Profiteroles, Plum Brandy Ice Cream, Hot Fudge
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Profiteroles with Hot Fudge Sauce
I remember my first profiteroles with ice cream and chocolate sauce sitting at an Italian restaurant in New York City, a place I frequented although I lived in California. I was impressed, and I continue to be impressed with this elegant dessert. Profiteroles was the “in” dessert back then, and I think now making a comeback, as homemade ice cream is finding its way in trendy eateries.
That was another life time ago, when I spent a lot more time in restaurants, and never would I have imagined I would making my very own ice cream, home made chocolate sauce, profiteroles and writing about it.
First of all it took me years to pronounce pro fit er oles.
I was not born saying profiterole or choux (sounds like shew), but I think I was born wanting to eat them.
A profiterole is a cream puff made from choux pastry filled with sweet filling. I like creamy, dreamy desserts that incorporate pastry and cream. Cream puff, eclair, napoleon are on the banquet table at my last meal. No flan, custard or pudding alone. They MUST have some pastry attached.
This recipe takes the profiterole as dessert to it’s finest level, as it is filled with home made ice plum brandy cream and topped with chocolate sauce made with a premium dark chocolate poured on at a boiling hot temperature, as tradition demands.
Most of the recipe can be found in Le Cordon Bleu at Home, making this a Whisk Wednesday entry, but the plum brandy ice cream is my own creation, and if I have to say so myself, it’s a stunning combination .If the flavors of the fresh plums, brandy and chocolate were dancing, it would be a viennese waltz, moving together just right to create classic elegance, where a bit of practice makes all the difference.
The Croquembouche
When speaking of desserts and choux pastry, croquembouche is worth a mention. Choux pastries are filled with cream, piled high into a pyramid shape and glued together with caramel. Such a dessert is saved for the most special of occasions, a wedding, a baptism or a communion. Crazy as this sounds, I would love to try to make a mini version one day, just to see if I could do it, but first I’ll have to learn how to pronounce it.
How to Make Profiteroles with Hot Fudge Sauce
Making choux pastry out of a book is not easy for a person who learns by doing, learns by tasting, learns with all the senses and has little understanding of how eggs, flour, water and butter come together in a sauce pan to make a dough that is supposed to be glossy and easy enough to push through a pastry bag. Surprisingly, these little profiteroles were delicious, yet I still think practice makes perfect and perhaps on my 10th try, I will have the pastry exactly where I want it.
Choux is the kind of pastry that you just know when you know that it’s right. But, the diminutive size is a bit forgiving, especially filled with such plum brandy goodness instead of the typical vanilla and blanketed with hot fudge.
The recipe for home made ice cream made with fresh ripe plums and brandy is found here, but you can try any flavor of ice cream with profiteroles.
Whisk Wednesday: Profiteroles, Plum Brandy Ice Cream, Hot Fudge
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 2-3 eggs
- 1 egg slightly beaten for glazing
- !Hot Fudge Sauce
- 7 ounces premium dark chocolate
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Combine the water, salt, sugar, butter in sauce pan over medium heat until butter is melted and water is boiling. Remove from heat and add in all flour, stirring vigorously, until a smooth dough forms. Start adding the eggs one at a time, stirring with wooden spoon.
- Return to stove, reduce heat to low and start cooking again. Add second egg, continuing to stir. You may or may not need third egg, so beat egg gently first, and add a tiny bit at a time, until dough is shiny and falls off sides of pan easily.
- Pipe into pastry bag with a plain half-inch tip. (I used a ziplock) and piped 18 mounds onto a buttered cookie sheet. Using a fork dipped in water, flatten slightly. I don’t like them too flat. They do puff up, but you want round puffs.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, never opening oven. Then reduce heat to 325 for 10 minutes.
- !HOT FUDGE SAUCE INSTRUCTIONS
- Mix ingredients together. Melt on medium low heat.
- ASSEMBLY
- Put Profiteroles in Freezer, while making hot fudge sauce. When ready to assemble, slice top off, fill with ice cream, place cap back on and put hot fudge sauce on while it is still very hot.
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