At last......(Raspberry and White Chocolate profiteroles)

A good few months ago, back in the summer, I came up with the idea of making Raspberry and White Chocolate Profiteroles. I like chocolate profiteroles but thought it would be nice to have something a little lighter and more summery. Sadly they didn't work out as I'd hoped. The choux buns turned out fine as did the raspberry filling but the white chocolate sauce......disaster! I don't mind admitting I was disappointed. I'd worked out the recipe in my head and I had fully expected it to work. I've been making chocolate sauce since I was a teenager, using the same recipe but I'd never made it with white chocolate and hadn't taken into account that white chocolate doesn't behave quite like milk or dark chocolate.

I've not tried to make them again since simply because I've not really made time to play around and get the sauce right.
Mr P has recently found an interest in baking and in pastry, in particular, so he suggested that we have a go at perfecting my idea together.
He popped out this morning to get a few necessary ingredients and set about making the choux buns when he got back. The recipe he used is from Michel Roux's book Pastry. They turned out really well.

Excuse the tiles waiting to be grouted!

Once they cooled I made the raspberry sauce using 2 small punnets of raspberries and a shake of icing sugar. I put them in the food processor with the sugar and blitzed until smooth then passed through a sieve to remove the seeds. This was added to a bowl of whipped cream (standard 284ml carton of whipped cream) gently folded in until you have a beautifully pink, fragrant, raspberry cream. You might like to taste and see if you want any more sugar, but you don't want it to be too sweet and sickly, remember you have the white chocolate to come!
Use a piping bag with a smallish nozzle to fill you buns (and eclair cases if you make those too) Mr P did this while I made the chocolate sauce.
The best way to melt white chocolate it seems is to have a pan of boiling water and place a bowl over it (Bain Marie) break up your bar of white chocolate (150g) in to small pieces, place in the bowl and walk away. DO NOT HAVE THE PAN ON THE HEAT. After about 10 minutes go back to the pan and stir with a spoon. The chocolate should have melted. Slowly add a small carton of double cream stirring all the time. It might look like it's all gone horribly wrong but just bare with it and keep stirring. If it doesn't look like a smooth creamy sauce, put the lowest heat setting you have on under the pan and stir, stir, stir. Slowly and gently it will come together. Allow to cool a little and pour over the choux buns just before serving.

The only thing I failed to do was take a picture of the beautiful colour of the raspberry cream inside, we were far too keen to get stuck in and eat them!
I have to say they did not disappoint this time, they were wonderfully light and not at all sickly. I actually lost count of how many I ate (probably for the best!)

This is one of those desserts that is really worth the effort. They didn't last very long and everyone had seconds or thirds until there were none left.

So at last the dreaded white chocolate sauce has been mastered and we've  decided we're going to make more things together, Mr P can concentrate on his pastry and me the fillings, team work at it's best.

We'll definitely be making these again especially in the summer when raspberries are in season.
If you decide to make them, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Note - If you are wanting to make the eclair version, make sure you coat them with melted white chocolate before you add the cream to make the sauce for the profiteroles.