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Chestnut and chocolate profiteroles
Makes Makes 20 (serves 4-6) Desserts and puddings
Ingredients
- 200ml cold water
- 65g cold butter, roughly cubed
- 110g plain flour
- 3 medium eggs
For the filling
- 55g good flavoured clear honey
- 300ml double cream
- 4 marron glacé cut into 20 pieces
- 280g unsweetened chestnut purée
For the chocolate sauce
- 175g dark, salt-flavoured chocolate
- 300ml cold water
- 100g good flavoured clear honey
Method
Preheat the oven 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. To make the profiteroles, put the water and butter into a medium pan. Sift the flour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Bring the water up to the boil so the butter melts and bubbles just begin to appear around the edge of the pan. Don’t let it boil for any length of time otherwise it will evaporate. Take off the heat and shoot in the flour all in one go. Beat right away with a wooden spoon until very smooth. Cool for 5 minutes. Break up the eggs with a fork and add a little at a time beating the mixture after each addition until thick and smooth, it needs to be firm and holding a shape each time. Spoon out 20 mounds (about a heaped teaspoon) onto 2 oven trays, with a wet finger just smooth off the tops without losing height. Flick a little cold water over the tray (this creates steam and helps the profiteroles to rise) and bake for 25-30 minutes until crisp and no longer sticking to the tray. Make a small incision in the side of each profiterole to allow the steam to escape and return to the oven for 2 minutes. Put on a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 48 hours but best used within a day once cold.
To make the filling, warm the honey until it just starts to run easily. Whisk into the chestnut purée a little at a time until it becomes very smooth. Whisk the cream until floppy soft peaks form when the whisks are lifted out. Gently fold into the chestnut purée a quarter at a time until combined. Chill until needed.
Up to a few hours before serving either put the marron glacé through the small incision in the profiteroles and pipe the filling into each one or split the profiteroles a little more and put a piece of the marron glace in each and use a spoon to fill each one with the chestnut cream.
To make the chocolate sauce, break the chocolate into a heavybased pan and add the water and honey and melt over a low heat until smooth. Increase the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the consistency is smooth and syrupy and coats the back of a spoon. Cool a little before use so the sauce coats the profiteroles like rich velvet.
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