Chocolate brandy cream profiterole puddings

If there is any time of the year when you can go overboard with glitter and kitsch, its Christmas. So why make regular profiteroles when you can make them look like tiny Christmas puddings and cover them in edible glitter? You know you want to.

I lack any particular dexterity with a piping bag, so I shaped my profiterole buns with two teaspoons, which resulted in them being slightly misshapen and unevenly sized, but all the more endearing for it. A piping bag will result in more uniformity, but unless you have very judgemental guests I don’t think it’s worth stressing over.

Choux pastry is pretty easy stuff, even though the method is pretty unusual.

Heat 110g butter and 250ml water in a pan until they come to the boil. Take off the heat and immediately stir through 150g bread flour, 2 tbsp caster sugar and 3 tbsp cocoa powder. Beat the mixture together until it forms a ball in the pan. If it doesn’t form a ball immediately, place it back on a low heat and stir until it does. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes until still warm to the touch but not so hot that you could cook eggs on it. Then, either using a wooden spoon and some elbow grease, or using electric beaters, add 4 eggs, one at a time, until combined.

Heat your oven to 200C (fan). Splodge or pipe your mixture in small (4cm) rounds on non-stick baking sheets. You will probably get 30 out of the mixture, depending on how big you make them. Bake for 10 minutes before turning the heat down to 180C (fan) and baking for a further 15-20 minutes until risen and quite dry.

Once baked, remove from the baking tray and turn them upside down. Pierce a hole in the bottom of each one with a knife to let the steam out so that they dry out on the inside.

You can make these up to this point a day or two in advance and keep them in a cool, dry place. I would only fill these a few hours in advance of when you want to eat them.

I just used pots of thick brandy cream from the supermarket to fill these. You could use any flavoured cream you like, or just whip regular double cream and flavour it yourself. I would buy about 900ml cream to be on the safe side. You really do need to use a piping bag to fill them. Put a medium tip on the end of your bag, fill it and then poke the nozzle into the hole you made in the bottom to let the steam out. Squeeze in cream until the little buns start to bulge.

Melt about 150g white chocolate and dunk the top of each bun into the chocolate. Adorn the tops with a dried cranberry and a little edible glitter. Leave to set and then store in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

Shopping list:
150g bread flour
110g butter
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
4 eggs
900ml brandy cream
150g white chocolate
Dried cranberries and edible glitter to decorate