Profiteroles with chocolate sauce
Airy choux pastry filled with creamy goodness, drizzled in a rich chocolate sauce. The perfect combo of crisp, velvety, and decadent, delivering pure chocolatey bliss in every mouthful.
For this recipe you will need a large baking sheet and a piping bag fitted with a 0.5–1cm/¼–½in plain nozzle.
Ingredients
For the profiteroles
- 75²µ/2½´Ç³ú plain flour
- pinch salt
- 55g/2oz cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 2 free-range eggs, beaten
For the chocolate sauce
- 30g/1oz butter
- 125²µ/4½´Ç³ú dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into squares
For the cream filling
- 300ml/10fl oz double cream
- 1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Take a large sheet of baking paper, fold it half and crease it down the middle, then unfold. Sift the flour and salt onto the baking paper.
Put the butter in a saucepan with 150ml/5fl oz cold water. Place over a medium heat – ideally you want the water to come to the boil just as the butter has melted. Turn off the heat as soon as the water comes to the boil, then, using the greaseproof paper as a chute, add all the flour to the pan in one go.
Using a spoon in your other hand, vigorously beat in the flour to make a thick, lump-free paste. It should form a ball that leaves the sides of the pan clean. (You can use an electric whisk to do this if you prefer.)
Transfer the mixture to a plate and leave to cool for 10–15 minutes, then put it back into the cool pan or a bowl.
Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, fully incorporating each batch before adding any more. Keep doing this until all the egg is used and you have a smooth, glossy paste.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper and sprinkle it with a few drops of water. Using 2 teaspoons (or a piping bag), drop teaspoonfuls of the paste into the sheet, allowing space around them as they will puff up during cooking. The mixture should yield 16–20 profiteroles.
Bake for 10 minutes, then increase the heat to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and cook for a further 15 minutes or so until they are well-risen and golden-brown. Remove from the oven.
Pierce the base of each and make a small hole the size of the tip of a piping nozzle. Put the profiteroles back in the oven for 2 minutes, holes uppermost, to allow the insides to dry out a little. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
To make the chocolate sauce, place a heatproof bowl over a pan of just simmering water – the base of the bowl shouldn’t touch the water. Add the butter and chocolate, then stir together until melted, smooth and glossy.
Whisk the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Spoon the sweetened cream into a piping bag, fitted with a 0.5–1cm/¼–½in plain nozzle, then fill each profiterole.
Serve the profiteroles drizzled with warm chocolate sauce.
