Profiterole joy

Have been feeling a bit emotionally delicate over the last week, so I decided to make myself some profiteroles with custard filling as a comfort food.

Oh, the joy! Crisp, slightly crunchy outsides with a thin layer of fluffy goodness inside, and at the heart - smooth, eggy custardy joy. My sister is also a bit of a custard freak, though my father prefers them with just some whipped cream and chocolate dipped.

Much love to Nigella’s “How to be a domestic goddess” for this foolproof recipe.

Little packages of joy

Pâte A Choux ingredients

200g plain flour
350ml water
150g unsalted butter, diced
Pinch of salt
4 large eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C

2. Sieve the flour into a container smaller than the saucepan you intend on using. Put water, butter and salt into the saucepan and heat till the butter has melted and the water’s just beginning to boil.

3. Immediately remove from heat and beat in the flour with a wooden spoon until the dough comes smoothly together. Put the pan back on the heat for roughly 30 seconds, continuing to beat till the dough comes away from the sides and forms a smooth ball.

4. Beat in the eggs gradually, until the dough is smooth, shiny, and soft enough to pipe but still firm enough to hold it’s shape. Be careful, I usually end up using only 3 1/2 eggs and not the whole 4.

5. Either use a piping bag or two metal soup spoons, shape little spheres onto a lined baking tray, leaving 5cm between each sphere. Bake in the oven for 15-20mins, till they have puffed up nicely and develop a lovely golden colour. Remove from the oven and poke a hole with a skewer (I use my lovely thin metal chopsticks for this) to let the steamout so they don’t become a soggy mess.

Custard ingredients

250ml milk
250ml double cream
6 large egg yolks
100g caster sugar
30g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

(optional, if you want the burnt sugar taste to your custard)
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp water

1. Warm milk and cream in a saucepan. While that’s warming, beat the yolks and sugar till creamy, then whisk in the flour. Stir the heated milk into the egg mixture till smooth. Pour back into the saucepan and stir gently over a low heat till the custard thickens. Add vanilla and set aside

:: this section is optional, only if you want burnt sugar custard as opposed to regular custard ::

2. Burn your sugar by putting the 2tbsp sugar and 2tsp water into a little pan and turning the heat to high, letting the sugar and water turn to a dark brown caramel.

3. Beat the caramel into the custard, pouring in a thin stream till combined. Pour into a bowl, place a wet piece of greaseproof paper over the top to preventÂ?a skin from forming, and leave to cool.

custard