Passionfruit profiteroles with white chocolate drizzle

Passionfruit profiteroles with white chocolate drizzle is a decadent dessert. White chocolate and passion fruit (granadilla) are such good flavour partners.

I have been wanting to use the passion fruit curd I made a couple of weeks ago in a dessert and thought to stuff profiteroles and make a cake like a Croquenbush which has to be one of my all-time favourite things.

If I ever had to get married this French wedding cake would most definitely be a part of the occasion. But since I am neither getting married nor feeding a wedding party, a smaller version of this was more appropriate.

I must admit that I haven’t made profiteroles in a long while so my first reference source for a recipe was my Hotel School catering textbook, ‘Practical Cookery’ by Ceserani and Kinton (sixth edition). Looking exactly like a textbook and not a cookbook with not a single picture, it’s a fantastic guide to the basics of classic French cuisine and cooking methods.

Recipe for Choux paste (Pate a choux)

• 1 cup of water with a pinch of sugar and salt
• 100g butter
• 125g flour (bread flour is better than cake)
• 4 eggs approx (and actually think you need 3 and a bit

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the sifted flour to the liquid. Beat vigorously until it binds together and comes away from the side of the pan (I find using a whisk better than a wooden spoon for this).

Allow the mix to cool for 10 – 15 minutes. Gradually add the beaten eggs to the dough, mixing in between each addition until you have a glossy paste that is a thick-dropping consistency.

Fill a piping bag with a 1 cm wide plain nozzle and pipe balls on a lined baking sheet. The balls will double in size so allow a bit of space. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove and set aside to cool.

While the profiteroles are baking, make your filling by beating 2 cups of cream until soft peaks and adding 1 cup of passion fruit/granadilla curd and mixing together.

Fill another piping bag with the cream mixture, press a small hole at the base or bottom edge of the profiterole, stuff the nozzle into the hole and fill with the cream. The inside is soft and hollow so it fills up as much as it needs to. Set aside.

Assemble the pile of filled profiteroles onto a nice serving place. Melt 150g of white chocolate ( I like to use Valrhona chocolate) in the microwave or over a double boiler and drizzle this over your arranged pile and serve.

If you wanted to be really cheffy about it you could further decorate with spun sugar or crushed sugar praline, but it is really quite sweet and decadent as it is. The granadilla/passion fruit adds a slight tart edge which breaks through the richness.

These profiteroles were soft and fluffy, so if you are wanting crispier ones this may not be the recipe you are after.

The granadilla curd can easily be substituted for lemon curd or otherwise just make a more classic custard cream (creme Anglaise).