eggs 16

Pastry cream:
Milk 1300ml
Eggs Yolks 330g
Sugar 330g
Cornflour 130g
Butter 130g
Vanilla 2 beans

Caramel:
Sugar 660g
Water 200g
Glucose 260g

1. To make the pastry cream, place milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan. Heat gently until the milk almost boils. Remove from the heat, whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl until thick and pale. Gradually whisk in the warm milk. Return mixture to same saucepan and stir over medium heat until the custard boils. Spread over a tray to cool rapidly. Cover the surface of the custard closely with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming, at 55°C transfer to a bowl and stir through butter and refrigerate to cool completely.

2. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius convection. Lightly grease 4 oven trays and set aside. Combine the butter with water, sugar, milk & salt in a large heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and using a wooden spoon quickly beat in the flour. Return to the heat and continue beating until the mixture comes together and leaves the side of the pan. Cook, beating over low heat for 1-2 minutes to cook flour. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. Transfer to a large bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the mixture to release any more heat. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well between each addition until all the eggs have been added and the mixture is thick and glossy. Beat for a few more minutes, or until thickened.

4. Spoon the mixture, in batches, into a piping bag fitted with a 1.25-1.5cm nozzle. Cover remaining pastry with cling film. Pipe mixture onto trays about 3cm x 2cm high leaving room for spreading. Bake for 25-30 minutes, in batches, or until firm and hollow when tapped. Transfer puffs to wire racks.

5. Put custard into a piping bag with a nozzle less than 1cm. Poke a small hole in the base of each puff and fill with custard.

6. For the caramel, combine water and sugar in a saucepan until it boils add glucose, and cook until caramel in colour. Remove from the heat and dip the base of the pan in a bowl of water to cool slightly. Grease a cake ring and place ring mould on a baking paper lined tray, pour enough caramel to coat the base 5mm. This is the base for the croquembouche.

7. Dip the puff bases in enough toffee to coat and place upside down on a tray lined with baking paper.

8. To assemble, oil the croquembouche cone. Dip the sides of the puff balls in the toffee one at a time and place around the base of the cone. Continue adding balls until the cone is covered.

9. Transfer the base for the croquembouche to a serving plate. Place a small amount of caramel on the base. Grasp croquembouche gently and lift from the cone and place on the caramel base.

10. Re-heat the remaining toffee then dip two forks back to back in it. Spin toffee around the Croquembouche. Decorate with violets.

The original recipe used a few two many eggs for my liking and made too many profiteroles as well, so I quartered the recipe, and it make enough for at least four people. The custard is super, super delicious. Lacey wanted to lick the spoon. She kept saying cupcake, cupcake and pointing to her mouth, so I gave her some and she kept coming back for more.

The pastry is easier than I imagined to make. It’s easy to pipe too. I made a few that were too small, but once I did them the correct size they were great.

And lastly I didn’t pile them into a croquembuche. What a fraud I am! I just put them on a plate and swirled toffee over them. I actually burnt the toffee. It turns out there isn’t much time between caramelisation and them burning. Whoops. So I didn’t used much of it. I wouldn’t use the glucose if I was making them again. I’d just make a normal toffee. I made a chocolate sauce to go with them, and they were delicious.

I took photos with my Blackberry, but I can’t get them out of the phone so I’ve had to use the image from Masterchef instead. Leave Room For Dessert has a great run down on the recipe too, if you want an experts opinion.