Profiteroles With Chocolate Sauce
This recipe takes you through the steps to professionally make great tasting Profiteroles & Chocolate Sauce – a favourite classic dessert of many people. Making the choux pastry can seem to be a difficult task for a beginner, but in actual fact it is not, and fresh home-made profiteroles covered in a rich chocolate sauce taste so much better than bought ones, and they will be appreciated so much more by the people they are served to.
Profiteroles With Chocolate Sauce Recipe
Makes 30 profiteroles
Recipe Ingredients:
For the pastry
- 125ml milk
- 200ml water
- 150g plain flour
- 1 tsp golden caster sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 100g unsalted butter
- 4 medium eggs lightly beaten
For the cream
- 1 vanilla pod, split for the seeds
- 300ml whipping cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
For the chocolate sauce
- 200g dark chocolate (70%)
- 30g unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp clear honey
- 125ml full fat milk
Recipe Method:
Preheat the oven to 200˚C
For the pastry: Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl (do not skip this step as we need to make a light choux pastry). Place the milk, cold water, and sugar into a saucepan and set this over a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved add the unsalted butter – stir to melt. Once the butter has melted bring this up to a quick rolling boil. Once at the boil turn off the heat, then tip the hot liquids into the sifted flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the mixing bowl, stop beating and tip onto a cold plate to cool.
Once cool return the pastry to the mixing bowl, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste.
Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Use a little dab of pastry mix under each corner of the greaseproof paper, sticking it down to keep the paper in place on the baking sheet.
Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). Carefully pipe out about 20 walnut-sized balls onto the baking sheet, spaced well apart to allow for expansion of the pastry when baking. Level off the peaked tops, rounding out the shape, with the tip of a wet finger, then bake for 20 minutes until each profiterole is well risen and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When you want to serve fill each profiterole with the cream, place several in a dessert glass, and cover in the warm, oozing chocolate sauce.
For the cream: scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into a large mixing bowl. Add the cream, and icing sugar, then whisk together until the consistency of a soft meringue with floppy peaks is formed. Spoon the cream into a clean piping bag, fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pierce the base of a profiterole bun with the tip of the nozzle and pipe in the cream until filled. Repeat with the remaining choux buns.
For the chocolate sauce: break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and heat (or use a double boiler). Add the butter and honey, stirring from time to time, until the chocolate begins to melt. Gradually whisk in the milk until a smooth sauce is made, warm this through. This chocolate sauce, while still warm, can be spooned over the profiteroles.