Imagine you’re in a beautiful room, reclining on a plush velvet chaise lounge. There’s a dainty table nearby. On the table is a cake pedestal with a little pyramid of small, perfectly plump, pink pastries. They’re filled with sweet, luscious strawberry cream. And they’re all yours. This Strawberries & Cream Profiteroles recipe can make that dream come true. Maybe not the velvet chaise lounge, but really any comfortable chair will do while you indulge in these delicious little gems. Profiteroles have a way of making you feel regal and majestic. I think princesses and princes snack on them. Most of us don’t have a personal pastry chef or the budget to order from a French bakery every day, but we can certainly follow a recipe and make one of the easiest pastry doughs there is. Choux pastry or pate à choux is used to make profiteroles, cream puffs, eclairs, churros and other pastries. Once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless.
This recipe features fresh strawberries, but frozen strawberries will work too. You can also substitute raspberries or peaches. To find the recipe for Peaches & Cream Profiteroles, click here. The strawberry purée can be made a day or two ahead and stored in the refrigerator. To make it easy on myself, I like to make the strawberry purée on day one, the pastry cream on day two, then make the profiteroles and strawberry icing and assemble on day three. It’s also helpful to practice the French culinary style of prep, mise en place, which means to have all of your ingredients and equipment in place before you begin. Everything will go much smoother and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.
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profiteroles
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- 12 ounces strawberries, hulled and sliced About 2 1/2 cups after hulling and slicing
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/3 cup (2 1/4 ounces) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, cubed
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- strawberry puree recipe above
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces) water
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 3/4 cup (3 ounces) powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons reserved strawberry purée
- 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 teaspoon strawberry extract
Ingredients
Strawberry Pureé
Strawberries and Cream Filling
Profiteroles
Strawberry Icing
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- Purée strawberries in a blender or food processor. Strain puréed strawberries through a sieve.
- Transfer strawberry purée to a small saucepan. Stir in lemon juice.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until strawberry purée is reduced by half.
- Remove from heat. Stir in strawberry extract. Set aside to cool completey.
- Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the egg and whisk until smooth.
- When milk starts to boil, remove from heat and pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
- Pour the egg mixture back into the remaining hot milk and cook over medium heat, whisking continuously, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.
- Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla extract.
- Pour mixture through a sieve placed over a bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and let cool completely.
- Set aside 2 tablespoons of strawberry purée. Add remaining strawberry purée to cooled pastry cream and stir to combine. Cover strawberry pastry cream and chill in refrigerator.
- In a medium bowl, whip heavy cream to stiff peaks with an electric mixer at high speed. Fold whipped cream into cooled strawberry pastry cream. Set aside in refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper,
- Combine water, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Reduce heat. Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from sides of pan and forms a ball.
- Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until steam dissipates and mixture cools to lukewarm.
- Add eggs one at a time and beat on medium speed until smooth, stopping to scrape down bowl.
- Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. (I used *Ateco tip 808)
- Pipe 1 1/4-inch mounds, about 2 inches apart, on prepared baking sheets. Smooth tops with a wet finger.
- Bake 15 minutes, then turn down the oven heat to 350ºF and continue baking until golden brown, about 8-10 more minutes. Using a toothpick or skewer, prick a small hole in each profiterole to allow steam to escape. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Use the tip of a paring knife to make a pilot hole in the bottom of each profiterole.
- Place strawberries and cream filling into a piping bag fitted with a medium round piping tip. (I used **Wilton tip 12)
- Place tip into the pilot holes and fill each profiterole with filling.
- In a medium bowl, whisk all icing ingredients together until smooth. Spoon over filled profiteroles. Refrigerate profiteroles until ready to serve.
*To find Ateco tip 808 click here.
**To find Wilton tip 12 click here.