Profiteroles – aka chou à la crème and cream puffs, are light French choux pastry balls with a typically sweet and moist filling of whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream. The puffs may be decorated, left plain, or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or powdered sugar.
Picture yourself sitting on a wicker chair at a busy Brasserie on the Champ d’elise in Paris. The waiter places a plate of light pastry balls in front of you, each is filled with a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream. Before leaving, the waiter stands over you and asks you to “say when”. You look up to see him pouring a ladle of warm and glistening dark brown chocolate sauce over your profiteroles He continues until you say “when” to stop. This is this exact recipe, without the Champs d’elise, of course.
Profiteroles- Ice Cream Puffs With Chocolate Sauce
Equipment
- Medium saucepan
- Baking pan
Ingredients
- 1 stick Unsalted butter
- 1 cup Water
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Flour
- 3 large Eggs
- 12 oz Good quality chocolate chips or bar
- 6 tbsp Heavy cream
- 2 pints Good quality vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- To make choux puffs: Preheat oven to 400° (205°C). In a covered saucepan, bring butter, water, sugar, and salt to a boil without lifting cover. Remove pan from heat. .
- Stir flour into same saucepan until well incorporated. Put saucepan back on medium-high heat and stir until dough pulls away from sides and becomes a ball. Transfer to a bowl and put aside to cool down a bit.
- Add the eggs to the flour one at a time, mixing vigorously with a wooden spoon. Once one egg if fully incorporated, add the next. With an ice cream scoop, create 8 mounds of the mix onto a greased baking sheet. Round-off any rough edges with wet fingers.
- Bake mounds for 10 minutes and then lower the heat to 350° (175°C) and cook 40-45 minutes longer. They should be lightly browned, puffed, and cracked. Place then on a cooling rack to cool.
- To serve: microwave a bowl with cream for 1 minute. Remove and stir in chocolate chips. Stir until melted and melded.
- Slice pastry puffs in half across the middle. On a plate or bowl, top bottom half with a scoop of ice cream, put top half over ice cream. Pour chocolate sauce over and serve immediately. For a bit more dramatic flair, pour chocolate sauce at the table, asking diners to say "when" to stop.
Notes
- Soak saucepan in soap and water after flour ball removed. Sticky stuff will be a pain to remove otherwise.
- Milk chocolate may be used but is nowhere near as tasty or authentic.
- Different ice cream flavors can be substituted for the original vanilla.
