Mar 20, 2008

Profiterole or Cream Puffs

Profiterole 1

Profiterole, or cream puffs if you make them biger, are delectable French pastries made out of choux pastry and pastry cream(or some other filling).
Cut them, or fill them with a filling tool without cutting them, fill them any way you like, but you are always bound to have an ellegant dessert, and one much loved by kids! OK, kids all ages! Fine!!! :)))

Profiterole 4

I have been making these beauties since I was 14 years old. I started out with a recipe that called for oil, to then switch to margarine, and now to butter, so the choice is yours, you can substitute butter in the following recipe with margarine, or oil.

For the pastry:
½ cup water
½ cup milk
100 g butter (7 Tbsp) (if you chose oil, put 1/3 cup)
½ Tsp salt
1 Tsp of sugar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
½ Tsp of baking powder

For the pastry cream (updated):
1 liter milk
5 egg yolks
4 Tbsp all purpose flour
3 Tbsp corn starch
10 Tbsp of sugar
½ Tsp vanilla extract
1 stick of unsalted butter or margarine

Combine water, milk, butter, salt and sugar, and bring to a boil. Take it off heat, quickly add baking powder, and flour, return to heat, and mix it vigorously. Lower the heat, and mix for a minute, no more.

Transfer to a bowl, add 2 eggs, and mix until well blended then add, one by one, the other two eggs, and mix until you get nice, silky texture. Now it’s ready to use, so you can pipe it onto a baking sheet, making sure they are separated about 1 1/4 inch, and bake @ 400 F until golden.

To make the cream, take 150 ml of the liter of milk, and mix it well with egg yolks, sugar, flour, corn starch, and vanilla extract. Bring remainder of the milk (850 ml) to boil, and then add the cream mixture to it, stirring continuously for few minutes. When it is separating from the sauce pan, transfer to a bowl, and let it cool down mixing it occasionally. Mix in butter, fill the pastries, and serve them cooled, dusted with sugar or drizzled with chocolate.
Note: Most other recipes I have seen don’t call for baking powder, but I have been doing it this way for soooo long, and I hate to exclude it, because I always get great results : )

11 comments:

Shelby said...

My favorite dessert ever. There is something about those eggy puffs that is so good! I made these for my son and future DIL's engagement party last year. These are her favorite too! Great photos!

Melita said...

Thanks HoneyB! There is something about them for sure; for me it's how light they are, and then you get to fill them with whatever you want...

chriesi said...

This is something I can not resist.

cakewardrobe said...

I absolutely love cream puffs! I'm always so afraid to make them! You have a lovely picture of them. I love the lighting!

Anonymous said...

I rarely eat this dessert because in Italy it is not so popular, so i never tried to prepare it, but this post inspired me...

Paola

Fireblossom said...

Mercy, woman! I started a diet yesterday, what on earth am I doing here? LOL. These look to die for. And, what a lovely blog altogether!

Anonymous said...

My favorite dessert! Who doesn't like it anyway?! In Azerbaijan we usually call them eclaires and they are pretty popular. I made them once but they didn't turn out as nicely as yours:) You have a helpful picture tutorial, too.

Anonymous said...

I'll take a dozen or two or three. They look beautiful and would be perfect for my staff meeting next week. Just delicious!

Bake with heart said...

this look really good anyway it's my favorite dessert for my family :)

Mmmhhhh kolaci said...

Okkkk....I just got done making these! It was my first attempt and worked out great. However, I need to invest in some more sophisticated baking equipment....I used a ziplock bag to form the cream puffs.Oh and I quadrupled the amount so my kitchen was a cream puff factory :)
Thanks for posting the recipe!

Melita said...

Glad they turned out great, Muradija!

I am not exactly equiped with all the gadgets either; ziplock works wonders ;)

 
SITE DESIGN BY DESIGNER BLOGS