Small choux pastry puffs filled with whipped cream or crème pâtissière and topped with warm chocolate sauce — a classic French dessert found on the menus of bistros and brasseries worldwide; the choux pastry puffs are hollow, light, and airy, and the combination with cold cream and warm chocolate sauce is one of the great textural contrasts in French patisserie.
Choux pastry
Profiteroles are made from choux pastry — a cooked dough that forms air pockets as it bakes, creating hollow shells. The dough is made on the hob by bringing water and butter to the boil, adding flour and beating vigorously until the paste leaves the sides of the pan, then adding eggs one by one until a smooth, glossy dough forms. Piped into small mounds and baked at high heat, the pastry puffs and becomes hollow as the steam inside expands. The shells are then pierced to release steam and dried in the oven.
Filling
The classic filling is whipped double cream — unsweetened or lightly sweetened. Crème pâtissière (custard cream) is an alternative, giving a richer result. Ice cream is a popular modern variation: profiteroles filled with vanilla ice cream and served with warm chocolate sauce are a standard bistro dessert. The cream should be applied just before service; filled profiteroles soften quickly as moisture migrates from cream to pastry.
The chocolate sauce
The chocolate sauce must be warm when poured over cold profiteroles — the contrast of warm sauce melting slightly into cold cream is fundamental to the experience. A good sauce uses quality dark chocolate melted with cream and a little butter to give gloss. It should flow freely but be thick enough to coat the puffs.
The croquembouche
The profiterole’s grander form is the croquembouche — a towering cone of profiteroles bound together with spun caramel, decorated with almonds and crystallised violets. The croquembouche is the traditional French wedding cake, assembled for celebration and demolished dramatically at table.