Choux Patsry Balls With Shrimps

I have another recipe to share that involves choux pastry (pâte à choux). This time it’s profiteroles. However, these profiteroles (or cream puffs) are not meant for dessert since they involve a salty filling. This recipe might appear complicated, but I assure you, it’s not. As you probably realized in the last post (chocolate éclairs), making choux pastry is not complicated at all. And, of course, the filling is not hard to make as well. In fact, it’s so easy I forgot to write down the directions for it at first!

Profiteroles with shrimp filling are perfect for appetizers or a cocktail party (your guests will be impressed). The recipe was adapted from here.

Ingredients (for 20 cream puffs) :

Choux pastry:

5 tbsp + 1 tsp (75 g) butter

2/3 cup (1 1/2) water

2/3 cup (1 1/2) all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

1/2 salt

Shrimp filling:

7.1 oz (200 g) soft cream cheese (I used Original Philadelphia)

5.3 oz (150 g) shrimps, frozen

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (1 dl) dill or parsley

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Directions: 

Choux pastry:

1. Preheat the oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large saucepan, bring water and butter to boil. Do not reduce the heat. Add flour and mix well until the mixture is uniform, shiny and does not stick to the pan. Take the saucepan off the heat and let it cool.
   
3. Add the eggs to the cooled mixture one-by-one: take a good grip of the saucepan and whisk well after adding each egg, until the mixture is uniform. 
   
   
4. Using two teaspoons place small portions of choux pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can also use a piping bag instead of teaspoons in order to get more uniform choux pastry balls.
   
   
5. Bake the choux pastry balls for 20 minutes, or until they turn golden-brown. Note: do not open the oven for the first 15 minutes in order to let the dough rise properly. Let them cool.  
   

Shrimp filling:

1. Defreeze the shrimps, and drain well from excess water.
2. Chop the shrimps and dill/parsley. 
   
3. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, shrimps, dill/parsley, lemon juice, sugar, ground white pepper, and salt.
4. Cut the tops off from the choux pastry balls and spoon the filling inside each ball. Place the hats back on. Serve immediately.

You can also freeze the pastry choux balls before filling them. Defreeze in a refrigerator.

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