Gloverly Cupcakes

Happy New Year! Last night Tom and I decided that we would have a quiet new year’s eve with just the 2 of us – Tom made the cocktails and I made the food. For pudding I made these: salted caramel profiteroles.

I haven’t made profiteroles, or choux pastry, for a while and it wasn’t as tricky as I remember. I made them the night before and then assembled them and made the chocolate sauce just before I served them – I’d had a few cocktails by that point but luckily it was fairly straight forward!

Every month I get Delicious and Sainsburys magazines. After I’ve read through them I cut out the recipes which I think that I might want to make one day and stick them into books/folders. My mum does the same and although I’ve got nowhere near as many as she does, I’ve still got a large collection. I’ve split them into meat (red folder), fish (blue folder), vegetables (green folder) and sweet things (pink folder). I’ve decided that I’m going to start making more of them so when it came to choosing the pudding for new year’s eve, I had a flick through my pink folder and found this one. It was just what I was after – easy to make yet it looked really impressive. I think the gold leaf on it made it look that bit more special and therefore perfect for an occasion like new year’s eve!

It also gave me the opportunity to use the gorgeous champagne saucers which Tom gave me for Christmas. They were obviously intended to have champagne and cocktails in (and Tom used the other two glasses for our drinks) but as soon as I found the recipe I couldn’t resist serving them in individual portions in these glasses

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Profiteroles (from Delicious)

Serves 10 – 12

Choux Pastry

90g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp caster sugar

75g unsalted butter cut into cubes

3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 200 C/gas 6.

Sift the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt into a heap on a sheet of baking paper.

Heat 220ml water and the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat until the butter melts. Then increase the heat and bring to a vigorous boil. Tip the flour into the water and butter using the baking paper as a funnel, remove from the heat and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to form a thick paste which comes away cleanly from the sides of the pan.

Gradually add the eggs to the pan and beat between each addition until you have a smooth, glossy mixture – it should be a thick, dropping consistency (you might not need all the egg). Place the mixture into a piping bag and cut the end off so that it has a hole about 1cm wide.

Lightly grease a large baking tray and pipe small mounds, slightly apart to allow space for them to rise/expand. Bake on the top shelf of the oven from 15-18 minutes until risen, golden and crisp. Pierce the bottom of each bun with a sharp knife to allow the steam to escape and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Salted Caramel Filling

50g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp soft light brown sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

450ml double cream (not straight from the fridge)

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Put the butter, golden syrup, soft brown sugar and salt into a small pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Whip the cream with the icing sugar until it has soft peaks. Stir a spoonful of the cream, along with the vanilla essence into the cold caramel to slacken it, then fold the caramel and into the cream with a metal spoon. Chill for 10 minutes until cold.

Spoon into a piping bag with a small-medium sized pain nozzle. Insert the nozzle into the hole you pierced in each bun and fill with cream. Stack the filled buns on a large plate (I used individual champagne saucers).

Chocolate Sauce

100g dark chocolate

30g unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan with a splash of water and cook over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then simmer gently for 2 minutes.

Drizzle the chocolate sauce over the profiteroles, scatter with edible gold leaf and serve immediately.