Proliferates - Recipelink.com

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Book Description

Forget about counting calories--the title has both "French" and "desserts" in it, for Pete's sake! You won't find any low-fat silliness in Jill O'Connor's latest masterpiece, and you won't care a bit. From extravagant honey madeleines, profiteroles, and almond macaroons to classics like chocolate mousse, meringues, and warm apple crepes, the recipes in this book will produce fantastic results for the novice and expert alike.

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Simple French Desserts

Authors: Jill O'Connor

Date: April 2000

ISBN: 0811819035

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Paperback

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Proliferates
Recipe from: Simple French Desserts
by Jill O'Connor
Cookbook Heaven at Recipelink.com

Proliferates, tiny pate a choux puffs filled with ice cream and slathered with warm chocolate sauce, are a Parisian bistro classic. Combining both milk and water in the pate A choux keeps these little frozen treats tender, even when they are served straight from the freezer. Profiteroles are a great dessert for a dinner party, because they can be made well in advance, as can the chocolate sauce, leaving you, the dessert queen, with nothing to do but smile and collect compliments.

Makes: about 3 dozen 2-inch puffs

2/3 cup water
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
4 to 5 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 quart vanilla or coffee ice cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
Chocolate Sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Place an oven rack on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Use a nonstick baking sheet, or, lightly grease a non-insulated baking sheet with solid shortening or butter and dust with flour. Turn the pan over and tap to remove any excess flour.
Combine the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter in a medium non-aluminum saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter melts completely. Do not allow the water to boil before the butter melts-this would upset the balance of moisture in the finished pastry.
Increase heat to high and bring the mixture to a full, rolling boll. Remove the pan from heat and add the flour to the pan all at once, stirring briskly with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and gathers in a clump around the spoon.
Return the pan to medium heat and stir the batter briskly for 30 to 60 seconds. This will dry any excess moisture and eliminate any raw flour taste from the dough. Also, a drier base will be able to absorb more eggs, and the final pastry will be lighter and crisper.
Line your countertop with a large piece of aluminum foil and empty the dough out onto the foil. Pat the dough into an 8-inch circle and let cool for 5 minutes. (If the batter is too hot, the eggs will start cooking before the pastry is baked, and the puffs won't be as light, puffy, and crisp as they should be.) Return the dough to the saucepan.
Crack 4 of the eggs into a medium bowl and beat with a fork until blended. Add one fourth of the eggs to the batter, stirring slowly so that the dough, which will separate slightly and become slippery, doesn't slop out of the pan. As the egg is incorporated into the dough, stir more briskly, just until the egg is incorporated. When the batter smooths out, incorporate another fourth of the beaten eggs. Repeat until all of the beaten eggs are incorporated into the batter.
The final batter should be smooth, slightly sticky, and malleable, but firm enough to form soft peaks and to be piped or scooped onto a baking sheet. If the batter seems too firm, beat the fifth egg and add it, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the batter, beating briskly. You don't want to add too much egg at this point; if the batter is too runny, the puffs will not rise properly.
Fill a piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain pastry tip with the batter. Pipe 1 to 1 1/2-inch mounds at least 1 inch apart on the prepared pan. If the mounds develop a point as you pull the pastry tip away, wet your finger and pat the point down.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the puffs are golden brown and expanded to three times their original size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking for about 5 to 10 minutes to make sure the pastry is crisp, hollow, and dry inside. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place on a wire rack.
Using a serrated knife, gently saw the puffs in half horizontally. This will release any steam from the pastries, preventing them from becoming soggy as they cool. Let cool completely.
When the puffs are completely cool, use a miniature ice cream scoop to fill the bottom half of each puff with ice cream. Place the pastry caps on top of the ice cream. Place the profiteroles in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 days. Alternatively, you can freeze the puffs unfilled for up to 1 week. After thawing, pop the puffs in a hot oven for 3 to 5 minutes to crisp them up before you fill them.
To serve the profiteroles, create a pyramid by placing 3 in a shallow bowl or dish and place a fourth profiterole on top. Drizzle them liberally with warm chocolate sauce. Serve immediately.

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