Profiteroles Recipe
This easy profiteroles recipe is the epitome of French indulgence. The chocolate sauce for profiteroles alone will make you swoon at the sight of this dessert, and the creamy cool profiterole filling just clinches the deal.
Classic Profiteroles Recipe
While I had enjoyed simple cream puffs before, I had never had chocolate profiteroles like these. This easy profiterole dessert had been inspired by an experience I had at a classic French bistro near Place des Victoires. It was a picturesque restaurant in the 1st arr. and looked exactly like what you’d envision a French bistro to look like.
While the restaurant didn’t boast the best French food I ever had, the menu featured a lot classic bistro items like steak frites and soupe à l’oignon, so I knew that I definitely wanted to pop in. The restaurant served a decent steak, but what’s always stood out in my memory from that night was the profiteroles pastry I ordered for dessert.
The chocolate profiteroles were so wildly decadent that I just couldn’t help but clap my hands in glee over the dessert presented before me. They were some of the best profiteroles I ever had.
Chocolate Sauce for Profiteroles
While you may have seen choux pastry profiteroles in recipes like a profiteroles tower or profiteroles cake, this classic profiteroles recipe is distinguished by its indulgent profiterole filling of ice cream and topping, warm chocolate sauce.
The chocolate sauce for profiteroles is simply made with melted chocolate and heavy cream, and it’s pure heaven.
Before the profiteroles pastry came out served on a plate to me, I remember looking at the dessert menu and feeling entirely intrigued. Pate a choux pastry filled with ice cream and drenched in warm chocolate sauce.
Who could say no to anything covered in warm chocolate sauce?
After the storm that I had walked through that night to get to the restaurant, I felt like I deserved a sinfully good treat like profiteroles. Obviously, it was a fantastic choice as I haven’t been able to forget it.
The two profiteroles that were served to me that night definitely wiped away any previous sorrow I felt for my broken umbrella and frizzy hair. Moreover, they left a lasting impression on me that inspired me to make my own easy profiteroles recipe at home.
Profiteroles Filling
These profiteroles are just as delicious as the ones I enjoyed in Paris. They’re made with delicate pate a choux pastry, which is easier to make than you probably think.
A simple combination of staple ingredients in a small saucepan will yield the pastry dough you need for the base of the profiteroles.
The pastry dough is then piped out into mounds on a baking sheet, baked for approximately 30 minutes, then cooled until ready to be filled.
Profiteroles can be filled with pastry cream, whipped cream (like they are in this Paris Brest), or ice cream as they’re shown here.
A horizontal slice through the pastry leaves the perfect opening for sweet vanilla ice cream. And then as if these profiteroles weren’t tantalizing enough, they’re doused in warm chocolate ganache for pure indulgence.
As the French would say, c’est la vie!
Profiteroles Recipe
Pastry puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with melted chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- vanilla ice cream, for filling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the water, unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and salt. Warm until the butter has melted.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the all-purpose flour. Once the flour has been mixed in, move the saucepan back over the heat and reduce the heat to low. Stir the dough until it's smooth, shiny, and doesn't stick to the bottom or sides of the saucepan (about 1-2 minutes). It's very important to make sure the dough is not sticking at all, as this ensures that you've removed much of the moisture in the dough.
- Turn off the heat and move the saucepan onto your counter. Add in your eggs, one at a time, mixing them into the dough well before adding the other egg. It may seem a bit difficult to mix the egg into the dough but after several seconds of vigorous beating, they'll get mixed in and the dough will look smooth and paste-like again rather than glossy and clumpy. Once the eggs are incorporated, you can fill a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe the batter out in medium size mounds (about 1 1/2 inches wide).
- Place the baking sheet in the oven at 425°F for 10 minutes. Then, WITHOUT opening the oven door, lower the heat to 375°F and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until the pate a choux is a deep golden hue. Once the pate a choux has finished baking, open the oven door and gently pierce each mound with a sharp knife to let out steam. Let the puffs rest in the oven, with the oven door slightly ajar and the oven completely turned off, for another 15 minutes. Finally, remove from oven and let completely cool on a wire rack. Once cool, take a serrated knife and make horizontal cuts through each puff to split each puff into two halves (top and bottom).
- Warm the heavy cream in a small bowl in the microwave for approximately 10 to 15 seconds, until steaming. Add in the chocolate and stir until it's melted and smooth.
- Place a couple of mini scoops of ice cream over each pastry puff's bottom half, then cover with the top half. Pour ganache over profiteroles.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 8 ServingsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 195
I’m so pleased to have found your blog. Not being a fan of icecream, couldn’t I just stick a long pastry nozzle in the pastry puff and fill with your pastry cream, before drizzling the ganache over it?
Hi Rea, you definitely can! 🙂 You’ll see that with things like a Paris Brest pastry where choux pastry is paired with whipped cream and custard. It’s just that “profiteroles” in particular are typically made with ice cream.
Doesnt the ice cream quickly melt it arecrgese meant to be kept in the freezer until ready to serve and then pour the chocolate sauce over it
Hi Anne! This is the kind of dessert that’s assembled right before you serve it to your guests. What you can do is have the pastry ready to go by splitting each puff in half ahead of time, and have the ganache ready to go as well. Then when it’s time for dessert, you can reheat the ganache in the microwave quickly so that it’s hot. Fill each profiterole and place in front of the guests, adding the warm chocolate sauce on top only after you’ve placed the dessert in front of them. That’s how it’s done in restaurants in Paris! 🙂
Absolutely perfect recipe. I am going back to it time and time again. Thank you for a great site filled with great recipes.
Thanks so much, Rehana! So glad you are enjoying the site! <3
Can these be filled and frozen and brought out for dessert when ready to serve.
Hi Rhonda! They sure can! 🙂 They’d be more like ice cream and are divine with warm chocolate sauce. If you want to retain the crisp texture of the choux pastry, however, I would freeze the baked pastry puffs (unfilled), then bake them in a hot oven for about 5 minutes to get them nice and crisp, then cool and fill. Hope this helps! <3
I had a chance to go to that bar.I really like the decoration and menu there. I like Pate a choux pastry filled with ice cream and drenched in warm chocolate sauce, it is a wonderful combination. Thanks for your blog and recipe.
Thank you, Sheila! I’m a big fan of profiteroles as well! 🙂
Yummy! It looks so cute, right? May be it has sweet taste that I love it. 😀
Thank you, Emily! 🙂
I can’t imagine there is anyone in the world who wouldn’t like your gorgeous choux buns stuffed with ice cream and covered in chocolate sauce! This has to be the way to any food lovers heart. Or maybe its just the way to mine… 😉 xx
Thank you so much, Louise! You’re too sweet <3 This is definitely the way to my heart too 😉