Recipes From France Food

Profiterole

16 Cream Puff Pastries
one recipe Pastry Cream

3 oz (100 gr) semi-sweet chocolate, diced
1/2 cup (120 cc) whipping cream

Cut in half the puff pastries. Fill them with the pastry cream custard, using a teaspoon or pastry bag. Arrange the puff pastries in serving dishes in a shape of a small pyramid. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Pour the chocolate on the puff pastries, decorate with the whipping cream.


Cream Puff Dough

The cream puff is believed to have originated in Italy. When Catherine de Medici moved to France in 1533 she brought with her to France her entire court, which included her chefs. Her head chef by the name of Panterelli made gâteaux with a dried hot dough he invented, called pâte à Panterelli. The pastry later became know as pâte à Popelin, and Popelins were a form of cake made in the Middle Ages in the shape of large puffs. Perfected by Avice and later by Antoine Carême, this dough became the same recipe for choux pastry as it is used today.

The Choux Pastries dough, called panade, is the only dough that is cooked before being baked. It starts with simple dough of water, butter, flour, and eggs. During baking the eggs help form a thin crust on the outside, while the steam trapped inside expands giving to the pastries a typical puffed hollow shape.
Improperly called bigne’ in Italian, the Pâte à Choux are a simple type of pastries that can be easily transformed in many, sometime spectacular, preparations.
The pastries can be filled and assembled to form Profiterols, Croquenbouche (stacks of profiteroles glued together with caramel), gâteau St.-Honoré, etc.

In Italy Choux Pastries filled with custard are often stacked in a tall pyramidal shape. Chocolate is poured on the stack and decorated with whipped cream.

In spite of the simple preparation the Pâte à Choux requires a few precautions:

1) The quantity of egg should be just right. If the recipe calls for 4 eggs I add the first 3 and the last a little at the time in order to control the consistency. Too much egg will cause the panade to be too liquid and unable to hold the shape when is baked.

2) The panade needs to be cooked carefully till is smooth and dry. If it is undercooked the ingredients could be un-evenly mixed, and it would retain too much moisture.

3) Do the preparation very quickly. Piping and baking the panade immediately when is still warm will help lightness and expansion.

4) Bake the pastries until they are crisp, dry and golden. If the pastries are undercooked they could collapse when they are removed from the oven. Also it is preferable to cool the pastries slowly in the oven.


Ingredients

1 cup (230 cc) water
4 tablespoons (55 gr) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (140 gr) all purpose flour
4 large eggs


Pastry Cream

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups (500 cc) milk
1 slice of lemon rind

Place egg yolks in a bowl. Add sugar. Whisk vigorously to combine. Sift in the flour a little at the time to avoid lumps. Whisk thoroughly until fully combined before adding more. Combine vanilla. Put the milk in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the slice of lemon rind. When the milk comes to a boil, remove the rind. Stir slowly and steadily the milk into the egg mix. Transfer to a saucepan on medium-low heat. Bring slowly to a boil stirring constantly in the same direction. Do not over-boil, but keep on the stove until the cream starts thickening. Remove from the stove and let cream cool at room temperature. Stir occasionally, to avoid the formation on the surface of a thicker patina.