Salty Pistachio & White Chocolate Profiteroles
GBBO 2024 Bake Along, Week 8 - 70s Week
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Hello and welcome to week 8 of our GBBO bake along! It’s the quarter finals, I can’t believe there’s only 2 weeks left. This week it’s 70’s week in the tent, this seems like a bit of a rogue theme but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the challenges so I’m not complaining. Speaking of the challenges, let’s get into it…
Signature
For the signature the bakers had to make a profiterole tower, this is a challenge that is right up my street, I live for anything choux pastry. I wasn’t sure about the structural integrity of some of the towers but I thought that overall the bakers did well. I loved the idea of Christiaan’s Black Forest choux buns and can’t believe he managed to finish in time despite having to re-bake his choux buns, I wasn’t really sure why he re-made his choux, the first batch looked alright to me. This is the recipe we’re focusing on this week, for free subscribers I have a salted white chocolate & pistachio choux bun recipe and for paid subscribers I’ll be showing you how to use this recipe to make a cake-filled croquembouche.
Technical
The technical challenge featured the 70’s classic, banoffee pie. I will eat almost anything but I do not like bananas, in fact I’m a certified banana hater so this challenge wasn’t really for me. I was surprised by the about of tough pastry in the tent as I can only assume it was a bit of a dodgy recipe as a good recipe takes A LOT of working before becoming tough. Loved the fact that Dylan just binned off the suggested decoration and did what he felt like, it still looked good no matter what Paul said.
Showstopper
I was a little bit confused by the brief of “70’s gateau”, I wasn’t quite sure what the judges wanted but it was fun to see what the bakers came up with. Black Forest gateau seemed like the obvious choice here, it has to be one of the best cakes out there. I couldn’t believe how MASSIVE some of the cakes were, especially given the 4 hour time limit, I was honestly surprised that only one collapsed. I thought that Georgie’s looked incredibly neat, and even though the execution wasn’t perfect I really liked Christiaan’s idea of a swirly orange and brown collar for his cake. If you’re in the mood for a gateau I’ve linked my Black Forest recipe below.
Ok, let’s get onto today’s recipe!
Salty Pistachio & White Chocolate Profiteroles
I’ve been having some interesting chats over on my Instagram about pistachio flavoured things and whether or not we should be adding almond extract. Interestingly the feedback seemed to be exactly 50:50 almond extract lovers to haters. I remain on the fence, sometimes I like a little bit of almond but in this instance it absolutely isn’t necessary. The flavour of the roasted pistachios comes through so well in this diplomat, I honestly surprised myself with it. I’m not usually a pistachio girl but I love this diplomat, it’s almost aggressively salty but I think that’s what makes the pistachios shine. I really recommend making your own pistachio paste but if you can’t be bothered I’d recommend replacing it with a pure nut butter rather than pistachio cream which is often very sweet and has little to no pistachio flavour.
Ingredients - Makes about 30 profiteroles
Choux
78g whole milk
78g water
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch salt
67g butter
120g strong flour/bread flour
150-200g eggs (3-4 eggs)
Craquelin
100g soft unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour
green gel food colouring (optional)
Roasted Pistachio Paste (or store-bought nut butter)
*This will make more than you need but it won’t blend properly in smaller quantities, save the rest for other baking projects!
200g pistachios
15g pistachio oil/neutral oil
Pistachio & White Chocolate Diplomat
150g whole milk
1/2 vanilla pod/1tbsp vanilla paste
1/4tsp salt
40g egg yolk/about 2 large yolks
25g caster sugar
10g cornflour
75g white chocolate
40g roast pistachio paste
225g whipping or double cream
Method - Roasted Pistachio Paste
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C(fan)/360°F.
Spread the pistachios out on a tray and roast for 15 minutes until a light golden brown.
Allow the nuts to cool slightly.
In a food processor or blender blitz the pistachios until they are as finely ground as possible.
Add the oil and blend until smooth, this will take a while, if necessary you can add more oil but no more than 10g. Just keep blending!
Method - Pistachio & White Chocolate Diplomat
Make the base of the diplomat by combining the milk, vanilla and salt in a medium pan and bringing to the boil.
Whisk together the cornflour and sugar then add the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
Pour half of the freshly boiled milk over the egg mixture while whisking, followed by the second half. Sieve back into the pan.
Bring the mixture to the boil, whisking continuously, once boiling cook out for 3-4 more minutes, this ensures that there isn’t a floury texture and that it’s nice and thick.
Add the white chocolate, and pistachio paste and whisk to combine, at this point is you have any lumps you can give it a quick blitz with a hand blender. Give it a taste and add more salt if needed (I like mine really salty but I know this isn’t for everyone).
Leave to cool in a container with clingfilm touching the surface.
When the base is room temperature, whisk the cream to soft peaks and fold in 1/3 at a time. The base needs to be room temperature rather than right out of the fridge to avoid seizing, if it’s been chilling in the fridge, just pop it in the microwave for around 20 seconds.
It will thicken as you fold the cream in so try and be fairly speedy.
Once all of the cream is incorporated either use straight away or chill in the fridge until you’re ready to fill your choux buns.
Method - Craquelin
Mix everything together until it forms a dough.
Split the craquelin in half and roll each half between two sheets of baking paper, roll it as thin as possible.
Put on a tray and freeze until ready to use.
Method - Choux
Combine the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and bring to the boil.
Once boiling, reduce the temperature and add the flour stirring vigorously.
Continue to cook for about 2 minutes.
Remove from the heat and transfer into a stand mixer, beat with the paddle on slow until it’s partially cooled, it should be warm to the touch but not hot enough to cook the eggs.
Add the egg a bit at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl down between each addition. Make sure the egg is fully incorporated before adding more.
The amount of egg you need is dependant on a number of factors so you might need more or less, don’t add too much at once! When the mix drops off the spoon and forms a v shape it’s ready.
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C(fan)/340 °F.
Grease and line 2-3 trays with baking paper or re-usable baking sheets, I prefer re-usable baking sheets for this as it’s easier to see markings
Using a 20mm cutter or piping nozzle, mark out rings on your tray by dipping the cutter into plain flour before tapping it on the baking sheet, it should leave rings of flour that you can use as a guide when piping to keep your choux even in size.
Using a plain 10mm nozzle, pipe the choux within the markings.
Cut the craquelin into 30mm rings, I like the craquelin to completely cover the choux but you can use a smaller cutter if you only like a little bit.
Bake at 170°C(fan)/340 °F for 15-20 minutes, do not open the oven door before they’ve been baking for at least 15 minutes!
Once cool, fill with pistachio diplomat and serve.
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