Chocolatey Profiteroles With Praline Crunch

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Using a pencil, draw 15 circles on each piece of parchment paper roughly 1 ½ inches in diameter. Once you’ve drawn 30 circles, flip the parchment paper over and return to the baking sheets so you can use these as guides when piping.
2. Make the dough: In a medium saucepan, add the butter, sugar, salt, and ½ cup water. Stir to combine, and cook over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, bring it to a boil and remove from the heat. Add the flour and quickly stir together with a wooden spoon to form dough, about 1 minute. Place the saucepan back over low heat, stirring vigorously for 2 minutes until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan. Tip the dough into a large bowl and leave to cool until barely warm.
3. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Using an electric whisk, gradually add the beaten eggs to the dough 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each egg (you might not need the last egg so go slowly when adding). The dough should be shiny and paste-like and fall from the spatula when lightly shaken.
4. Make the choux pastry: Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip, or simply cut the tip of the piping bag to the desired size. Pipe the dough onto each of the circles on the baking sheets using about 1 tablespoon of dough per circle.
5. Make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg in a small bowl, then lightly brush it onto the profiteroles using a pastry brush. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven and make a hole in the side of each profiterole using a skewer to let the steam out. Place both trays back in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Once cooked, transfer the profiteroles to a wire rack and let them cool.
6. Make the praline: In a small saucepan, combine the hazelnuts and sugar and cook over low heat until the sugar has caramelized, stirring constantly to ensure hazelnuts are fully coated. Once done, spread praline on a lightly oiled sheet of parchment paper. Once it has cooled down, place a second sheet of parchment paper on top of the praline and crush it using a rolling pin. Set aside.
7. Make the filling: In a large mixing bowl, whisk the heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla until it forms soft peaks. Spoon it into a piping bag, then pipe the cream in the profiteroles through the hole you made earlier. Return filled profiteroles to baking sheets and set aside.
8. Melt the chocolate: Place chopped chocolate in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, boil the heavy cream over medium-high heat until just boiling, then pour it over the chocolate. Stir to melt the chocolate and cool for 5 minutes. You can either dip the tops of the profiteroles into the chocolate or place the profiteroles in a pyramid and pour the chocolate on top.
9. To finish, top with crushed praline.