Welcome

Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Tuesday 15 May 2007


I am going through a choux pastry phase at the moment. I have just about got over Gregg's comment on our profiterole task (another one that wasn't shown - probably because we all did so badly) that my profiteroles looked like hippos in mud. Lovely. Anyway these are a little more dainty!

White chocolate and raspberry profiteroles
50g butter
150ml cold water
60g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar (or caster sugar if you don't have vanilla sugar)
2 eggs beaten
100 g white chocolate, melted
284ml double cream
1 punnet of fresh raspberries, lightly crushed with a fork


Pre heat the oven to 180oC/350F/gas 4. Melt the butter in the water in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and quickly throw in the flour and sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough is formed which leaves the sides of the pan. Add the egg a little at a time, beating really hard after each addition. You should end up with a smooth glossy dough. Grease a baking tray with butter and place small teaspoons of mixture a distance apart. Place the tray in the oven (Aga roasting oven bottom shelf) and pour a small amount of water onto the oven floor. This will create steam which will help the buns to rise. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove the tray from the oven and pierce each profiterole with a knife to release the steam. Dip a fork in the melted white chocolate and "spin" over the tops of the profiteroles. This will create a nice white chocolate pattern on each. Leave to cool until the chocolate has set. Whisk the cream until stiff peak and fold in the raspberries. Place the cream in a piping bag and pipe into each profiterole. Pile the profiteroles high on a plate, dust with icing sugar and serve.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate working with Choux Pastry. I always have alot of difficulty with it. It never turns out quite the way I want it to! Yours looks lovely! What are your secrets?

William Leigh said...

going to be trying this one at the weekend - first time for everything. Hope you're well sweety x

Suzie Boyes said...

These turned out beautiful our mixture wasn't very glossy thou.
We used the aga roasting oven bottom shelf
the temperature was down abit as the children and I
had already been baking.
The first lot we used the cold shelf but I
removed it after 14 min and not at all for the second batch
cooking time was about 18 to 20 min.I also thru in some water for the steam.
Searching for aga cooking time/advice brought me to your page as very few
mention times and shelf advice for an aga
Thanks