Profiteroles

I'm back! Back in the land of cold cold temperatures, entirely too many clothes (what? I have to wear a sweater? AND a coat? AND GLOVES?? You must be kidding...). BUT most importantly, it's a land with a fully functional kitchen! And gadgets. So many gadgets.

Ahh... Have I mentioned how much I love my kitchen? Never again will I take a working oven (or for that matter, hot water) for granted again. Never.

Since I've been happily reunited with my kitchen, it's only fitting that I make some sort of grand gesture, something to show it just how much I appreciate it. No mere cake or pie will do -- it has to be something fabulous.

Fabulous, but not that fabulous, because there's no way in hell I'm going out to buy ingredients. Did I mention that it's COLD? Like, 20 degrees cold. Horrible.

What dessert can possibly meet these strict criterion? It had to be profiteroles. Look how pretty:

Profiteroles are perfect-- they are just fancy enough to make me feel like I've made my kitchen proud, just easy enough that I can unpack and sort my house out in the midst of the cooking, and plenty tasty enough so my friends will be glad to have me back in town!

Just because the end result looks fancy and looks like it's hard to make, don't be afraid! It's all an illusion. If you can use a pastry bag (and you can use a pastry bag, I promise) then you can make a profiterole!

SO, what is a profiterole exactly? It's kind of like a cream puff, except while cream puffs are generally filled with whipped cream and dusted in powdered sugar, profiteroles are filled with pastry cream and doused in chocolate ganache. And because chocolate is always the right answer, I decided that in my profiterole, I would use chocolate cream. And double the chocolate ganache. I can think of no better way to celebrate festivus. Now where did I put my festivus pole?

Ingredients

Puff Pastry: 

      3 large eggs 

      1 large egg white 

      8 T unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 T pieces 

      3 T milk 

      9 T water 

      2 1/4 t sugar 

      1/2 t salt 

      3/4 c all purpose flour

Chocolate Pastry Cream: 

      2 1/4 c half-and-half 

      3 T sugar plus 2 teaspoons 

      5 egg yolks 

      3 T cornstarch

      3 T cold unsalted butter

      1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips 

      3/4 t vanilla 

Chocolate Ganache: 

      6 T half-and-half 

      2/3 c semisweet chocolate chips 

      2 c powdered sugar, sifted

Pastry

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and spray a large baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Preferably cake release or one for baking (the kind with flour in it).

Beat the eggs and egg white in a bowl (or, you know, a measuring cup) and set aside. You should have about 3/4 of a cup. If not, add another egg white, mix, and dump out the excess until you do have 3/4 of a cup.

Bring the butter, milk, water, sugar and salt to a boil over medium heat.

As soon as the butter mixture reaches a boil remove it from the heat and stir in the flour until it's well combined and the dough clings to the sides of the pan. 

Return it to low heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. The mixture should be shiny and there should be a weird film on the bottom of the pan (don't worry, it's just fat).

Immediately transfer the mixture to the bowl of a standing mixture and mix for 30 seconds to a minute to cool slightly so you don't cook your eggs.

Add the eggs in 4 parts, mixing and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Mix until a smooth, sticky paste forms, like so: 

Ok, now for the pastry bag! Don't be scared, it's not that hard! All you need is a pastry bag and a plain tip -- Just fold the top of the pastry bag down to make a cuff, and fit the tip in the pastry bag like this: 

Hold the pastry bag in one hand and put the pastry mixture in the bag using a spatula. Then close the cuffs on the bag and push the pastry down towards the tip. You don't want to fill the bag too much, so you may want to do it in two goes. Twist the top of the pastry bag and squeeze the bag to pipe the pastry into small mounds. Space them about 1/2 an inch or so apart. 

Then dip your finger in a bowl of cold water and smooth the top of the pastries. You'll probably have to repeat the cold water business a few times. 

Bake for 15 minutes (don't open the door! you want it to be a super hot, very consistent temperature). After 15 minutes turn the heat down to 375 and bake for another 8-10 minutes. 

At this point the pastry should be golden brown and fairly firm if you squeeze it. Remove the baking sheet and cut a little slit in the side of the pastry, parallel to the baking sheet. This will allow the pastries to release the steam and crisp up nicely. 

Return the pastries to the warm oven, turn the oven off, and put a wooden spoon in the door to prop it open. Leave the pastries in the still warm oven for about 45 minutes or until they dry out mostly, but are still a little moist in the middle. 

You can store the cooled puffs at room temperature until you need them (for up to 24 hours). When you want to use them, crisp them up in the oven at 300 for about 6 minutes. 

Chocolate Pastry Cream

Heat the half and half, 8 T of sugar, and the salt over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. 

While this is happening, whisk the egg yolks until combined. add the remaining 2 T plus 2 t sugar, whisking until the mixture is creamy. Whisk in the cornstarch until combined and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. 

When the half-and-half mixture is simmering, mix it into your egg mixture to temper the eggs. Return it to the saucepan and bring back to a simmer over medium heat.

Whisk constantly until a few bubbles burst on the surface and the mixture is thick and glossy. It'll take about 30 seconds or so. 

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, chocolate and vanilla. 

Strain the fabulous chocolate mixture through a mesh strainer to remove lumps, then put in a bowl and cover the cream directly with plastic wrap (so it doesn't form a skin because that's just gross). 

Refrigerate at least 3 hours (or make it in advance, up to 2 days early). 

Chocolate Ganache 

This is the easy bit. Take the cream and the chocolate and microwave 45 seconds - 1 minute until the mixture is just steaming. Mix it until smooth and then add the powdered sugar. Ditto with the mixing until smooth. That's it. Seriously. 

Assembly

This bit isn't hard either! Cut the pastries in half (again, parallel to the cookie sheet) and place them on a wire rack placed over a baking sheet or paper towels, or something that will be easy to clean up... it's about to be covered in chocolate.

Use a cookie dough or ice cream scoop (or if you really had fun with the pastry bag, use that!) to scoop the chocolate cream mixture onto the bottom half of the pastry. Cover the pastry with the top half, and drizzle with ganache, letting the excess go through the wire rack (don't worry, you can eat it later). 

That's it! See! So pretty and yet so easy! Enjoy!