Chef/Owner Fern Kirouac,
In Ferno’s Bistro
The dense filling has a pudding-like consistency that is light in taste, with caramel and maple complementing each other nicely.
Ingredients
Pastry
1 lb puff pastry, frozen
Choux paste
1 cup water
pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup less 1 Tbsp butter
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour
4 extra large eggs
Pastry Cream
4 cups 3% milk
3 1/2 Tbsp butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup less 1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp orange brandy
1/2 cup Manitoba maple syrup
Filling
1 L whipping cream
1/2 cup Manitoba maple syrup
Method
Pastry
- Roll out dough to 1/4″ thick and cut six 5″ circles.
- Bake on a sheet pan at 425˚F for 25-30 min until golden brown and firm.
Choux paste
- In a heavy saucepan, bring first four ingredients to boil.
- Stir in flour with wooden spoon. Cook, stiring continually, until a ball forms.
- Cool.
- Beat in eggs, one a time, mixing well.
- Place in pastry bag with star tip and pipe mixture around edge of pastry circles, then in an ‘e’ starting in each centre.
- On a parchment lined sheet pan, pipe 24 1/2″ balls (profiteroles).
- Bake at 425˚F for 25-30 min until golden brown and firm.
- Once cooled, dip profiteroles in your favourite caramel sauce.
- Cut a small hole in the bottom of each profiterole.
Pastry Cream
- In a saucepan bring milk, butter and 1 cup sugar to near boiling.
- Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until smooth.
- Add cup of hot milk mixture to egg mixture, then add to saucepan with remaining milk. Whisk until very thick.
- Transfer to clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill.
Filling
- Whip cream until very thick.
- In a bowl, combine maple syrup and pastry cream. Very gently, fold into cream, a little at a time.
- Pipe over cooled bases from pastry bag. Fill profiteroles with mixture.
- Top each base with four profiteroles.
Yield 6 servings