My Royal Wedding Profiteroles

After watching the latest series of MasterChef I decided I wanted to have a go at making a Croquembouch. I decided as I didn’t have a
croquembouch cone that I would make profiteroles instead; basically the same recipe but filled with fresh cream and coated in chocolate.

As the Royal Wedding was about to happen I set the challenge of making the profiteroles for the small gathering I was going to hold. I found
a recipe by John Burton Race (see below) and set to work making my first ever batch of profiteroles.

Choux pastry has previously been a mystery to me, I can be a little hit and miss with my baking skills, so I was a little worried how the
end result would be. I’ve managed to crack my cupcake making, and I use quite a simple recipe but effective recipe. John Burton Race’s recipe has few ingredients, so I felt it would fit my skill level, I also didn’t want to waste lots of ingredients if said recipe failed.

As you will be able to see from the pictures below the recipe turned out perfectly and I would highly recommend the recipe for first
time Choux pastry attempts. I also managed to make a very small but cute Croquembouch (it really is small, but at least I know with the right equipment I could probably do it!).  

I filled my profiteroles with fresh cream whisked together with icing sugar and flavoured with Violet. Violet oil is one of my favourite
ingredients; I love the floral tones it brings to sweet recipes. As it’s not everyone’s cup of tea I kept the Violet flavour quite subtle. Luckily my
friends who aren’t massive fans of floral flavours liked the subtle flavour…phew! I piped the cream into each profiterole and layered them up into
a pyramid. Once I had quite a large yummy mound I made a dark chocolate ganache with cream and a 53.5% dark chocolate. I didn’t measure the cream, I’m terrible for doing things by eye, so sorry I can’t give exact measurements. I made the ganache quite thick so the chocolate wouldn’t run all over the profiteroles, if you wanted quite a runny consistency either add more cream or just pour melted chocolate over the profiteroles. If you decide just to use chocolate make sure it’s not too hot as the cream inside the profiteroles might melt.

To carry on my floral theme I added Crystallised Rose and Violet Petals for a touch of colour.

Ingredients

• 260ml/9¼fl oz milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 100g/3½oz butter, diced
• 120g/4¼oz plain flour
• 4 free-range eggs

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
2. For the choux buns, combine the milk,
   sugar, salt and diced butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Heat gently and stir
   until the butter has melted.
3. Quickly sieve the flour into the
   saucepan and whisk together with the liquid ingredients.
4. Keeping the heat low, beat the
   ingredients together vigorously for about five minutes.
5. The paste is ready when it clumps
   together in a smooth ball and comes away cleanly from the sides of the pan.
   Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
6. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs
   together thoroughly until there are no strings of egg white. Slowly, in two or
   more batches, beat the eggs into the paste.
7. Fit a piping bag with a nozzle and
   spoon the choux pastry mixture into the bag.
8. Pipe balls the size of a 50p coin onto
   baking sheets lined with silicone paper, or greased baking trays.
9. Bake in batches in the oven for 20-25
   minutes, or until golden brown and crisp (if the buns are just yellow, they
   will deflate upon cooling). When they are done, the inside should be hollow.
   Tip them on to a wire rack to cool.

For the filling I whisked double cream with icing sugar (sorry for the lack of measurements) and added a few drops of Violet Oil to taste.

Recipe Wednesday- Chocolate Torte

Today I decided to tweet a recipe while making a Chocolate Torte, I got quite a lot of good feedback, so time permitting I will try and do a recipe every so often. So here goes 🙂

 Ingredients:

•  200 grams of dark chocolate- 50% min cocoa content
• 200 grams of butter
• 220 grams of sugar
• 4 free range eggs separated

Firstly preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line a 23cm cake tin with greaseproof paper. If you use a fan assisted oven I would recommend you heat your oven to 160 degrees.

In a bowl over a pan of hot water melt the chocolate and butter, then leave to cool

In another bowl beat the egg yolks and half the sugar (110grams) together

Fold the cooled chocolate and butter mixture into the egg yolks

Whisk the egg whites until they are frothy and then slowly add the sugar, whisking until you have glossy stiff peaks

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then pour into the cake tin.

Cook for approximately 40mins. Use a skewer to test if the torte is ready, prick the middle of the torte, if the skewer comes out clean the torte is ready.

Dust with cocoa or icing sugar and serve with a fruit couli, cream or a salted caramel sauce

Cupcake Recipe

Basic Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes):

• 125g butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• Vanilla Essence or 1 vanilla pod (seeds removed from the pod and added to the mixture) or

Finely grated zest 1/2 large lemon (keeping the zest of the remaining half for the lemon icing)

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 150g plain flour
• 1/4tsp baking powder

Simple Frosting

• 75g butter, softened
• 125g icing sugar, sifted

This is a rough guide as I find I have to play around with the consistency, usually I double/ triple the amount of icing sugar.

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Line a 12-hole cake tin with 12 paper cases. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in a food mixer until soft. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix until the mixture if light, creamy and fluffy.

2.  Gradually add the beaten eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture. Alternatively, whizz all the ingredients together in a food mixer.

3.  Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 7-10 minutes, until risen and golden. When cooked, the top of each cake should be slightly springy to the touch. Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool before you ice them.

4.  To make the icing, cream the butter in a bowl with a wooden spoon or hand-held electric beater until soft. Add the icing sugar and beat into the butter depending on the consistency of the mixture you may need to add more icing sugar. Add flavouring or colour at this point.

5) Pipe or spread the icing sugar over the cupcakes once they have cooled and decorate with sprinkles, crystallised petals or sweets.

Enjoy!