Chocolate-Filled Cream Puff Ring

Holy cow. This sounds amazing. And it takes up two whole recipe cards. At first glance it looks really complicated, but after reading through it it doesn't seem so bad. There are just a lot of components involved. The actual cooking part seems rather doable. Enjoy!

Chocolate-Filled Cream Puff Ring

1 recipe cream puff paste (follows)
1 recipe chocolate filling (follows)
1 recipe chocolate glaze (follows)
sliced almonds
whipped cream (follows)

Butter a 9 inch circle on a cookie sheet. Drop paste by 1/4 cupfuls just inside the circumference to form a ring. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until puffed and well-browned. Cool.

Slice ring crosswise (slice so you can open it like a lid) and lift off the top. Fill with chocolate filling and replace top. Drizzle with chocolate glaze, then sprinkle with almonds. Chill for several hours or until ready to serve. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Cream Puff Paste

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Combine water, butter, sugar and salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Add flour all at once, then beat with a wooden spoon over low heat for 1 minute or until mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and beat for 2 minutes to cool. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each until mixture is satiny.

Chocolate Filling

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tsp vanilla
6 eggs

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in chocolate and vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each. Continue to beat until sugar is thoroughly dissolved, then chill.

Chocolate Glaze

2 squares semisweet chocolate
2 Tb butter

In top of a double boiler over hot, not boiling, water, melt chocolate and butter, stirring to combine.

Whipped Cream

Beat 1 cup heavy cream and 2 Tb sugar until stiff. Add unsweetened cocoa to taste.