IF THE CHOUX FITS…?

Yep! I’m a Daring Baker and this is my first entry..

Profiteroles and strawberries

MY MISSION; (And I chose to accept it…)

1. The dough used for the eclairs must be a pâte à choux from the recipe given below.
2. Keep one chocolate element in the challenge. The recipe below is for a chocolate glaze and a chocolate pastry cream. You choose which chocolate element you want to keep. Then feel free to mix and match flavors to the base recipe.
3. Everything else is fair game. Enjoy!

So the recipe below is from a book by Dorie Greenspan as required by the competition…the only difference being that the method used was {of course} changed by my ownership of the Thermomix!

NEED:
½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

DO:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Place water, salt, sugar and butter in TM bowl and cook for 10 minutes at 100 degrees on Speed 2.
Add the flour and mix for 30 seconds on speed 4. Allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
Once cool, add eggs to the mix by dropping one egg at a time onto rotating blades for 30-40 seconds each on speed 5.
Spoon mixture into piping bag with large nozzle and pipe into rounds (or eclairs) on a baking paper lined tray.
Place into oven and cook for approx 20-25 minutes.
Leave to cool in oven. When cool, pierce with another pastry nozzle and fill with pastry creme.

Now the recipe for the Creme Pattiserie below…which I altered by again using the Thermomix, but also by using white chocolate in place of dark.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

NEED:
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, (Once again I used white!)
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

DO:
Place sugar and chocolate in Thermomix bowl and pulverize for 20 seconds on speed 9.
Scrape down sides of bowl.
Add remaining ingredients except butter and cook for 10 minutes at 90 degrees on speed 4.
Pour into ceramic bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pushing the wrap down onto the top of the custard.
Cool completely in fridge.
Spoon into piping back with sharp tipped nozzle and use to fill profiteroles.

SERVE:
To put together, melt additional white chocolate and some cream either in Thermomix bowl (speed 2, 60 degrees for around 3-4 minutes) or in Microwave on high for 2 minutes, then stir until melted.
Use as ‘glue’ to stick profiteroles together onto a plate in a little tower…(or a big one). Add strawberries as shown. Then EAT IMMEDIATELY because if the kids beat you, there will not be one to even taste!! (And they taste so much better fresh…and how else are you going to work on that roll? That profiteroll???)

So there we have it…my first Daring Bakers Challenge. I am honored to join them and hope this will be a lot of fun for my adoring public in the months to come! Keep me posted.