Orange Profiteroles with Orange Chocolate Sauce Recipe

Today we have an indulgent dessert for you. I love orange-based sauces with both savoury and sweet dishes — and as a number of people have asked for a choux pastry recipe, here is my foolproof version used to make profiteroles. So here I have adapted an orange and chocolate sauce that I typically serve with duck to be used as a sweet sauce for a dessert.

Typically profiteroles are filled with cream, but as I am not a big fan of cream, I've used ricotta cheese in this recipe. If anything, the slightly savoury flavour of the ricotta works better with the orange sauce than cream does, but you opinion may differ!

Admittedly, this dessert takes a bit of effort to make, but, believe me, the effort yields a truly worthwhile result. Here is a great dessert if you want a bit of 'wow' factor!

Orange Profiteroles with Orange Chocolate Sauce

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

For the Profiteroles:

60g (2 oz) plain flour
40g (1 1/2 oz) butter or margarine
1 egg
1 egg white

For the Filling:

150g ricotta cheese
2 tsp orange zest
1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

For the Orange Sauce:

250ml double cream
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter, diced
100g dark chocolate
1 tbsp orange zest

Method:

Combine the butter or margarine in a pan with 125ml (1/2 cup) water. Bring to a boil then take off the heat. Add the flour and beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan to forma ball.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg and egg white then gradually beat this egg mixture into the flour mix. You need to beat very well to incorporate lots of air into the mix (it's this that causes the buns to rise).

Line a baking tray with greaseproof (waxed) paper then use a teaspoon to drop 18 mounds of the batter onto this (ensure that you leave plenty of space for them to rise).

Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200ºC (400ºF, Gas Mark 6) and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown (do not open the oven door during the cooking time, or the profiteroles will sink).

Remove from the oven and pierce each one with a skewer to let out the steam. Return to the oven for 5 minutes more (this dried the insides). Now transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce: meting the butter and chocolate in a saucepan. Once molten stir-in the double cream and take off the heat then add the orange zest and the sugar. Beat together.

To fill the profiteroles, carefully slit the buns and spoon or pipe in the blend of ricotta cheese, orange zest and icing sugar. Arrange three profiteroles for each portion, spoon over the sauce and serve.

Note, do not fill the profiteroles more than 2 hours before you serve, or they will be soggy.