Profiteroles

From: Baking with Love

 

Serves: 12
Yield: 12 profiteroles
Ready in: 32 mins (25 mins Prep - 7 mins Cook)

150 g (11⁄4 cups) plain flour
250 ml (1 cup) milk, water or white wine
Large pinch of salt
65 g (1⁄4 cup) butter or 4 tablespoons olive, canola or sunflower oil
4–5 eggs

 

1. Sift flour onto a piece of baking paper. Put the milk, water or wine into a saucepan and add the salt and butter or oil. Bring to the boil and cover.

2. Turn off heat as soon as liquid begins to boil. Tip in flour all at once and stir vigorously while heating again until a thick mixture, then a lump, is formed.

3. Remove pan from heat as soon as a white film has formed on the pan base (after about 2 minutes). Place the mixture in a bowl; let cool until lukewarm.

4. Using a wooden spoon or the dough hooks of a hand mixer, beat 1 egg into lukewarm mixture. Then add 3 more eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly into mixture.

5. As soon as the pastry is very shiny and falls off the spoon or dough hooks in fairly solid peaks, it is ready. The fifth egg will not be needed in this case.

6. Using 2 spoons, place small ovals of pastry on baking tray by the spoonful, leaving about 3 cm distance between them. Use tablespoons for large profiteroles and teaspoons for small ones.

7. For large pastries, bake at 220°C on the middle rack for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 180°C and bake an additional 5–10 minutes. For small pastries, bake at 220 degrees C on the middle rack for 8–10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 180°C and bake an additional 2–5 minutes. Do NOT open the oven door during the first high-temperature baking or the profiteroles will collapse.

8. Remove the profiteroles to a wire rack. Fill the cooled pastries with sweetened whipped cream or a savoury filling.