How can anyone resist freshly baked bigné filled with whipped sweet cream and custard? Then piled high lathered in whipped sweet chocolate cream and topped with slivers of rich chocolate? I certainly can't! Last Friday we were invited to
Mandi's house, a good friend who lives near by, and I thought to bring along a sweet end to the night, the Profiterol. Known in these parts as a semi-freddo, the Profiterol is a sure crowd pleas-er.
As usual, I often enjoy looking at all the sweet delicacies at our nearby bakery
Caffe' Cali'. My latest experimentation has been to re-create the Profiterol. There are many varieties, but one similar to what you might find around these parts is similar to what you see here.
Beginning with the Bigné:
250 ml water
100 g butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
150 g flour
4 eggs
-Bring to a boil the first 4 ingredients
-Turn off the fire and add the flour at at once
-Place back on the fire and mix until the dough detaches from the sides of the pan. When the dough is ready it will make a crick-crack noise.
-At this point turn off the fire and mix for another minute
-After the dough has rested, add the eggs one at a time mixing well.
-Once mixed let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Then place on cookie sheet.
-Cook on 250°C not ventilated until browned.
Now for the filling...
Crema pasticcera (custard):1 egg yolk
125 ml warm milk
41 g sugar
11 g flour
a touch of vanilla
-Mix well the yolk and sugar
-Add the flour and mix
-Then add a bit of the warm milk to the bowl, and mix. Take this mixture and add to the heated milk and bring to a boil.
-Continue mixing over the fire until it coats the back of a spoon.
-Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator to cool.
Chantilly:400 ml panna, cream
powdered sugar
-Just whip the cream and add the sugar to taste
At this point you would mix both the Crema pasticcera and the Chantilly together and use this mixture to fill the bigné.
The cream that keeps it all together:
1000 ml of cream
unsweetened cocoa powder
powdered sugar
-Whip the cream adding cocoa powder and powdered sugar to taste...
Our profiterol was then topped with slivers of Lindt 70% and 99% cacao for a finishing touch.
The final step is to set aside in the freezer. Depending on the season, bring out and let it melt a bit. When serving, cut slices of the Profiterol too see all the cream filled puffs. An amazing semi-freddo! You can also scoop out each cream puff and serve it that way once it's smooth and creamy...
