The profiterole – eclair’s tiny brother

My dream, and here I will assume not only mine, is to cook all the classical dishes and desserts I have heard so much about.

One of the big ones in my list was eclairs, just because:

I love them so much
They seem hard enough to make, and they make me want to try and make them!

What is the difference between eclairs and profiteroles? It is simply the shape – eclairs are long puff pasty filled with cream (which I will tell you more about in a minute), while the profiteroles are like tiny kisses to me. They are just the same, but in more compact and fun wrap.

So, about the cream (which you will have to make first by the way, so that it has enough time to cool. For my profiteroles I made classical pastry cream, which I took the recipe and technique for from the book Professional Baking by W. Gisslen.

What you need is:

500 ml. milk
65 g. sugar
45 g. egg yolks
65 g. whole eggs
35 g. corn starch
60 g. sugar (again)
30g. butter
8 ml. vanilla extract

How to make it:

In a heavy saucepan or kettle, dissolve the sugar in the milk and bring just to a boil.
Beat the egg yolks and whole eggs in a bowl.
Sift the cornstarch and sugar into the eggs. Beat with the whip until perfectly smooth
Temper the egg mixture by slowly beating in the hot milk in a thin stream.
Return the mixture to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
When the mixture comes to a boil, continue to stir constantly and boil for up to 2 minutes, until the cream has no raw,starchy taste
Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla.
Pour out into a shallow pan. Cover with plastic film placed directly in contact with the surface of the cream to prevent a crust from forming. Cool and chill as quickly as possible.
Whip again before filling the profiteroles.

For the famous dough:

125 ml. water
125 ml. milk
1 tbs of sugar
1/2 pinch of salt
110g. room temp. butter
140g. flour
4-5 eggs, room temp again

How? :

In a pan on medium heat mix the water, milk, sugar salt and butter and keep on the stove until the butter has melted and the mixture starts to boil.
Once it starts boiling, put the whole flour and stir with wooden spoon until it starts forming a ball of dough
Put in a clean bowl and let it chill a little before adding the eggs one by one until the dough becomes smooth and shiny. This might take two, three or four eggs.
Pipe through a pastry bag with wide round tip and you can make them either small balls, or cylinders depending on what you prefer.
Spread some raw egg on top of each with a brush.
If you are baking profiteroles – bake for 25 min on 200 degrees Celsius, if you are making eclairs – bake 28 -30 min at 200 degrees. Do not mix both shapes in the same pan.
After they are done baking, leave them cool completely, poke tiny holes at the bottom or slice in two with a knife and fill with pastry cream.