135 little pieces

Sunday was my first turn at hospitality in church and I had to prepare food for 120-something people. Even if I could buy ready-made food, I thought I'd challenge myself and see whether I could bake for a crowd.

After considering a few alternatives, I settled with profiteroles. I've made 30 of them for cell group before, and they turned out good. I thought I'd double the recipe and make it twice. 

It was harder than expected. The main challenge for profiteroles is the way you spoon them onto the baking tray. It cannot be placed flat. It must be spun. It must be spun up. Why? Otherwise they won't rise. I haven't mastered it completely but thankfully out of 140ish, only 8 of them were flat. This and the fact that my oven can only fit one tray at a time took up most of the hours. Still, I enjoyed baking 135 pieces a lot! I also found a few new fillings that are good for keepers along the way :) Here are the recipes... 

Profiteroles

(makes about 3 dozen 4cm puffs)

I. Basic Choux Pastry

Adapted from "Singapore Heritage Food" by Sylvia Tan 

Ingredients

1 cup water

115g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup flour (sieved)

4 large (600g) eggs

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Put water, salt, sugar and butter into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

3. When boiling, turn of the heat and immediately put in all the flour

4. Stir with a wooden spoon until flour forms into a ball and leave the sides of the pot. Cool.

5. After cooled, place dough in a mixing bowl.

6. Using an electric beater, running at medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, blending well.

7. Mixture should look smooth and glossy at the end 

8. Using two teaspoons, spoon out balls onto tray (spoon it as close as possible, don't spread out but spread/spin it up).

9. Bake until golden brown, 20-30 mins (I like mine more golden and crispy, so it's around 25 mins). 

10. Remove from oven, cool.

11. Make a slit and fill in with your choice of filling.

Choux pastry is the basic profiterole. But then again, a profiterole is not a profiterole without its filling. Traditionally, it's filled with cream or custard. I like something different, something fruity or cheesy :) Thanks to a friend's suggestion of using jam, this first filling was born...

II. Filling

a. Raspberry Whipped Cream

Ingredients 

300 ml thickened/whipping cream

2.5 tbsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g raspberry jam (you can use strawberry or blueberry, but I think the sourness of raspberry balances the sweetness of the cream very well :)). 

Method

1. In a medium bowl, add sugar and vanilla extract to the thickened cream.

2. Whip until soft peaks form (the best whipped cream is when you whip it until soft peaks that are just under stiff peaks; don't be afraid to continuously check the consistency. if you fail, try and try again; this requires experience/trial and error).

3. Fold 200g raspberry jam into the whipped cream. 

The last time I made a cream cheese filling I was so daring that I entirely used my feeling. Some commented it was too heavy though...Thankfully, I have found a cream cheese mousse recipe here which works very nicely. I added a twist to it :D 

b. Green Tea Cream Cheese Mousse

Ingredients

250g cream cheese, room temperature

60g caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

150g heavy cream, by weight

3 tbsp matcha powder 

Method

1. Whip cream until soft peaks.

2. In another medium bowl, add sugar, salt, vanilla extract and matcha powder into the cream cheese.

3 Whisk until well combined.

4. Fold in whipped cream

The third filling's something fun that I came across while browsing the other day.  

c. Black sesame Ice Cream  

You dont' need an ice cream machine though. How? Click here.

III. Extras

Just for extra taste and decorations, melt 200g of dark chocolate and dip each profiterole.

Other alternatives: milk/white chocolate, caramel