The humble profiterole - everyone's guilty pleasure

It may not be fashionable in the food world right now and it may not be sexy, but I have yet to meet a person that does not love a profiterole. Dating back to the 17th century in France, these little puffs of delight started off as a garnish on soup. These days fill them with pastry cream, scented with your favourite flavour, smother them in dark, rich chocolate and you have the most delicious dessert you could ever want. This recipe takes a little time to make but the rewards are worth it, You will get about 36 profiteroles out of this recipe, and if your family are anything like mine they will not last long.

½ pint of water

4oz butter

5oz strong flour

4 eggs

150g good dark chocolate

1 batch of pastry cream (http://stiggyw.tumblr.com/post/137909837377/pastry-cream-a-pastry-chefs-best-kept-secret)

First make your pastry cream as it will need to be completely cold to use. Then bring the water and the butter to a simmer in a pan over a medium heat, when the butter has all melted add in the flour, beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon and keep it over the heat until the dough is leaving the sides of the pan and remove it from the heat. Allow this mixture to cool before putting it in a mixer, using a paddle beater add the eggs one at a time with the mixer on a medium speed. When all of the eggs are incorporated place the mixture in a piping bag and pipe the mixture onto a tray with greaseproof paper. Each dough ball should be a little bigger than a whole walnut. each dough will have a small spike on the top form the piping bag which much be pushed down (otherwise this will burn when cooked and the profiterole will not be round). As the dough is very sticky to do this you must dip your finger into cold water before touching the dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 180c and place the trays in for 20 minuets, turn your oven down to 120c and bake for a further 20 minuets, this will dry them out and make your roles crispy. What ever you do, DO NOT open the oven door whilst they are cooking or the will collapse.

When they are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minuets then , using a sharp knife make a small hole in the bottom of each one, then using a piping bag pipe each one full with pastry cream. Once they are all done all that is left to do is melt some chocolate and dip the tops of each one in.