Passion fruit cream profiteroles

I’ve been feeling very brave these past few days: I managed to watch “Damien: Omen II” entirely, without looking away not even for a second, AT NIGHT. :)

Now I’m ready to watch the last part and complete the trilogy – but this lovely lady and I have come to the conclusion that I’m going to need something to stay calm throughout the movie, like passion fruit juice. I wonder if passion fruit profiteroles would do the trick... :)

Passion fruit cream profiteroles
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

Profiteroles:
1 cup (240ml) water
100g unsalted butter
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (115g) all purpose flour
5 eggs

Passion fruit cream:
1 ¼ cups (300ml) heavy cream, whipped to firm peaks
½ cup fresh passion fruit pulp (still with the seeds)
¼ cup (35g) icing sugar, sifted

Lemon icing:
1 ½ cups (210g) icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Place water and butter in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Add the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cook, stirring, over low heat until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and transfer to the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high speed, gradually adding the eggs until well combined – whisk the eggs lightly with a fork before adding them to the batter and pour in gradually; you might not need all the egg mixture.
Spoon the mixture into a piping back with a 12mm plain nozzle and pipe 2cm rounds onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and deep golden. Cool on wire racks, then carefully remove profiteroles from baking paper.
Make the filling: place cream, passion fruit and sugar in a bowl and stir gently to combine. Set aside. Make the icing: mix icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth. Fill the profiteroles with the passion fruit cream and spoon over the lemon icing.

Makes 45 – I halved the recipe above and got 35 fairly small profiteroles

Dulce de leche profiteroles

A while ago, I told you I saw no fun in using Twitter. Well, my dear readers, that has changed – and I have my Brazilian friend Tina Lopes to blame. I still don’t twit a lot, but my opinion about it is definitely different now. :)

Another Brazilian friend – hi, Lu! – and I were twitting about how I’d once tried making a croquembouche using a recipe from “Feast” and it turned out to be a disaster: the profiteroles were in the oven for ages and never puffed nor turned golden. :S

Time to try making profiteroles again and this time the result was really good – recipe from here (I love this book). Next time I’ll add a tiny splash of vanilla to disguise the light eggy smell.

Dulce de leche profiteroles
from Modern Classics Book 2

1 cup (240ml) water
100g unsalted butter
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (115g) all purpose flour
5 eggs
2 cups dulce de leche
300g dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F*; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Place the water and butter in a medium saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Add the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cook, stirring, over low heat until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat, place in an electric mixer and beat on high, gradually adding the eggs until well combined. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a 12mm plain nozzle and pipe 4cm rounds onto prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until puffed and dark golden. Cool on wire racks, then carefully peel the profiteroles off the paper. Using the tip of a sharp knife, make a small hole in the bottom of each puff.
Place the dulce de leche in a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle - I used a ¼ inch one . Insert nozzle into hole of each choux puff and pipe in enough dulce de leche to fill. Set aside.
Carefully dip the top of each profiterole in the melted chocolate and set aside until firm.

* the ones I baked at 200°C/400°F turned out prettier, puffier and tastier

Makes 35