When someone says "profiteroles" it's usually followed by a "Yum!" reaction from me. Seeing profiteroles (even a picture of one) is usually followed by salivation. Yes I LOVE profiteroles! However, every time I've tried to make it, I'd fail miserably. I had never successfully made choux pastry. I've been through numerous recipes, even a Gordon Ramsey recipe where I watched his video on YouTube! Granted after every failed attempt, I'd sulk until I'd forgotten about my failure. 

In recent times, I've resorted to just buying it or getting others to make it. Especially at Christmas, my cousin Evelyn would bring a batch to the family gathering. Secretly, it was probably the one thing that motivated me to come to these functions.

During the year, my friend's mum would kindly make us a batch occasionally for our dinner parties / board game nights. Impressed every time we saw that platter of cream-filled chocolate covered sweet morsels, I finally got my hands on her recipe. I tried it out and SUCCESS! It was taken from a recipe book supplied with a kitchen electrical appliance of some sort. Who would have thought those picture-less books would have such good recipes!? Oh well, I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm grateful! I'm not going to try any other recipe. I'm not going to try and modify this recipe. That's it! It works and here it is, drop the mic, shut it down. The search ends here!

Huge thank you to Pete and his mum for this recipe! 

Makes about 30 (but this will vary depending on how big/small you like them)
Choux Pastry
Ingredients
80g butter
1 cup water
1 cup plain flour, sifted
4 eggs

Method
1. Preheat over to 220C. Line two oven trays with baking paper.

2. Place butter and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to just a boil slowly. 



3. Add flour to the butter water mixture all at once and beat/stir with a wooden spoon until dough forms and leaves the side of the pan. 



Note: Using a wooden spoon doesn't fluctuate the temperature of the mixture. This is important for this recipe.

4. Remove dough from heat and cool slightly. Place dough in a large mixing/stand-mixer bowl. and beat with the paddle attachment on medium for about a minute. This will further cool the mixture. 

5. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. You will notice the texture of the mixture change after adding each egg. After the fourth egg, it will be stiff and shiny. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat for another minute.



6. Fill mixture in a piping bag with a large nozzle (or no nozzle). Pipe rounds of dough onto prepared baking trays. Using wet fingers, push down the peaks of the rounds to avoid them getting more burnt than the rest. If you don't have a piping bag, you can drop tablespoons of dough onto the tray.



7. Bake for 15 minutes at 220C. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DURING THIS TIME. Reduce the heat to 160C and make for another 15 minutes. Turn oven off and make a small slit in each puff and leave in the oven to cool, keeping the oven door open a-jar. 



Creme Patisserie (custard filling)
Ingredients
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup corn starch

Method
1. Place milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.

2. I a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale. Add corn starch and whisk to combine.

3. Slowly pour in hot milk mixture to the egg mixture and continue to whisk. Pour mixture back into pan and keep whisking over medium-high heat until thick. This may take about 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat, cover surface with plastic wrap and set aside to cool. 

Ganache
Ingredients
150g Dark melting chocolate, roughly chopped
70ml thicken cream

Method
1. Heat cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until just boiled. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Assembling the Profiteroles
Once both custard and choux puffs are cool, fill custard in a piping bag and pipe to fill the choux puffs using the slits you made earlier. 



Gently spoon chocolate mixture over the top of each puff. Set aside or in fridge to allow the chocolate to set. 

Serve fresh! 

While staying in France with my cousin, she gave and showed me how to make, her mother-in-law's recipe for Spätzle. I’ve tried to make it before from a recipe on the internet which resulted in utter failure. After being shown what to do and some secret tips, I can make it a bit better now. I must admit it's still not perfect, especially, how it looks, however, it tastes awesome! I just cooked it for the family, and my niece went for thirds!!!

I'm still working to get the consistency right and I shall be updating this post once I have it down. I thought I should get this blog post up so you can give it a go too and tell me your thoughts. How would you improve it? Feel free to comment below.

I've put the full recipe below, however, you can half it for a smaller group. The recipe below will feed 7 to 8 very hungry people.

You may need to get a Spätzle press or a potato ricer, that has holes at the bottom which you can press the mixture through. This is the one I have by OXO:


Ingredients
1 kg plain flour
4 level tspn salt
8 eggs
600 to 900ml of water (best to use 50/50 sparkling to still water if available) *this range is by feel to get the right consistency (work in progress)
2 Tblspn oil

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Allow to stand at least an hour. For best results, 4 to 5 hours. Batter should be very thick, like pancake mixture after left standing. Before it would be a bit runnier and less elastic.

Batter before 5 hours of resting

Batter after 5 hours of resting - much more elastic-y

2. In a large pot, fill to three quarters full of water. Bring to just before simmering. When bubbles start floating to the top.

3. Using the Spätzle press, push through mixture into water and stir slightly. (Or use a spoon as previously mentioned.) Allow to cook for about 5 minutes. The noodles will float to the top. Remove from water, drain, run under cold water (like pasta), the put on a clean tea towel to absorb water.

4.  Repeat for remaining batter.

5. Just before serving, fry in a bit of butter til golden. Serve with some hearty stew of choice. Goulash or stroganoff would be my stew of choice.