The French call them “a useful trifle” and it is they who own the invention of these wonderful cakes, however, and choux pastry too. The Italians lovingly call them “pepito” and stuff with anything: from the usual cream and ending with complex puff fillings of fish, meat, vegetables and sauces. This article will tell you how to cook choux pastry for profiteroles, and recipes with photos and recommendations will help to cope with this without any problems.
Five golden rules of custard dough
Choux pastry for profiteroles is prepared in the same way as for eclairs, because in fact it is the same product, only smaller and round in shape (eclairs are oval).
Therefore, you should know the basic principles for preparing this type of dough:
- The dishes in which it is brewed should not be aluminum or copper (such vintage pots are increasingly found among fans of antiquity). And a wooden spoon should be taken.
- Choux pastry for profiteroles during cooking should be mixed until its temperature drops to 30-35 degrees. Otherwise, during baking, the products will not rise properly.
- Replacing the oil with cheap margarine or spread is not worth it, profiteroles will taste “rubbery” with an unappealing color, and they will rise poorly. It also depends on the proper number of eggs: no need to try to put less in the dough than indicated by the recipe.
- Considering that the size of chicken eggs varies, it is necessary to monitor the consistency of the dough: it should not be liquid, so during the kneading process you sometimes have to put one egg less so as not to turn the dough into slurry, which simply spreads out in a baking dish. In this case, the eggs must be at room temperature, and not from the refrigerator, otherwise again the dough will be spoiled and will not be swollen with delicious balls with a cavity inside, and thirsty to fill with filling.
- In no case do not knead the dough with a blender or mixer, only manually with a wooden spoon or spatula, although you can use plastic ones.
Dough in accordance with GOST
The classic choux dough recipe for eclairs and profiteroles looks like this:
- one glass of water and flour;
- 5 eggs;
- one hundred grams of butter;
- salt on the tip of a knife.
The taste of the finished product is obtained as in the eclairs of the late eighties, a real one, not spoiled by sweeteners, flavor enhancers and preservatives. I want to eat and eat, even despite the calorie content!
Step cooking
Choux pastry for profiteroles is prepared according to the same principle as all types of such dough:
- Boil water with oil and salt, make the fire smaller and constantly stirring to pour flour into it, actively wielding a spoon. The mass should turn into a plastic glossy lump of uniform consistency, there should not be small lumps of stray flour.
- Turn off the fire and continue stirring the dough every minute (several energetic movements with a spoon), cool it to body temperature.
- Next, beat in the egg - mix thoroughly until uniform, beat in the egg again - knead and so on until the dough is ready. It should not blur on the dishes, but at the same time it should not be a dense lump either.
Milk recipe
Confectioners-experimenters improved custard dough for profiteroles and, for special cases, make it on the basis of milk:
- 150 ml of fresh milk and water;
- six eggs;
- 170 grams of flour;
- 1 tbsp. spoon without top sugar;
- a pinch of salt;
- 120 grams of butter.
To make the dough, milk is mixed with water, sugar and salt, as well as chopped butter into small pieces and brought to a boil.
Further, with constant stirring, flour is poured, the dough is brewed and thoroughly kneaded to a smooth lump. Then the fire of the stove should be turned off, and the dough should be cooled at room temperature with occasional stirring, maintaining its freshness.
When the required temperature is reached, one at a time drive in the main ingredient, because what is choux pastry for profiteroles without eggs? They give the test such airiness and volume.
Each time we mix the mass until a homogeneous consistency: we use all the eggs according to the recipe, and then we place the cakes on a baking sheet and bake.
Chocolate dough
For lovers of chocolate baking, there is a recipe: products from it are obtained in a characteristic color, thanks to cocoa powder. In combination with chocolate cream filling, such cakes will become the dream of any chocolate gourmet! How to cook this kind of dough? First you need to prepare the ingredients:
- 300 ml of water;
- eight eggs;
- 150 grams of butter;
- 1 \ 4 tsp salt;
- 40 grams of cocoa powder;
- 280 grams of flour.
From such a quantity of products there are many profiteroles - enough for a whole party, so if baking is prepared for a small family of two or three people, then the amount can be halved by following the recipe.
How to cook?
- To prepare a custard dough for profiteroles, as the recipe says, first we sift the flour and mix it with cocoa, if necessary, you can sift it again, saturating it with oxygen as much as possible, which will positively affect the quality of the finished product.
- Boil water with oil and salt, add half the flour and mix thoroughly, making the fire of the stove weak.
- When the mass becomes homogeneous, add the remainder of the flour mixture, mix thoroughly again, removing small lumps and turn off the stove.
- For five minutes, continue to grind the dough, and then reduce the activity, stirring it once every one or two minutes. Continue this way until the dough has cooled to body temperature.
- Then add eggs one at a time, each time actively mixing the dough until smooth, put profiteroles on a baking sheet from a pastry bag with a curly nozzle (“star”) and bake until cooked in the oven.
What you need to know about baking products?
Cooking profiteroles from custard dough is a fairly responsible action that requires knowledge of the technology. The further fate of baking, or rather its quality, depends on the correctly selected temperature, product size and baking time. On the issue of heat treatment, choux pastry is as capricious as biscuit: it categorically does not accept temperature changes, which means that you can’t open the oven door for at least half an hour from the start of the profiteroles bookmark.
Otherwise, the dough will settle, stick together, and your cakes will look more like cakes than balloons.
You should also know that having taken out the finished products from the oven, they should be laid out on a wire rack until completely cooled. This is necessary to maintain a tight crust. If they cakes cool, piled up in a heap or, even worse, covered with a cloth, the released steam will make them soft on the outside. And this will not affect their appearance in the best way, and filling profiteroles with filling will not be so convenient.