Raspberry Profiteroles Recipe

To serve

Put 1 profiterole on each of the 4 serving plates. Coat each one using about half of the chilled raspberry coulis. Use the remaining coulis and the remaining 200g of fresh raspberries to decorate the desserts. You can combine these elements if you wish, drizzling the mixture around each profiterole. Add a small sprig of mint to each plate and serve.

Variation

You can also make this recipe with strawberries or blackberries.

Taken from Eat Well and Stay Slim by Michel Guérard (Frances Lincoln, £25)

Ingredients

500g fresh raspberries

3 tbsp water

a pinch plus 1 heaped tsp of fructose or the sweetener of your choice

50ml light whipping cream

1.5 sheets of leaf gelatine or 1 tsp powdered gelatine

2 egg whites

4 large choux pastries

To decorate:

4 small sprigs of mint

Method

1. To make the raspberry coulis, put 300g of the raspberries and 3 tablespoons of water in the bowl of a food processor, and blend to a purée. Taste, and adjust the acidity of the fruit by adding a pinch of fructose if required. For a smooth coulis, pass the purée through a fine sieve - preferably a chinois - and discard the pips.

2. Pour one-third of the coulis into a mixing bowl and set the remainder aside in the refrigerator, to be used for serving.

3. For the raspberry mousse, beat the cream until it forms soft to medium-firm peaks - if the cream is too stiff, it will be difficult to combine with the coulis. Set aside the whipped cream briefly in a cool place.

4. In a saucepan, heat about a quarter of the raspberry coulis from the mixing bowl. Remove the saucepan from the heat, then dissolve and combine the gelatine of your choice with the warm coulis, whisking well until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Whisk in the remaining raspberry coulis from the mixing bowl. Stir a little of the whipped cream into the stiffened coulis, then combine this mixture with the rest of the cream, lifting and folding the ingredients until thoroughly blended.

5. To complete the raspberry mousse, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a separate mixing bowl. Sprinkle on the heaped teaspoon of fructose abd whisk again to firm, but not dry, peaks. Mix about a quarter of the whisked egg whites into the stiffened raspberry cream mixture. Combine this with the remaining whites, repeatedly lifting the whites from the bottom of the bowl and folding them over the top of the mixture until all is well blended.

6. Split the choux pastries in half. Use a teaspoon or piping (pastry) bag to fill the bottom halves with a generous layer of the raspberry mousse. Replace the tops of the filled profiteroles abd chill them in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.