Grand Marnier & Vanilla Mascarpone Profiteroles

Before I go any further I have to confess, my tummy hurts. I have eaten way too many profiteroles, and I can barely move. I have chosen Vanilla Mascarpone Profiteroles for my celebration food because when I think of a grand celebration I think about Croquembouche. The French style wedding and celebration cake made from lots of choux pastry profiteroles, piped full of vanilla custard and glazed with a caramel toffee.

Rather than make a grand tower with my profiteroles, Croquembouche style, I have served my profiteroles as a slightly reinvented dessert. I had been intending to fill the little pastries with vanilla flavoured Mascarpone as I have fallen in love with this flavour since the “Cheesemaking Workshop.”

However, while I was in Port Macquarie participating in a Slow Cooking Class the head chef from Cassegrain (our cooking teacher for the day) happened to mention that she has a Grand Marnier Profiterole on the dessert menu. Yum!

Here is my celebration dessert inspired by Head Chef Lisa. I have alternated the filling in the profiteroles between the Grand Marnier and the Vanilla Mascarpone. Trust me, they both taste very good.

I learnt so much at “Cooking With Company” that there will be a few separate stories to come in the next few days.

Grand Marnier & Vanilla Mascarpone Profiteroles

Choux Pastry

Ingredients:

• 130g plain flour
• 2 t/s caster sugar
• 250ml water
• 100g butter
• 4 eggs

Method:

1. Put water and butter in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Remove from the heat and vigorously stir in the flour and sugar. Return to a low heat and continue to stir over the heat.
3. Beat the paste until the flour mixture is smooth and balls around the spoon leaving the saucepan quite clean. Remove mixture from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven 200C/390F.
5. Lightly beat 4 eggs in a bowl. Pour ¼ of the eggs into the dough and vigorously beat until completely combine.  Continue this process 4 or 5 more times until you have eventually incorporated all of the egg into the dough.The finished paste should be elastic and firm.
6. Cool the pastry mix in the fridge.
7. Wet a baking tray and do not dry (This is important because the steam helps the pastry cook). Spray the tray with oil.
8. When the dough is cooled place into a piping bag and pipe circles 3cm x 2cm high. Leave a 5cm space for spreading. Brush with little egg wash.
9. Cook for 20 mins. DO NOT open the oven during the first 15 mins of cooking.
10. Once cooked, pierce the choux pastry with a skewer to release the steam and set aside to cool.

Vanilla Mascarpone

Ingredients:

• 250g mascarpone
• 3 T/s icing sugar
• 2 t/s vanilla paste

Method:

1. Mix three ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.

Grand Marnier Custard

Ingredients:

• 750ml Milk
• 12 egg yolks
• 160g sugar
• 65g cornflour
• 65g butter
• 4 t/s Grand Marnier

Method:

1. Bring milk almost to the boil in a saucepan.
2. In the meantime put egg yolk, sugar and cornflour into your stand mixer and whisk until thick and pale.
3. Once the milk has heated to near boiling point remove from the heat.
4. With the mixer running add the milk to the egg mixture slowly, mixing all the time.
5. Once combined return all the ingredients to the saucepan and bring to the boil whilst stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.
6. Continue to stir, add the butter and Grand Marnier. The mixture should be thick enough for piping.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Toffee

Ingredients:

• 330ml sugar
• 100g water
• 130ml glucose syrup

Method:

1. Put sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until dissolved.
2. Increase heat and bring to the boil.
3. Once boiling add the glucose syrup and continue to boil until the mix changes colour.
4. Take toffee off the heat.

Assembly:

1. Fill one piping bag with custard and one bag with mascarpone. I highly recommend investing in disposable piping bags!
2. Pipe the custard into 20 of the profiteroles and pipe the other 10 with the mascarpone.
3. Once filled, cafefully dip the profiterole in the toffee and place on a serving plate. The spun toffee is created by dipping two forks in the toffee, and then pulling them apart.

The crunch of the sweet toffee coating over the choux pastry is just magic and the two different flavoured fillings completes the profiteroles for me. The Grand Marnier makes it a lot more grown up tasting than the tradition vanilla custard. Tell me what you think?

Are you tempted to give it a go? I promise it is not a difficult dessert to make. The only problem is they are delicious and it is very hard to stop at just one, or even one of each flavour.

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