Raspberry Choux Buns

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Since watching the GBBO ages ago, I've been wanting to make choux pastry. Nowadays I only bake for an occasion or when my family visit, so when I was asked to make something special for a lovely lady's 90th birthday party, I was very happy. I chatted to other people who'd also been invited to bake. They were making cakes of some kind, so I thought something with pastry would be good.
 I love profiteroles, so decided on a variation on the usual chocolate ones. I have some French baking magazines and in one of these they used strawberries,in the filling, and being French, the recipe didn't use double cream but ricotta cheese. Interesting, but I wanted to use raspberries, and I wasn't sure that ricotta would give the flavour I wanted, so I decided to use the traditional double cream.

I'm not going to write about making the choux pastry - have a look here for a recipe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/profiteroleswithpist_90242
or there are plenty of others on the web.

Preheat oven  200C/gas6       Line a baking tray with parchment paper

When you've made your choux pastry, put it in a piping bag with a large plain nozzle and pipe little balls on the paper. Bake for about 20 mins then cool on a wire rack.

To make the raspberry filling you need - 250ml double cream, 180g raspberries, 50g icing sugar and 1 tspn rosewater. Whip the cream till stiffish but not too thick, mash up the raspberries then add to the cream with the icing sugar and rose water and mix together. Put aside.

For the icing - 100g dark or cooking chocolate, 89g icing sugar, 40g butter and 3 tbspn water.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water. Add the icing sugar and butter.  Take the pan off the heat and add the water a bit at a time. If your icing seems too thin, just leave it to cool a bit.
Because the filling was quite thick, I couldn't pipe it in like you do usually, so I carefully cut round the balls and used a teaspoon to fill them with the raspberry cream mixture. Top with a layer of the chocolate icing then leave to rest.


I know my chocolate topping could be a lot neater, but these are my practice buns! Didn't get a chance to take a photo of the ones I took to the birthday party.
 The buns tasted good and were much enjoyed. I added the rosewater to give a little hint of another flavour, and I also had a bottle in the cupboard to use, but it's not necessary. I loved the raspberry filling as an alternative to just cream. The fruit adds another texture, and like the idea I saw originally, you could use strawberries chopped up.


Comments

The Caked Crusader said…
They came out well - I bet she was thrilled
19/4/16 5:48 am
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