Profiteroles Recipe

spoon dripping chocolate glaze on a profiterole

Learn how to make classic profiteroles with homemade choux pastry balls, creamy vanilla gelato from scratch, and a soft chocolate glaze. Profiteroles can also be filled with pastry cream or whipped cream and topped with a caramel sauce or a dusting of powdered sugar. Use store-bought ice cream and pre-made chocolate sauce for easy profiteroles on a hot summer's day.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

Chilling Time 3

Total Time 4 30

Servings profiteroles

Calories 130kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Equipment

emersion blender optional
Piping Bags
Silpain baking mat optional

Ingredients

Cream Puff Shells Ingredients

160 grams whole milk
160 grams water
4 grams salt
6 grams granulated sugar
140 grams unsalted butter European, like plugra
180 grams all-purpose flour sifted
200 grams large eggs

Vanilla Gelato Ingredients

500 grams whole milk
170 grams heavy cream
130 grams granulated sugar
30 grams glucose powder
4 grams ice cream stabilizer cremodan 30
1 whole vanilla bean
30 grams egg yolks

Chocolate Sauce Ingredients

220 grams whole milk
120 grams glucose
180 grams 64% dark chocolate

Instructions

Making the Cream Puff Shells

Add the milk, water, salt, sugar, and butter to a medium saucepan, then bring it to a boil. It is important to make sure that the butter is melting at the same rate the milk is heating so that the milk doesn't boil before the butter is melted. Slowly moving it around with a wooden spoon helps distribute the heat evenly.
Once the mixture has come to a boil, turn off the heat and add the sifted flour all at once.
Begin stirring immediately with a wooden spoon, and continue to stir for 1 minute until the flour is fully incorporated, it will look a lot like mashed potatoes.
Turn the heat back on to medium-high heat and continue to stir and keep it moving to dry out the dough.
Once you see a browning layer on the bottom of the pan, the dough is dry enough and you can remove it from the heat.
Put the dough immediately into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and begin to mix to cool it down, this should take about 30 seconds.
Add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg incorporate fully before the next. Mix on low until the dough is fully combined with no spots of dry flour, and stiff enough to hold its shape, but pull to a soft peak when picking up the spoon.
Prepare a pastry bag with a large round tip, Christophe is using an Ateco 809 tip. Fill the piping bag with the dough.
On to a prepared baking tray, pipe the pâte à choux rounds slightly smaller than your desired final size, as they will “puff” and expand in the oven. Chef Christophe is using a "silpain" baking mat, but parchment paper will work as well.
Gently smooth the top of the cream puff with a wet finger.
Bake at 350°F (176°C) for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack to room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Making the Gelato

Add the milk, cream, half of the sugar, glucose powder, and the vanilla bean to a medium saucepan over the stove, stir with a spatula and cook it over medium heat until the mixture reaches 80°C (175°F).
Mix about half of the remaining sugar into the ice cream stabilizer, and stir it together well to avoid lumps. We're using cremodan 30, but you can leave it out if desired.
At 80°C (175°F), add the sugar and stabilizer mixture to the pot and whisk constantly.
Mix together the rest of the sugar (¼ of the total sugar) into the egg yolks.
Bring the milk mixture to a simmer and turn off the heat.
Add about 1 cup of the hot milk mixture to the eggs and stir it together until combined. This is called tempering the eggs and will help prevent lumps in your gelato.
Add the egg and milk mixture back into the pot and cook over medium heat until it reaches 83°C (181°F). Stir around the bottom and sides of the pan in a figure-eight shape to prevent burning.
Pour the ice cream base into a medium bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour until completely cooled, or place it in an ice bath to cool it down faster.
Add ice and ice cream salt around the outside of your ice cream machine bowl. I'm using a Bosch universal plus stand mixer with an ice cream attachment in the center.
Pour the base in the center and mix on high for about 20 minutes until the ice cream is thick. Churn the cooled-down ice cream base in an ice cream machine.

Making the Chocolate Sauce

Heat the glucose in the microwave for about 15 seconds until it is very liquid.
Add the glucose and milk to a small saucepan over the stove, stir with a spatula and bring it to a simmer over medium heat.
Fill a large measuring cup with the chocolate and pour the milk mixture over the top. Wait for about 1 minute until the chocolate melts.
Blend the chocolate sauce with an immersion blender until smooth and fully combined. You can use a whisk if that's all you have.
Refrigerate the sauce until it's completely cold, about 30 minutes.
Fill a pastry bag with the sauce and snip off the tip.

Assembling the Profiteroles

Take your gelato (or ice cream) out of the freezer to start warming up so that it's easy to scoop.
Slice the fully cooled cream puff in half with a serrated knife, this will avoid crushing the hollow shell.
Place a small scoop of ice cream on the bottom half of the cream puff and add the top lid.
Keep the profiteroles on a baking sheet and move them in and out of the freezer as you're assembling to keep the ice cream from melting.
Pipe the chocolate sauce on top when you're ready to serve.

Notes

Important Things To Note Before You Start

1. Bring all your ingredients to room temperature or even a little warm (eggs, buttermilk, butter, etc).

2. Use a scale to weigh your ingredients (including liquids) unless otherwise instructed (Tablespoons, teaspoons, pinch etc). Metric measurements are available in the recipe card. Scaled ingredients are much more accurate than using cups and help ensure the success of your recipe.

3. Practice Mise en Place (everything in it’s place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.

4. What is the difference between cream puffs and profiteroles? Cream puffs are typically filled with vanilla pastry cream or whipped cream, while profiteroles are filled with ice cream and topped with a chocolate glaze.

5. Profiteroles are made with pate a choux which tends to go soggy once refrigerated or frozen. After baking, make sure to let them cool fully on a wire rack so that they dry out. Before filling them, you can re-crisp cream puffs by placing them in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes on the day you intend to use them.

Nutrition