These bite-sized Pumpkin Cheesecake Profiteroles feature creamy pumpkin cheesecake filling inside a light, airy, crispy choux pastry shells! They are a great small-serving alternative to pumpkin pie or pumpkin roll cake on your Thanksgiving day dinner table or any dinner for that matter.
3tbspof icing sugarpowdered sugar, I like mine to be less sweet, but you can add more icing sugar if you like it sweeter.
2- 4tbspcream
pinchof salt
Chocolate Glaze
10ozsemi-sweet chocolate
4ozof cream
Instructions
Choux Pastry
Follow my choux pastry recipe in the link, but place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large circle tip (about 1 cm or larger).
Prepare the baking sheet as per instructions in that recipe, and pipe choux pastry for a profiterole, about 1 - 1.5 inch in diameter (round shape). Remember to keep the tip just touching the surface while you're piping those “mounds”. This helps reduce splitting and spreading. Then flatten any points with a moist fingertip to prevent those points from burning. Bake according to instructions in that recipe.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
Place pumpkin puree and cream cheese together in a bowl and whisk to combine until smooth.
Add icing sugar, vanilla, pumpkin spice, salt and whisk well, until smooth. Add more icing sugar if you like it sweeter.
Whisk in 2 tbsp of cream to create a nice, thick, pipeable filling. Whisk in 2 more tbsp if you need to thin it out - this will depend on the pumpkin puree you use and the softness of your cream cheese.
Refrigerate the filling for a couple of hours, until chilled.
Chocolate Glaze
Place chopped chocolate/chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl.
Next heat the cream in a small saucepan, or in the microwave, until it starts to steam.
Pour this cream over the chocolate and cover, and let it steam for a couple of minutes.
Whisk to combine and melt the chocolate in the cream for a shiny, thick chocolate glaze. Microwave this mix in 10 sec bursts ONLY IF THE CHOCOLATE HAS NOT COMPLETELY MELTED. Set aside to cool to room temp.
Assembly
Transfer the chilled pumpkin cheesecake filling to a pastry bag fitted with a bismarck tip to fill the profiteroles. If you don't have a bismarck tip, use a small circle tip (about ½ cm opening).
Pierce the bottom of the choux pastry cake with the bismarck tip and fill it with your cheesecake filling. I use the first choux pastry shell to determine how much filling I need to fill the shell. (tip: to do this I basically count how long I have to squeeze the pastry bag to fill the shell).
If you don't have a bismarck tip - use a small sharp knife and cut a small slit, on the side or the bottom of the choux pastry shell, just large enough to slip the nozzle tip in. Then fill the pastry shells with your pumpkin cheesecake filling.
Dip the top of the profiteroles in the chocolate glaze.
Best served within a few hours. You can also refrigerate these for a few hours in an air-tight container until needed.