Honeycomb & Cream Profiteroles

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 70 g plain flour, sifted
• 125 ml water
• 1 pinch salt
• 55 g unsalted butter, cubed
• 300 ml double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 ml double cream, for the sauce
• 80 g honeycomb, broken into shards
• 150 g dark chocolate, 70%, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp golden syrup

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan and line a large baking tray with baking paper. Bring the water and butter to a rolling boil in a saucepan, then take off the heat and beat in the flour and salt with a wooden spoon. Keep beating for a minute until you have a smooth, glossy ball that pulls cleanly from the sides of the pan.
2. Tip into a bowl and let it cool for 3 minutes — too hot and the eggs will scramble. Gradually beat in the eggs, a splash at a time, until the dough is smooth, glossy and falls from the spoon in a slow V-shape. You may not need all the egg.
3. Pipe or spoon 18 walnut-sized mounds onto the tray, leaving room between each for puffing. Bake for 22–25 minutes until deeply golden, well-risen and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath — no pale patches or they will collapse.
4. Pierce the base of each bun with a skewer to let the steam escape and cool fully on a wire rack. Skipping this step gives you soggy buns.
5. While they cool, make the chocolate sauce. Heat the 100 ml cream in a small pan until just steaming with bubbles forming at the edges, then pour over the chopped chocolate. Add the golden syrup and stir slowly from the centre outwards until thick, glossy and pourable.
6. Whip the 300 ml cream with the icing sugar and vanilla to soft, billowing peaks — stop the moment it holds its shape. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe through the steam hole in each bun until heavy in the hand.
7. Pile the filled buns into a generous mound on a platter. Pour the warm chocolate sauce over so it cascades down the sides, then scatter with shards of honeycomb so they catch and shatter as you serve. Eat immediately while the sauce is still warm and the honeycomb crackles.