Baking Recipe: {Part 2} Christmas Giveaway and Chocolate Profiteroles

*Christmas Giveaway*



Disclaimer: Photo used is from marthastewart.com. Not meant for promotional usage as it's to just highlight the season for giving.

First stop, CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY {yeayyyyyy!!} It's the time of season to forgive and forget. On top of that I've a special gift that I personally picked out for you lovely loyal readers who have been giving me so much support. I can't say THANK YOU enough.

I've been hinting in my past couple post that I'm planning a giveaway. I do apologise if it took me so long to come up with something. Basically, I was looking high and low for a perfect gift. I went on a small shopping spree today as I have got my very first order to bake a birthday cake for my friend's mom. At the same time, I spotted something that really inspired me to celebrate this Christmas in style. Lol.. I got myself a set and that very same time I had a light bulb moment. {I thought to myself.. I've finally found finally the PERFECT GIFT for any foodie friend!} Gosh.. I'm just so excited.

Now, for the CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY (CLOSED)..  to enter:

1. Please follow ChicGorgeous on blogspot,. Currently I do not have twitter or facebook. You'll have to be a follower of my blog to participate.

2. My humble target now is to up my readers to 28 followers or beyond the figure I set. So once the target is met, I'll do a draw. Personally, I appreciate any current and new interested readers to continue to support me on my journey of baking or cooking a feast. If you do adore my blog, do be a follower. :)

3. Leave comments on any of my current December 2010 desserts adventure post . Be it whether you have tried out the recipe or you thought that the recipe looks/ sounds/ taste good. While leaving your comment, it is important to state that you're interested to participate in the draw and leave me your e-mail address. This way, I'll know that you're interested in joining the Christmas Giveaway. 

4. Feel free to suggest what you like to see more in my blog, or suggest a recipe or couple of recipes that you would like me to try to bake. Bear in mind I'm an amateur.. but it'll be fun to share the baking journey together with you. I'll be more than happy to give it a shot as long I got the time and able to find the ingredients here at my local supermarket. Nevertheless, I'll find time to experiment. {Brownies' honour ;p}

5. Please note: Currently shipping is limited to participants only in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, US, Canada {newly added} and UK. I do apologise to other readers in other countries.

**Disclaimer: Participants should take note of their own country import rules/guidelines. Chic&Gorgeous Blog will not be responsible for customs.

{Chocolate Profiteroles}

Over the last weekend, I decided to bake some profiteroles for tea for my parents. Profiteroles are such quick and tasty treats to whip up.. and it was my very first time tackling puffs.

You know, I always had the impression that baking eclairs or profiteroles are tough, as when I look through my baking books, they always sound so complicated. However, the profiterole recipe below was adapted from Kimba's Kitchen. Kimberly from Kimba's Kitchen is such an excellent cook and baker who's also Malaysian but now residing in Melbourne. My favourite place to visit and chill, due to the diversity of culture. Just looking at her photos already makes my mouth water {drooling}. Lol..

For the profiterole filling, it's my own quick cheat. What happen was I wanted the filling to be filled with light whipped cream. Unfortunately this time, I've forgotten that I've ran out of thickened cream for whipping, whereby the fat content is higher in the cream. All I was left was with a cooking cream. Luckily I had a stash of Mascarpone in hand. Now that was a life saver.  All I did was added a couple of doll up of mascarpone, cooking cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract.. whisk it a little bit until combined and {voila!} out came a looked alike whipped cream.

For the melted chocolate sauce to drizzle over the tiny sinful profiteroles was another quick step. All I did was melted my Hersheys Semi Dark + Milk Chocolate Chips. Lol.. Isn't that another cheat? Oh well! It's Sunday.. and I was trying to avoid as much clean up as possible.

Okay, for the killer recipe.. which reminds me you can use this same recipe to make eclairs. Instead of 1 cup water, you can always substitute with 1/2 cup whole milk + 1/2 cup water and pipe them in a longish shape.

Recipe:

Ingredients (Profiterole)

adapted from Kimba's Kitchen

125 g plain flour, sifted
70 g unsalted Butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, at room temperature
250 ml warm water

To prepare profiterole:

1. Preheat Oven to 200º and lightly grease baking tray or lay tray with parchment paper.

2. Put the butter, salt and 250ml water into a saucepan and bring to boil. Stir occasionally. Add the flour into the boiling mixture. Reduce the heat to low, and then beat quickly with wooden spoon until the mixture leaves the side of the pan and forms a smooth ball.

3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool. Using electric beaters, beat in the eggs, one at a time until the mixture is thick and glossy.

4. Pipe the mixture onto the prepared trays. Bake for 20 minutes or until the balls are puffed. Reduce the oven to 180º and bake for another 10 minutes until the puffs are golden brown and crisp.

5. Using a small sharp knife gently slit the puffs to let the steam to escape. Return them to the oven for 10 minutes until the insides are dry. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Ingredients (Whipped Cream Filling - my own cheat ;p)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup light cream
4-5 tbsp icing sugar (or more, according to your taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract

To prepare whipped cream filling:

1. With a manual whisk, mix all the ingredients until it's well incorporated. Make sure to not over whisk the mascarpone as it will split. You'll notice the texture to be thick just like whipped cream.

Ingredients (Chocolate Sauce)

1/2 cup milk chocolate
1/2 cup semi-dark chocolate
2-3 tsp butter or 2-3 small cubes of butter
1-2 tbsp cream

To prepare chocolate sauce:

1. Heat up cream, but not to boiling stage.

2. Pour cream over chocolate in a prepared bowl.

3. Slowly mix in butter,  and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. While mixing with the wooden spoon/ spatula, you'll notice the chocolate sauce will slightly thickened.

To assemble profiterole:

1. With a knife cut the profiterole into half, where it was originally slit earlier during baking phase.

2. Spoon a doll up of cream, and sandwich the top and bottom of profiterole together.

3. Drizzle chocolate sauce over the top of profiterole.

Note: Profiteroles are best eaten fresh, and assemble them before serving. Alternatively, I prepared the profiterole and chilled them in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes before serving. I assure you, the taste remains and it's delish.

Okay peeps! I can't wait to share with you the gift I selected. Don't be shy to participate. However, I appreciate if you abide the conditions >.< . Am certainly looking forward to reading your feedbacks and happy baking y'all. Do continue to stay tune.. as I'll try to post a couple more recipes before Christmas.

xx