A slight disagreement with Mary Berry today…

Don’t get me wrong here – I have the greatest possible respect for Mary Berry – I think she is a brilliant baker and I generally treat her recipes as holy writ.

But today I think I have to take issue with the recipe for chocolate profiteroles in her baking bible.  As all bakers will know (well maybe not all because some that appear on GBBO seem to have odd gaps in their knowledge), choux pastry is made by melting fat into water, beating in flour, and then eggs.  So having made this many times, I took a bit of a double take when I noticed the instructions said to remove the water and melted butter from the heat, beat in the flour, and then add the eggs.  Normally I would have removed the pan from the heat, beaten in the flour, and then returned it to the low heat, beating all the time until the mix forms a smooth ball, and there is a slight film or “fur” on the base of the pan.  Then leave it for a few minutes to cool down, and then add the eggs.

But I thought, Mary knows best, and there may be some subtle difference in the proportions which makes this different method right.  So I tried it, and it was a disaster.  Even as I started to add the eggs I knew the consistency was all wrong – and by the the time I had half the egg in, the “V test” (you pick up a blob of mix and when it forms a dangling V shape on the spoon) was failing with the blob just dropping straight off.  I knew from experience that if you bake choux like that it will not rise properly and just form a sort of baked pancake.  So I consigned the mixture to become a drop scone mix and made it again.

This time I made it with her ingredients but my method and they turned out perfect.  In fact they were better than usual because I learned a tip for making them extra dry on the inside by cutting the shells in half and then putting them back in the switched off oven to cool down.

But I still think that 2 minutes of gentle cooking until the pan “furs” is essential unless you have a very expensive pan with a thick base and also make sure the water is genuinely at a roiling boil when you add the flour.