.::. Profiteroles .::.

I finally started baking again, after the husband replaced the transformer for my kitchenaid.  He blew the whole thing when he tried to use it to make brunch some time ago.

As we're hosting a few Christmas cum housewarming parties, I wanted to make some dessert for our guests.  I thought that profiteroles were a good choice - easy to make beforehand and kids would love it.  The first time I made this was with Emma in Sweden, it's a traditional French dessert - one of the many that she taught me.  How I miss those days.

I followed Martha Stewart's Pate-Choux Recipe and actually converted everything into grams.  It was really easy to do.  I just dumped everything into the pot, boiled it, then dump it into the kitchenaid, added eggs, and it was ready to be baked.

The recipe from her site, with my own conversion to grams for easy measurement.  I actually put everything into the pot that I'm using to boil and added everything on a digital scale.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (114g)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (160g)
• 4 large eggs, plus 1 large egg white - I used 5 eggs as the normal eggs in Singapore are pretty small and the mixture was too dry for soft peaks to form.

Directions

1. Bring butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water (263g) to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on bottom of pan, about 3 minutes.
   
2. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled, about 1 minute. Raise speed to medium; add whole eggs, 1 at a time, until a soft peak forms when batter is touched with your finger. If peak does not form, lightly beat remaining egg white, and mix it into batter a little at a time until it does.
   
   
   I used the macaroon set which the husband bought for me secretly.  It had all the pipings and sheets.  It rose beautifully in the oven.
   
   2/3 of the whole batch.  Take note of the cooling part, leave it in the oven partially open to cool slowly or cut a hole for the steam to come out.  Otherwise, all of them will deflate and look soggy.
   
   You're then supposed to cut them into half and stuff ice-cream in between.  I used the 'watermelon' scoop (those used to make round watermelon or honeydew) to scoop the ice-cream.  Lastly, drip some chocolate sauce on it.  I was lazy to melt chocolate and make my own chocolate sauce and used Hersheys' instead,
   
   It's then ready to be served!