Recipe of the Week: Profiteroles

I made profiteroles for you today. You can fill them with whipped cream or icecream and voila, they become cream puffs! Or, you can pour hot fudge all over them and pop them in your mouth like they're candy.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup water
• 6 tbsp butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3 large eggs
• a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch tip
• hot fudge (for topping)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Combine water, butter, sugar, and salt into a saucepot over medium-high heat. Bring this mixture to a full boiland then remove from heat. Immediately add flour and stir constantly until well blended. Reduce to medium heat, return pot to stove and continue to cook while stirring constantly until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from the side of the pot. It will also form a thin skin at the bottom of the pot. Set the mixture aside, turn off the heat, and it it cool for 3 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk eggs until blended. Once the cooked mixture has cooled, pour in about 1/3 of egg mixture and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture resembled a smooth paste. Continue like so until all of the egg is incorporated.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with 1/2 inch tip (or simply cut a 1/2 diameter at the point) and pipe about 1.5 to 2 teaspoons of paste onto the prepared pan. Form about 25-30 peak mounds with about a 1 inch diameter, spacing them 1.5 inches apart. Use damp fingertips to press down peaks so they do not burn.

Bake until browned on all sides for about 25 minutes. Remove  from the oven and immediately prick the side of each puff with the a toothpick or the tip of a sharp knife. Return puffs to the oven with it turned off, and let them dry out with the door open for about 15 minutes. Tranfer puffs to a wire rack to cook completely.

Pour hot fudge on your finished profiteroles as topping.