Chocolate Passion Fruit Profiteroles

I've been wanting to work with passion fruit for a while. This week I spotted 3 different kinds of passion fruit at the grocery store and decided to try them out. They all differed in flavor but it might be that they were not all the same ripeness. The orange one in the middle I found to be the sweetest. The yellow one on the right the most sour and the purple one to be sweet and sour and the most floral. I juiced them all together and used the juice to make the chocolate passion fruit pastry cream.

I really liked this recipe though the profiterole shells did not rise as much as I wanted them to. Perhaps it was because I had the temperature too high (410 degrees F) or did not bake them long enough. Or perhaps it was because I opened the oven briefly to turn the pans so the outside ones didn't burn. My oven tends to get really hot on the right side. It could also be that there was not enough space between them on the baking sheets or that they were not baked long enough. And I should have only baked one sheet at a time.

The pastry cream was so good we spread the extra on scones we made the next day.


Chocolate Passion Fruit Profiteroles

Inspired by Citrus and Candy

Milk Chocolate Passion Fruit Pastry Cream

500 ml whole milk

6 large egg yolks

120 g super fine sugar

40 g cornstarch

200 g milk chocolate, melted

125 ml passion fruit juice (approximately 10 passion fruits, I used 6 small and 4 large)

60 ml heavy cream

1. Set up an ice bath in a large bowl.

2. Simmer milk in  a medium saucepan.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. To temper, add a little of the milk at a time to egg mixture whisking constantly until it is all combined. Pour it back into the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Whisk constantly.

4. Add in passion fruit juice and melted chocolate. Stir with wooden spoon for one minute. Take off heat and put in saucepan into ice bath to cool. Whisk occasionally until cooled to room temperature. Transfer pastry cream to airtight container. Press plastic wrap directly over pastry cream so skin doesn't form. Chill in fridge up to 3 days.


Chocolate Profiterole Shells

110 g all purpose flour, sifted

20 g Dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted

100 ml water

80 ml whole milk

100 g unsalted butter

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Prepare piping bag with coupler and large round tip.

3. In a bowl, stir together flour and cocoa powder.

4. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring water, milk, butter, salt and sugar to a boil. Stir in flour mixture. Stir constantly cooking until dough forms a ball and dries slightly. Transfer to stand mixer with paddle attachment. Beat until bowl no longer feels warm to the touch.

5. Add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Pipe as high as possible onto sheet pan into 2 inch mounds around the size of walnuts. Space at least 2 inches apart. Smooth down peaks with a fingertip dipped in water.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 15-20 more minutes until shells are dry but make sure bottoms do not burn. Cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container if not filling right away. You may also rebake them the next day for 5 minutes to crisp up the shell.

7. To fill shells, slice them in half with a serrated knife and fill with pastry cream. Or poke a small hole in the profiterole and place the piping tip in to fill with pastry cream. Temper dark chocolate (200 g) and dip or drizzle on tops of the profiteroles. Chill to set. Store in an airtight container in fridge.

Tempering Chocolate:

1. Chop chocolate finely with a large serrated chef's knife.

2. Simmer 1 inch of water in saucepan on stove. Place 2/3 of the chocolate in a metal or heatproof bowl on top of saucepan so it doesn't touch the water. Melt the chocolate until it reaches at least 107 degrees F.

3. Remove from heat and wipe the water from the bottom of the bowl making sure no moisture gets into the chocolate or it will seize up. Whisk in the remaining 1/3 of chocolate. Continue whisking until it has cooled to 86-90 degrees F. It is now tempered and ready for use. Keep at this temperature while using or it will have a dull whitish bloom instead of a shiny snap. A good tip is to use a heating pad.