WC Recipe Exchange - Yummy!

So on thenest.com's What's Cooking board, a recipe exchange was put together. I was very excited to participate in this! I was a little intimidated though when I received my recipe. It was definitely a recipe for a nice party, which we happened to go to tonight! I really impressed my family with these little pumpkin treasures, as my husband called them. While this recipe looks intimidating, it really isn't. I was able to make most of the recipe in advace (yesterday) and assembled them before going. Now, unfortunatley I was not able to get a picture of this lovlies before going to the party. I had left my camera at school this past week and so I figured I would just take a picture of the leftovers tomorrow. The problem, you ask? There were no leftovers! These were gone in 15 minutes flat! I was very excited about this, but disapointed there would be not picture of these little treasures. Here is a picture though, from the original recipe. I made just a few changes, but the original recipe is under the recipe title.





Pumpkin Custard Profiteroles With Maple Caramel Syrup
(source: epicurious.com and Bon Appetit November 2004)


Maple caramel
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pumpkin custard
3 cups whipping cream
2 1/4 cups canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
9 large egg yolks

Profiteroles
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk

Lightly sweetened whipped cream
1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Directions

For maple caramel:
Stir sugars and butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until blended and smooth. Whisk in cream. Bring to boil, stirring until caramel bits dissolve. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in bourbon and vanilla; simmer 1 minute. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. I did this the day before)

For pumpkin custard:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk cream and next 6 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Whisk sugar and egg yolks in medium bowl. Gradually stir hot pumpkin mixture into egg yolk mixture.

Pour pumpkin custard into 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish; cover with foil. Place dish in 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Fill baking pan with enough hot water to come halfway up sides of dish. Bake until custard is set in center, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool completely. Cover and chill until cold, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. I made this the night before.)

For profiteroles:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring 1/2 cup water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to boil in heavy large saucepan. Stir in flour; cook over medium-high heat, stirring vigorously, until dough is smooth and pulls away from sides of pan, about 1 minute. Transfer hot mixture to standing mixer. Beat dough with paddle attachment at medium speed until slightly cool, about 3 minutes. Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in egg yolk until blended.

Spoon 16 mounds of batter about the size of large eggs onto prepared sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Beat remaining egg in small bowl to blend. Brush tops of profiteroles lightly with beaten egg. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 375°F. Continue baking until puffed and dark golden brown, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer to rack to cool completely. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container in freezer. Remove from freezer a few hours before continuing. I made the night before and stored in the fridge.)

Rewarm caramel sauce. Using serrated knife, slice profiteroles horizontally in half. Spoon rounded 1/3 cup filling into bottom half of each profiterole. Cover with top halves. Drizzle with sauce. Spoon dollop of whipped cream atop profiteroles. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and serve.

I did not figure points for this! They were so tastey though! It was great that I could do it all before then we just assembled them right before leaving. My aunts house is just down the street so they were still warm when we got there. They were definitely a hit and I got so many compliments on the presentation of these little guys. The original recipe calls for maple sugar, which I couldn't find. The reviews of the recipe though gave the suggestion of 1 cup light brown sugar/1/4 cup maple syrup and then the cream needed cut back to 1/2 cup. It worked great! I would definitely recommend making these for your next holiday party. They are not as labor intensive as they look, but it did help to make everything the night before too!