Serves
4 (makes 12 profiteroles)
Make your own lemon curd as
most of the ready-made ones contain battery eggs - it also tastes better
and is quite quick and easy, which is just
as well as a batch never lasts very long!
Ingredients
150 ml/ 1/4 pint water
50 g/2 oz butter
pinch of salt
65 g/2 1/2 oz plain white flour (in a jug)
2 large free-range eggs, beaten
100 g/4 oz icing sugar, sifted
juice of 1/2-1 lemon
150 ml/5 fl oz single or double cream
Lemon
curd:
Zest
and juice of 2 lemons
2 large free-range eggs
75 g/3 oz caster sugar
50 g/2 oz unsalted butter cut into small pieces
Method
1.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/350°F/Gas
Mark 7
2.
Make the lemon curd first. Whisk the lemon juice and eggs together
in
a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the lemon zest and sugar.
Pour the eggs over the sugar and add the butter. Place over a pan
of simmering water, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until
thick.
Leave to cool.
3.
Put the water, butter and salt for the choux pastry in a saucepan and
heat until the water is just boiling and the butter has melted.
4.
Remove from the heat and add all the flour at once by pouring it from
the jug. Beat to form a shiny dough, then return to the heat and
cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently until you have a ball of
dough in the centre of the pan.
5.
Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, beating well between each addition.
You should have a glossy dough of piping consistency. The
more you beat at this stage, the lighter and crisper the pastry will
be.
6.
Either spoon the choux pastry onto a parchment-lined baking sheet,
a tablespoon
at a time,
or put the mixture into a piping bag with a
large nozzle and pipe 'blobs'. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes,
then reduce the heat to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 for a further
10-15 minutes, until crisp and golden.
7.
Remove from the oven, and slit each profiterole to allow the steam
to
escape. Cool on a wire rack, then fill with lemon curd.
8.
Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice to make a thin gláce icing. Pile
the profiteroles up on a dish and drizzle the lemon icing sugar over
the top. Serve with cream.
|
