Profiteroles
I've been eating chocolate éclairs all my life, which is why pâte à choux–based desserts take me back to my childhood. Cream and chocolate are ideal accompaniments, whether in a cream-filled éclair or, as in these profiteroles, in the form of ice cream and warm chocolate sauce.
This recipe makes enough batter for about four dozen profiteroles (it is not one that can be cut down easily); pipe the extra onto a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze. Bake frozen profiteroles directly from the freezer, extending the cooking time at 350°F as necessary. Eat them the day they are baked.
Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Step 2
Line one baking sheet with a Silpat and a second one with parchment paper (or line both sheets with parchment if you don't have a Silpat). Set up a heavy-duty mixer with the paddle attachment.
Step 3
Combine the water, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, add the flour all at once, and stir rapidly with a stiff heatproof or wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and the bottom of the pan is clean, with no dough sticking to it. The dough should be glossy and smooth but still damp.
Step 4
Enough moisture must evaporate from the dough to allow it to absorb more fat when the eggs are added. Continue to stir for about 5 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent the dough from coloring. A thin coating will form on the bottom and sides of the pan. When enough moisture has evaporated, steam will rise from the dough and there will be the nutty aroma of cooked flour.
Step 5
Immediately transfer the dough to the mixer bowl and mix for a few seconds to release some of the heat from the dough. With the mixer on medium speed, add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating until each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one; scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Turn off the machine. Lift some of the dough on a rubber spatula, then turn the spatula to let it run off: It should fall off the spatula very slowly; if it doesn't move at all or is very dry and falls off in one clump, beat in the additional egg.
Step 6
Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip. Pipe 15 disks (this will give you 3 extras for testing) about 1 1/2 inches across and just under 1/2 inch thick on the Silpat-lined baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them, as they will expand when baked. Pipe the remainder on the other sheet. (You will have about 4 dozen in all.) Bake the 15 puffs for the recipe and freeze the ones on the second baking sheet until firm, then transfer to a freezer container and freeze for another time.
Step 7
Bake the puffs for 10 minutes, turn the sheet around, turn the oven down to 350°F, and bake 15 minutes more. Remove one puff and break it open: It should be hollow inside and not gooey or eggy; if it is still moist, return it to the oven and check in 5 minutes. Cool the puffs completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container until serving time.
To serve:
Step 8
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Step 9
Warm the chocolate sauce in a double boiler or a microwave. Warm the profiteroles on a baking sheet in the oven.
Step 10
Split each profiterole in half and arrange 3 on each plate. Place a small scoop of ice cream in the bottom half of each profiterole and top with the lid. Spoon the sauce over.
How would you rate Cream Puffs with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce?
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Reviews (16)
Back to Topit was good.
eyeado06
lenexa, K.S
2/11/2011
Concurring with the cook from New Orleans - this recipe can/should be much simpler. You don't need a mixer. A wooden spoon or a whisk will do the job in a minute or two. Instead of beating the mixture to cool, you can also just let it sit for 10 minutes stirring it occasionally to help it cool - then whisk your eggs in the same pot. Also, try a filling of 1/2 whipped cream and 1/2 pudding folded together. Luscious, but I love the ice cream too.
formybeauties
Idaho
10/23/2009
These turned out great. Did't quite rise - 4 eggs wasn't enough, but 5 was too much. Should have added the final egg gradually. Will definitely make again.
Anonymous
Dublin, Ireland
2/15/2009
Followed the advice of "A Cook from San Francisco". Prepared the cream puffs and after cooling I filled them with vanilla pastry cream from the Epicurious recipe library, then topped them with the cooled chocolate sauce. The result was extraordinary! I can't believe I made such a wonderful dessert with minimal effort. I will make more for my Valentine's Day party.
mockridge
Greenville, SC
2/4/2009
Great basic recipe. Here are a few of my suggestions/adjustments: I let the batter mix around in the mixer for more than a few seconds to cool down because it was screamingly hot and I didnt want my eggs to cook. Instead of a pastry bag I used a Ziploc bag and just cut a 1/2 inch hole when I was ready to pipe. Finally, during the second half of the baking (when you turn the temp down to 350), I reduced the cooking time to 11-12 minutes.
Anonymous
San Francisco, CA
7/28/2008
Great!
Anonymous
1/20/2008
mmmmmm
Anonymous
1/20/2008
Too complicated.
Anonymous
The basement
1/20/2008
Please don't take my comments as mockery, but I find the whole seemingly complicated recipe instructions, as well as some reviewer's comments as somewhat amusing and unnecessary. Cream puffs are considered one of the simplest recipes around! Firt time I made them, the recipe came from an old, very simply written Creole cookbook given to me by my mother. Stick of butter (salted), cup of flour, cup of water, 4 eggs. Boil water, butter and salt, add all the flour, stir til glossy and un-sticky, stir a little longer til a little cooler, "add each egg one time each", stir "real hard and good til the egg all mixed in, plop spoons full on your pan" and "cook at around 400 until they look brown." Absolutely perfect every time. Tried the website recipe without the extra egg and added the sugar, mixed by hand with a wooden spatula. Very nice either way. No poking holes while baking, no extra air incorporation. My daughter was looking up the recipe and asked me to check it out. Never would have bothered to otherwise since I've had the old standby in my head for ages. Wish I could find that darned old cookbook, but it got swept away along with everything else by our old nemesis Katrina. Thank goodness for websites like this! Doesn't have all of the old recipes, but is so great at helping with re-learning the old ones as well as teaching me new ones.
Anonymous
New Orleans
12/10/2006
Cook from Hawaii- It sounds like you may be adding too many eggs into your choux. There are a few different ways to check your choux consistency. One is by drawing a line through the batter. It should fill in after 8-10 seconds. If it fills in faster- it's too hydrated. Being that you live in a humid environment, you will need less eggs than say a baker in Colorado. Also, if you don't have a pastry bag- I highly recommend that you get one. If you are placing the batter on a sheet pan with a spoon, you aren't going to achieve the height/width you would with a pastry bag. Good luck and happy baking!
Anonymous
New York
9/10/2006
I like this recipe because it explains the logic behind the directions. For example, today is extremely humid so I beat the dough longer in order to allow enough moisture escape. However, both times I have made this recipe (as well as the recipe from The Joy of Cooking) when I pipe my dough onto my baking sheet it spreads out so it is not the requisite half inch thick. Thus, my puffs up as sort of flatish, side-ways ovals. I think my dough is falling off the spoon properly, so I don't know what is wrong. Any suggestions?
Anonymous
Honolulu, HI
3/27/2006
Great recipe, and not too difficult to make. I would make larger profiteroles next time, and *definitely* use all five eggs. The first time I made the mistake of adding the eggs when the dough was too hot and of turning off the machine between eggs, which meant that the eggs partially cooked and that the batter wasn't smooth. It was much better on my second batch, though both times I had difficulties piping because my tip wasn't quite large enough. Not really a fault of the recipe, I suppose, so much as a lack of proper tools.
Anonymous
Boston, MA
12/9/2005
PLEASE don't review recipes you've not yet made, Toronto. I don't want to complain, but your review does nothing to help those of us who've not yet made it decide how to proceed with the recipe - or for that matter if we even want to make it! These are very good but quite a bit of work/mess. For the limited ingredients, next time I'll simply cook the flour mixture then, with a hand-held mixer, incorporate the eggs while it's all still in the pan. Paying attention to consistency is what makes this recipe a standout.
Anonymous
Manhattan Beach, CA
8/12/2005
A really nice recipe, and not difficult to follow despite my lack of previous experience with this particular dessert. The pastry came out beautifully. I wasn't able to serve the finished product myself so (after dipping in chocolate) I placed them back in the freezer and was able to send them off to their final destination as a cold dessert. Not exactly what the recipe had in mind, but delicious if you're not able to serve two temperatures simultaneously.
Anonymous
Cambridge, MA
8/5/2005
Now Bouchon has Keller's vanilla ice cream recipe. Epicurious ought to get added permission from Mr. Keller to link that recipe to this one. I expected it to be here. I've yet to make the cream puffs with etc. (yet have given it 4 forks cos Keller is the best) but you gotta have the Vanilla Ice Cream from Bouchon linked here. Or could that be too much of a sublime thing? It is well worth buying the book just for the Vanilla Ice cream recipe. Both makng it and eating it has been a life changing experience and worth an essay. (I got the book from my son for my birthday in Feb). The ice cream evokes your best child hood memories long lost. It took me back to my mother's kitchen when I was a child. Buy an ice cream maker! It will change your life.
nelumvila
Toronto, Ontario
5/1/2005
