Birthday Profiteroles

The thing about being the "baker" in my household is that I don't get anyone to bake for me. I guess because I'm such a foodie, I just don't think a birthday is complete without a cake. My birthday was on Friday. It was a rainy, stressful, emotional day and I had a bad headache. I think we were going to go out to dinner, where I could get a special birthday treat, but I opted for mexican takeout instead. No birthday cake for me. On the upside, I did get the thing my heart has been longing for - a pasta roller attachment for my mixer! I have been dreaming about it for years, and it is finally mine! I am so excited about it, in fact, that I am actually considering forgoing traditional thanksgiving fare for an all Italian meal. I cannot wait to try it out!

But back to birthdays. I thought I would get cake at dinner on Saturday, but it was another rainy day and I ended up not getting out of my PJs. Beth went and picked up dinner from our favorite Italian restaurant, and I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own birthday treat. I wanted something quick and easy to make, with ingredients we already had, from a recipe in Baking with Julia. One thing fit the bill, and I ended up making Espresso Profiteroles.

It was pretty much a flop. I didn't have a pastry bag, so I tried piping the dough with a plastic baggie. It didn't work. It looked like a pile of...well...something you wouldn't want to eat. I also made them too big, so instead of puffing up like cute little shells, they layed flat like a pancake. "Who cares?" I thought. It's the taste that counts, not the way they look, right? Well, they didn't taste great. Honestly they were bland. Not at all like the rich pastry puffs I was craving.

my flat pastries

In case anyone out there in cyberwebland wants to try it, here is the recipe.

Espresso Profiteroles

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup brewed coffee
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon ground espresso beans
1 1/2 cups flour
6 large eggs


Directions:

1. Position the oven racks to divide the oven in thirds, and preheat to 400.

2. Put the milk, coffee, butter, sugar, and espresso grinds in a medium or large saucepan over medium heat (a 2-qt. saucepan works well). Stir the liquid to melt the butter and bring to a full boil (so there are bubbles all over the pan).

3. Add all of the flour, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. Stir until all of the flour has been incorporated and the dough forms into a ball and a light crust forms on the bottom of the pan, about 45 seconds.

4. Transfer the batter to a medium bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer. With a spoon or the paddle attachment, add eggs one at a time, stirring to combine (use low speed on the mixer; you don't want to incorporate a lot of air).

5. Once all of the eggs have been added, you should have a soft, sticky dough. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip. This is where things get interesting (messy). I got too excited and just started trying to shove the warm sticky dough into the bag without rolling down the sides. Bad idea. Roll the sides of the pastry bag down and scoop in the dough, rolling up the sides of the bag as you fill it.

6. Pipe quarter-sized puffs onto parchment lined baking sheets.

7. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through. After 20 minutes, lower temperature to 350 and bake for 5-7 minutes more. The profiteroles should feel hollow when they're done.

8. Slice the cooled profiteroles in half and serve with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

 Happy eating.

everything looks better smothered in chocolate syrup