Icelandic style choux buns / profiteroles - Vatnsdeigsbollur

It's Bolludagur again - so it's time for a repost from 2008:

In Iceland, the last Monday before Lent is called Bolludagur, or Bun Day. On this day, we stuff ourselves with delicious, sweet buns, and many families eat meatballs or fish balls for dinner (bolla can mean both "bun" and "ball"). 

Two kinds of buns are made: One recipe uses yeast for rising, the other uses eggs. My mother always makes the egg kind, which are made with choux dough. As a result, I have never been able to acquire a taste for the yeast buns. The choux buns are basically profiteroles with a local twist.

Choux buns, AKA profiteroles


Bun recipe:
125 g margarine or butter
250 ml water
125 g flour
4 eggs
 
Put the water and margarine together in a saucepan and heat until margarine is melted. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until the dough is smooth and thick. Keep the saucepan on the hotplate while stirring. Remove from the hotplate and allow to cool a little. Break the eggs into a bowl, one at a time, and stir to break the yolk. Pour into the dough and mix well. 

Drop the dough balls onto a cookie sheet, using two tablespoons, keeping a good space between the blobs, as they expand quite a bit. Bake at 200°C, in the middle of the oven, for 20-30 minutes, or until the buns are a pale golden colour. Do not open the oven for the first 12-15 minutes, or the buns will fall. 

Allow to cool.

Traditionally, these buns are served by splitting them in two and filling the cavity with whipped cream and jam and toping them with cocoa glaze (icing sugar + cocoa powder + warm water) or melted chocolate.

Variations on filling and topping:
-Mash fruit or berries, such as strawberries, bananas, blueberries or peaches and stir into whipped cream and use as filling.
-Add small chocolate chips to the whipped cream before filling the buns. Leave out the glaze.
-Experiment with different flavours of icing, such as maple syrup, caramel, lemon or vanilla.
-Put a piece of creme-filled candy inside the bun for a burst of flavour.
-Fill the buns with Nutella and whipped cream.  
-Simple cocoa glaze or melted chocolate.
 
Party treats: Make tiny profiteroles (use teaspoons or a pastry tube instead of tablespoons) and fill with flavoured cream-cheese or tuna dip (mash tuna into mayonnaise and flavour with garlic and pepper). Make a small hole in the side of each bun and fill, using an icing tube. Serve as nibbles or appetisers.

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