Irresistible Chocolate Profiteroles

A Classic Dessert that Never Gets Old

Here’s a great project to tackle this weekend — make these insanely delicious chocolate profiteroles stuffed with vanilla ice cream, then showered with a hot chocolate sauce at the table. Yes, it is a cliche; yes it is a dish from another decade; yes it is really good.

Profiteroles are the perfect home dessert and guaranteed to please everyone, from small children to grown adults. And once you master the dough for profiteroles you can easily make several other classics like a feather-light beignet, gougères, and crispy potato puffs known as Pommes Dauphine.

The first step is to make cream puffs, a.k.a. profiteroles, a.k.a. choux paste, a.k.a. pâte à choux

Choux paste is a simple French dough that usually contains only four ingredients: milk/water, butter, flour, and eggs. The dough itself can easily be made in 5 to 10 minutes then baked or fried. It is interesting to note that the reason choux paste puffs is because of the high moisture content. As the dough cooks, steam is produced and the dough begins to puff. It stays puffed by baking the dough a bit longer until it starts to dry.