Profiteroles

Profiteroles. Delicious choux pastry filled with creamy custard and topped with rich chocolate. Yep, I have a recipe for that. It's not that hard either! I promise you'll feel like a Masterchef when you present these babies to your family and friends (and they'll love it too). 

So, yes, these are a treat, but they have been adapted to make them a healthier version than most of the other recipes you'll find. And I challenge you to try them and not like them!

Profiteroles

¼ C margarine or butter

½ C water

½ C plain flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, melted

Vanilla custard:

1 ¼ C reduced fat milk

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

2 egg yolks

1 heaped Tbsp castor sugar

1 heaped Tbsp cornflour

1. Make custard: Heat milk and vanilla in a small saucepan over high heat and allow to just come to the boil. Remove from heat. In a medium sized bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Pour the hot milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously. Once mixed in, return to the saucepan over low heat. Mix cornflour with a small amount of water to form a thin paste. Pour slowly into the saucepan, stirring continuously until thickened. Refrigerate.
2. Preheat oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
3. Make choux pastry: Place margarine/butter and water in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiling, add flour and stir vigorously for 30 seconds or until mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Transfer mixture to a medium sized bowl and beat with electric beaters for 1 minute or until mixture resembles large breadcrumbs and has cooled slightly. Slowly add eggs as mixture thickens, beating until well combined. Drop tablespoons of mixture onto baking tray and bake for 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.
4. Pierce a small hole in the side of each profiterole with a skewer and allow to cool in the oven with the oven off and the door slightly ajar (around 45 minutes).
5. Cut each profiterole in half horizontally and fill base with custard (or cut a small slit and pipe in custard with a piping bag). Replace tops and drizzle profiteroles with a teaspoon each of melted chocolate.
6. Allow to set and store in the fridge. 

Makes ~12