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Profiteroles are one of my favourite things to bake! They are actually quite easy to make too, give them a go and see for yourself. 🙂 The vanilla pastry cream, cranberry and raspberry jam and the hint of cinnamon in the cream all work together to create a wonderful Christmas flavour combination!
This recipe makes around 15 medium sized profiteroles.
Ingredients:
Vanilla Pastry Cream aka Creme Patissiere
- 410g + 40g milk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Half a pod of vanilla + beans
- 30g + 30g sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 45g potato starch
- 10g flour
Place the egg yolks, 30g of sugar, 40g milk, potato starch and flour in a measuring jug and whisk until it combined and smooth. Leave aside while you prepare the milk.
Place 410g of milk, 30g of sugar, vanilla extract, vanilla beans from half a pod & the pod itself in a saucepan, bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring every now and then to keep the milk from burning. Take off heat. Take out the pod.
You’ll now need to temper the egg yolks – slowly pour half of the hot milk mixture over the eggs and stir energetically until combined. Put the saucepan back on the stove on a low heat and pour the tempered egg mixture back into it while whisking quickly using a hand whisk. This is to avoid any lumps from forming. Let it cook while you keep whisking for a few minutes until it becomes thick.
Transfer into a container/bowl and cover with cling film, so that it touches the pastry cream and therefore prevents a skin forming on top of it and let it cool completely.
Craquelin:
- 90g butter
- 90g flour
- 90g demerara sugar
Combine all the ingredients together and form into a ball. Place in-between two baking paper sheets and roll out to about 3cm thickness. Place on a chopping board and freeze for at least 30mins while you prepare the dough.
Choux Pastry:
- 100g water
- 100g milk
- 80g butter
- Pinch of salt
- 140g flour
- 4 large eggs
Place water, milk, butter and salt in a medium saucepan and cook at a medium heat until it starts to boil. Reduce the heat and add the flour – start stirring constantly until it all comes together into a ball and a skin starts forming on the bottom of the pan. You can either transfer it onto a plate to let it cool down, or move it into a mixing bowl straight away and mix at a low to medium speed to let it cool faster. After that, start adding in one egg at a time, making sure to mix it well after each addition. You want your mixture to be shiny, smooth and of a pipeable consistency at the end.
Depending on the size of the eggs used etc, you may find that you’ll need to add more than 4 eggs in order to achieve the desired consistency. If that happens, make sure to whisk an additional egg a few times using a fork before adding a little bit of it in at a time! If you add another egg in one go, and it ends up being too much, it may make your mixture too runny.
Place the dough in a piping bag and pipe out circles of about 4cm. Make sure to leave gaps in-between them. I usually pipe them onto my perforated mat that I use when making tarts for more even air-flow, but you can just use baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 190C – no fan.
Take out your crumble from the freezer and let it thaw for a few minutes then cut out 4cm circles. Place circles on top of each choux just before you place them in the oven. If you don’t have enough of them, you may need to put together and re-roll the scraps to create more craquelin circles. Bake for 30-33mins. DO NOT be tempted to open the oven during that time. I usually bake these in two or sometimes three batches. I highly recommend baking one tray at a time. Once out of the oven, let them cool on a wire rack.
Cranberry & Raspberry Jam
- 100g cranberry
- 75g raspberries
- 10g sugar
- 15g of lemon juice
- 10g potato starch + 20g cold water
Mix potato starch with water and set aside for now.
Place everything else in a small saucepan and cook at a low heat, stirring often. Once the cranberries start popping and become slightly softer, take it off the stove and blend using a hand-blender. If you prefer smooth consistency of your fruits, you can put them through the sieve now. I just leave them as they are. Return to heat and cook at a low heat for about a minute. Stir your potato starch in water once again before adding it in. Start stirring at the same time until it thickens slightly. It won’t take long. You have to be careful, if you let it cook for too long, it will become very thick. Take it off the heat and transfer into a bowl to let it cool down a little.
Cinnamon Cream
- 300g heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Place all ingredients in a mixer and mix until it becomes stiff enough to pipe out. I prefer for the cream to be on the softer side, but that’s totally up to you.
OPTIONAL:
White Chocolate Circles:
- 100g of white chocolate (I used Callebaut)
- Edible Glue
- Dozen of fresh cranberries
Place white chocolate in a small bowl and melt in the microwave using 5-10 second intervals – mixing the chocolate between each go. Transfer to a piping bag with a small round nozzle and start piping out circles of around 1-2cm on an acetate sheet, leaving a lot of space between them. Once you’ve filled the sheet, place another acetate sheet on top of it and gently ‘squash’ each circle with something of an even surface – I used a glass. Place in the fridge until needed.
Assembling:
Cut off the tops from your Choux, but don’t throw them away. Place your pastry cream into a piping bag once it cooled down and fill each profiterole around 3/4 of its’ height, add about a teaspoon of the cranberry and raspberry jam and top it off with a swirl of cinnamon cream. Place the choux top back on top and either sprinkle with icing sugar AND/OR add some edible glue and stick the white chocolate circle onto it. You can then stick half of a cranberry on each white chocolate circle.
Sprinkle the chocolate with edible gold glitter! 😉
Enjoy!
