Chocolate Lover's Puffs

It would be an understatement to call this a chocolate profiterole. Because it’s not JUST a chocolate profiterole but a chocolate profiterole made out of chocolate choux pastry, wrapped in a crispy chocolate crust, filled with chocolate pastry cream, and then dipped in melted chocolate. It’s a quadruple chocolate profiterole- a chocolate lover’s puff.



Chocolate Lover's Puffs

Makes 20 small profiteroles

Chocolate Pastry Cream
200 grams milk
3 egg yolks
50 grams caster sugar
20 grams plain flour
100 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
85 grams whipping cream

To make chocolate pastry cream:
Place milk in a saucepan and bring to boil. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until mixture is pale and thick. Whisk in flour until well combined. Gradually pour hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, constantly whisking to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Place over medium heat, whisking constantly with a hand whisk until it thickens and becomes smooth and glossy. Remove from heat, transfer pastry cream to a bowl, cover surface of pastry cream with plastic wrap, and set aside.

Heat cream in a saucepan until just below boiling point, pour it over the chocolate, allow to sit for 1 minute before gently stirring until you get a ganache. Whisk ganache into the pastry cream until well combine.

Cover the surface of the chocolate pastry cream with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Chocolate Sable a Choux
80 grams butter, cut into small cubes, softened, at room temperature
80 grams brown sugar
80 grams plain flour
10 grams dutch-processed cocoa powder

To make chocolate sable a choux:
Mash butter into the brown sugar with a spatula or the back of a spoon, until there are no more lumps of butter and the mixture has form a paste. (Note: The butter will need to be soft for this to work.) Combine and sift flour and cocoa, then stir the flour and cocoa into the butter mixture until just combine. Wrap the mixture with a plastic wrap, pat the mixture down to form a disk and refrigerate until firm (about 1 hour). Roll dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to 2mm thick. Use a 5cm round cutter to cut into rounds. If the mixture is too soft to cut, place dough onto baking tray and refrigerate until firm.

Freeze the rounds of sable a choux until firm or ready to use.

Chocolate Choux Pastry
80ml milk
80ml water
70 grams unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
large pinch of salt
10 grams caster sugar
100 grams plain flour
10 grams dutch-processed cocoa powder
120 grams (about 2 eggs) eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten (Note: You will need an additional egg if the pastry is too dry. See method below.)

To make chocolate choux pastry:
Preheat oven to 150C fan-forced.

Combine and sift flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Place milk, water, butter, salt and sugar into a saucepan. Place pan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon until the butter has melted, and liquid has come to a boil. Allow liquid to boil for 2 seconds. Remove from heat and add the flour and cocoa mixture all at once. Start mixing until the mixture comes together and no more dry flour is visible.

Return saucepan over medium heat, stirring vigorously until the dough pull away from the side of the pan and bottom of the pan is clean.

Immediately transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on medium for about 30 seconds to cool slightly. Begin gradually incorporate the eggs into the mixture, about a tablespoon at a time, beating until each addition is completely absorbed before adding the next. Once you have incorporate all the eggs, stop the mixer to check the consistency of the dough.

(Note: To check the consistency, scoop and lift up a large amount of dough with a spatula. The dough should adhere well to the spatula, and the rest of the dough should slid off the spatula very slowly, almost "magna-like", then drops off with a clean break from the mixture that is on the spatula within 5-10 seconds.

If the mixture doesn't stick to the spatula and falls off without leaving any traces behind or doesn't fall off at all, gradually add more eggs, checking the consistency every 2 tablespoons. I find that I usually need an additional egg to get the right consistency.

If the mixture immediately break off from the mixture still attached to the spatula without any pause, too much eggs has been added. If that is the case, nothing more can be done at this point except to start again.)

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round nozzle. Pipe twenty 4cm diameter rounds onto a tray lined with baking paper, leaving enough space between each round for the dough to expand without touching.

(Note: To get the perfect size and shape for the choux pastry, I used a silicone cake pop mould for the job. First I piped the choux pastry into the mould, cover the mould with plastic wrap, and put it in the freezer until it’s completely frozen. The unbaked choux pastry can keep up to 3 months in the freezer. Bake the choux pastry, from frozen, on the day when you are ready to assemble and serve the profiterole.)

Place a round of sable a choux on top of each choux pastry and bake until the choux pastry double in size, about 45 minutes. (Note: Resist opening the oven door before the choux pastry has time to puff up and become golden as this will cause the choux pastry to collapse.)

Immediately once the choux pastry is out of the oven, gently slit a small hole at the bottom of the choux pastry to allow steam to escape. Allow the choux pastry to cool completely before filling it with pastry cream.

To assemble:
You will also need 200 grams dark chocolate, melted.

Spoon chocolate pastry cream in a piping bag fitted with a plain small nozzle. Pipe pastry cream in profiterole. Then dip top of profiterole in melted chocolate.

This is best served on the day it's assembled.