Profiteroles

This is one of my son favorites snack. The happiness of watching him enjoying every bites of the profiteroles is hard to describe. If he would eat the profiteroles like having his normal meal that would be good. 

I think not only my son, everyone including adult would love to eat this cute and delicate dessert, I would! 

Again, I dig out my very old recipe for the choux pastry as well as the pattieserie cream. I still find this recipe is the best for me. The pastry puff up nicely and stay soft even until the 3rd day from the fridge. The feeling of the first bite is so wonderful when the cold cream ozzing out from the pastry. Arhh... try it!

Recipe for 20 puffs:

For the Puff: 

70g plain flour

3 beaten eggs

100g water

60g unsalted butter

Pinch of sugar and salt

For the pattieserie cream: 

3 egg yolks

200ml milk

60g sugar

20g plain flour

10g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the puff, boil the water, butter and pinch of sugar and salt in a cooking pan until its bubbling. Off the heat, immediately add in all the plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon until well combine and become a smooth dough.

Add half of the beaten eggs and mix (this stage is a bit hard work but please patient and keep stirring until the egg mix into the dough.) Once the eggs completely mix with the dough, you will find it quite dry and hardly to mix. Add the beaten eggs little by little into the dough and continue mixing. You might not finish using all  the beaten eggs. You will need to have a smooth and thick consistency of the mixture. When the spoon lift up the mixture, it should drop back to the pan slowly and form a transparent smooth skin from the spoon to the pan. The mixture should not too dry or too wet.

Once you get the right consistency of mixture, transfer it into a piping bag and pipe out about 20 dollops of mixture on a baking tray with baking paper.

Dip your fingers with some water and gently touch the tip of the mixture. This is to prevent it over burning on the top while it's baking in the oven. Then spray some water on the mixture surface. (Not too much)

Bake at middle rack of 200'C preheated oven for 15 minutes until it puff up then turn the temperature to 170'C and bake for another 15 minutes. (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR DURING BAKING) 

Transfer the puff on a wire rack to cool down.

For the pattieserie cream, boil the milk with sugar until sugar dissolve but not boiling. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks and flour to a thick paste but no lumps. Add two tablespoon of milk if you find it too dry to mix.

Pour the dissolve warm sugar milk into the egg yolks mixture, pour little by little and mix with a hand whisk until everything combine. Then, pour back the mixture into the cooking pan. Cook with very low heat and keep stirring until it thicken.

Once the mixture is thicken, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the heat slightly cool down but slightly warm. Then add in the butter and vanilla extract. Continue stirring until well combine.

Transfer the cream into a plate and cover with cling film. Make sure the cling film touch on the mixture, this is to prevent it from skin forming on its surface. Chill the cream in the fridge and ready to use.

Melt 100g of dark chocolate with 100g cream in a sauce pan. Stir and combine well.

To assemble the profiterole, poke a small hole with a knife or chopstick on top or side of each puffs. Fill the cream into a piping bag and squeeze into each puffs. Coated the top with melted chocolate and chill in the fridge for few hours before serve. Best serve cold within 2  to 3 days provided keeping well in an airtight container in the fridge.

Praline Chocolate Cake ll

After many years playing with variety of cake recipes, I would still like to stick with certain recipes that suit my taste buds as well as my loves one just like this praline chocolate cake. We had the first taste 10 years back and till now we still miss it and find it is the best. I just realised it hasn't occurred in my menu ever since four years back. As this cake needed lots of effort, it will only be made in special occasion. I took an ppopportunity of a cell group  birthday party  to make a huge one recently, a big round 10 inches approximately 3.3kg praline chocolate cake.

This cake again won over everyone taste buds. It's well accepted no matter the youngest to the oldest and even a non appetite person ask for half ended up eat a whole piece of cake. I was not in the party but all good feedback  was leaving after all and I believe the wonderful cake is unforgettble one.

Thank you for a cell member reserved a piece for me and so I able to take a picture of the inner part of the cake as well as tasted it myself. I'm quite happy with the result as the praline taste very well with the cream, chocolate and soft layers of sponge cake.

Recipes for 10 inches round cake

Ingredient for 10 inches cocoa sponge:

254g egg whole eggs

40g egg yolks

169g Caster sugar

26g sugar syrup

1.25g salt

133g plain flour

1.25g baking soda

Vegetable oil 40g

26g cocoa powder

26g fresh milk

Heat up corn oil at low flame, turn off flame, add in cocoa powder and mix well, set aside.

Beat whole egg and egg yolk, sugar and salt on HIGH speed till foamy.

Add in glucose and continue beat on MEDIUM speed till double in volume and ribbon-like.

Sift in cake flour and baking soda, beat on LOW speed till mix well.

With a spatula, take 1/3 of the batter and mix it with oil cocoa mixture, fill in this mixture with the remaining batter, combine well. Last add in milk and mix well.

Pour batter in a 10” round baking pan and bake for 35mins at 180c.

Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould.

Ingredient for 10 inches plain sponge cake:

5 whole eggs

150g caster sugar

133g plain flour

50g unsalted butter (melted)

Beat the whole eggs till yolk and white mixed together. Place under a double boiler keep whisking the eggs and gradually add in caster sugar in three batches. When the sugar dissolved and the batter is slightly thicken remove from the double boiler. Continue to whisk the batter until pale in color, double the volume as well as thicken. 

Gradually add in the shifted flour and fold gently and slowly with spatula. After the flour well cooperated with the batter, add in the melted butter. Combine well and pour into a baking pan. The baking pan should be lined with baking paper and grease and coated with flour at around the baking pan. 

Spray some water a thet batter and bake at 180C preheated oven for 30 minutes then turn the heat down to 170C bake until the top golden brown and the sponge cake spring back when lightly press by a finger at the center.

Ingredients for the praline paste:

120g whole hazelnuts

150g caster sugar

150g water

Lightly toast the whole hazelnuts on a baking sheet.

In a stainless steel sauce pan, combine caster sugar and water. Do not stir. The mixture will reduce. Allow to caramelize and you will see the sides start to color first. Once the sugar reduction has caramelized, remove from heat. Add the lightly toasted hazelnut to the caramel then stir briskly, this should be done very quickly as the sugar reduction will start to harden. The heat from the caramel will warm the nuts and allow the hazelnuts essence to permeate. The nut caramel is then poured onto a greased marble slab. Allow the caramel to cool. Once cool use a spatula to spread and press the nut caramel in an even layer. Flip the cooling layer over. Allow to harden. Use a rolling pin or some other weighty tool to break up the hardened nut caramel. The pieces should be small enough to fit in your food processor. Pulse the food processor until the pieces begin to smooth until a smooth paste.

Chocolate praline truffle (makes 22 pieces):

130g 70% Dark chocolate

125ml cream

25g unsalted butter

some toasted almond nibs

Add the cream and dark chocolate in a clean bowl and melt on a double boiler. Once the chocolate melted add in the butter until well combine. Once the mixture cool down.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes until a thick consistency. 

Place the chocolate mixture into a piping bag and squeeze out equal amount of round chocolate on a tray with baking parchment.

Chill in the fridge until harden. 

Coat the balm of hands with sugar powder and roll each chocolate into ball shape. Chill in the fridge until set.

Coat each chocolate truffles with praline paste then coated with toasted almond nibs. Chill in the fridge until ready to use.

Chocolate mix nuts pieces:

100g dark compound chocolate

Some mix nuts 

a handfuls of shelled pistachio

a handfuls of skinned hazelnuts

a handfuls of whole almond

a handfuls of walnuts or pecan

Melt the dark chocolate on a double boiler. Toast all the nuts in a 160C preheated oven until lightly brown. Roughly chop into small tiny pieces. Add them into the melted chocolate and spread evenly on a tray with baking parchment. Chill in the fridge until harden. Break the chocolate nuts into pieces and store in a container. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Garnishing:

500ml whipping cream

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoon sugar powder

150g ready made praline paste

350ml whipping cream

150ml cream

50g 70% Dark chocolate

some toasted almond nibs

Some baileys for brushing on the cocoa sponge

some cointreau for brushing on the plain sponge

Whip up the 500ml whipping cream with vanilla extract and sugar powder until thicken. Chill in the fridge while preparing others cream.

Whip the 350ml whipping cream until slightly thicken then add the ready made praline paste. Whip until thicken.  Chill in the fridge while preparing the chocolate cream.

Melt the chocolate and cream in a sauce pan at very low heat. Turn off the heat after the chocolate melted and stir until well combined. Set aside and start to assemble the cake.

Slice the plain sponge and cocoa sponge into three equal sheets. You will only need two sheets of cocoa sponge cake and two sheets of plain sponge cake. Keep leftover in the freezer for future other purposes. 

Place a piece of cocoa sponge on a cake board, brush some baileys on the sponge then spread a layer of the vanilla cream on the cocoa sponge evenly. It's better to use the piping bag to pipe out the cream, that would be much even. Place a plain sponge on the vanilla cream then brush with some cointreau and pipe out the praline cream on top. Place another cocoa sponge on the praline cream with baileys brushed and pipe out the vanilla cream. Place the last piece of sponge cake with cointreau brushed and pipe out a thin layer of praline cream and chill in the freezer until the cream has set. Spread the vanilla cream around the top and and side of the whole cake then chill in the freezer for 30 minutes. Coat some toasted almond nibs at the side of the cake. Then, pour the chocolate cream on the top and use a spatula to spread evenly and left some sauce drip down from the edges. Chill in the fridge until the chocolate set. Pipe some cream around the top edges then spread left over praline paste at the center evenly. 

Arrange the chocolate praline truffles and the chocolate nuts pieces on the cake. Chill the whole cake in the fridge

overnight before serve.

Too much work??? Worth the effort for special occasion really!!!