Profiteroles (Choux Pastry)

With its origin in France, this dainty pastry has another fancy French name -- chou à la crème. But most of us should be more accustomed to calling it profiteroles, or simply cream puffs. It has a light pastry shell made from pâte à choux (choux pastry), encasing various sweet fillings, sometimes with a crispy top when baked with a thin piece of craquelin or sometimes with a crisp chocolate shell when dipped into tempered chocolate. 

I grew up with cream puffs from neighbourhood bakeries in Singapore. My childhood version is simply filled with thick custard, probably made from custard powder. No crispy top. No chocolate shell. Nothing fancy, but this simple puff captures the heart of many Singaporeans. As you bite into the chilled puffs, the cold custard slowly melts away in your mouth, cooling you down as you chew. The perfect snacks when the weather gets too hot, which in Singapore, is everyday! 

I was already in my twenties when I first had a profiterole that's filled with lightened crème pâtissière. And I love it even more. I even had a croquembouche that has choux filled with an alcoholic bourbon mousse at my wedding. Our guests loved it so much, they devoured the whole tower before the wedding photographer can manage a photo!

Ladurée's recipe is the only choux pastry recipe I've worked with. While I like its taste, I had issues with parts of its instructions. However, since I'm not professionally trained, I acknowledge that the problem might lie with me instead of the recipe. Hence, my adjustments will be in pink for your reference, and its explanation will follow through in the section below.

Profiteroles (makes about 25 small puffs)
(recipe from Ladurée: Sucré The Recipes)

Choux Pastry
 120g     Cake flour
   10g     Caster sugar  a pinch of salt

 100g     Milk
 100g     Water
   80g     Butter, unsalted
      4     Eggs, cold (actual amt. of eggs varies each time, from 3-5)

Crème Diplomat or Lightened Crème Pâtissière (or other preferred fillings)

 Crème Pâtissière 
 150g     Heavy cream, chilled (aka whipping cream or double cream)

Preheat oven to 180°C (190°C)

1. Sift together the cake flour, sugar and salt. Reserve.

2. In a small sauce pot, bring the milk, water and butter to a boil. Remove from heat, and add all of the sifted flour mixture at once. 

3. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or a heat resistant spatula until a dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the pot. (Put it back on low heat and continue cooking the dough for about 1-2 min) Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

4. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each is fully incorporated before adding the next. (You may need anywhere from 3-5 eggs, sometimes half an egg. It will look separated but keep mixing and it will come together)

5. Transfer batter into a piping bag fitted with a 10mm plain round tip. Holding the bag vertically, pipe rounds of ~4cm onto lined baking sheet, leaving a space of ~1" between each. 

• Moisten a pastry brush or fingers with water (or eggwash if you have leftover from step 4), gently dab the pointy ends into rounded tops.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10mins until they rose, then jam open the oven door very slightly (~3mm) with the handle of a wooden spoon, to allow for steam to escape. Continue baking for a further 20-30mins with the door slightly ajar, until the pastries are golden. (I baked at my preheated temperature for 25-30mins with no opening of doors) Let cool completely on wired rack.

7. Whipped the whipping cream to stiff peaks and gently whipped the prepared creme pat just to loosen it up. Fold both mixtures together and transfer the lightened creme pat into a piping bag fitted with a filling tip (Wilton #230).

8. Make a small slit in the bottom of each pastry and pipe in the lightened creme pat. Chilled in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Thoughts: It was about 2 years ago when I first tried making profiteroles. I didn't do any reading or research before my virgin attempt and it was a total flop, literally. I followed the recipe to a T and added 4 eggs as stated. The batter was loose and didn't hold its shape, but of course I didn't know better, so I proceeded to baking them. They did start rising at about the 10mins mark, so I cranked open the oven door as instructed. I watched in horror as they started deflating and stayed as a flat pancake abomination throughout the rest of the baking. I still tried one regardless; the interior was moist and chewy, it was horrible. 

Sore from my failure, I studied other recipes, read up on chef forums, understood the science behind before making adjustments to the recipe. And... my 2nd attempt was a glorious success! That taught me to always do my "homework" before attempting something new. Here are the explanations:

• I find the original temperature a little low to let the pastry rise properly, some recipes uses 200°C, some starts high and ends low. 200°C browns too fast for me, 190°C works beautifully
• Cooking the dough for a further 1-2mins draws extra moisture out of the dough so more eggs can be incorporated. More eggs = more fat = yummy pastries
• The amount of eggs used are never the same every single time. It's not only dependent on the size of the eggs used, but also how much moisture has been cooked out of the dough in the previous step
• Like macaronage, you have to judge the consistency of the batter and decides if it has taken enough eggs. The batter should be smooth and glossy, it's still somewhat stiff but you can "cut" through it with ease with a spatula and should falls reluctantly (in about 3s) in a large blob when lifted
• As an insurance, I prefer to use cold eggs to prevent potential curdling, in case the dough hasn't cooled enough. It's optional, and room temperature eggs can be used if you ensure the dough is cool enough (eggs coagulate around 62°C)
• Rounding the pointy ends of piped batter will result in a beautiful round top when baked, else they will burn before the pastries are done
• Letting steam escape by opening the oven door during the early stage of baking is risky as cold air may rush into the oven, dropping the oven temperature too much. The pastry may have risen, but the batter has not dry enough for the top to be light and the internal structure to be "sturdy", hence collapsing on itself
• Some recipes swear by making a slit in the pastries as soon as they are removed from the oven to let the trapped steam escape. I've tried both slitting and not slitting, but it didn't seem to make any significant difference (for me at least) so I prefer to slit them when they've cooled and save my fingers from burning

Seems like a lot of points to note, doesn't it? But once you've understand the process, it will come to you naturally. It's annoying to take note of so much even before baking, but I'm more annoyed when my bakes fail.

For this post, I chose to slice open the choux so that the creme pat can be seen. Plus, strawberries are in season and they are the classic combination with cream; how can I resist not using them?! Apart from creme pat, you can fill them with any other fillings you want, Salted Caramel cream, Lemon curd or even the Strawberry Rhubarb curd I shared last week. Another very popular filling in Singapore is fresh durian meat, which happen to be in season now too! I managed to smuggle bring some back so a few friends got to savour the heavenly taste we all missed. I like to stuff the choux pastry to the brim, and make them look as if they are about to burst from the durian goodness! Shiok to the max!

Regardless what filling you used, these little cream pouches are so endearing to look at, you'll love it even more when devouring them. Very moreish, I find it hard to stop at one!

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