Hey – I know you people. Don’t think I don’t know you people. Enthusiasm for my salade niçoise recipe was at an all–time low. Why concern yourselves with salty fish when you can have … profiterole?
What are profiteroles you ask yourselves?
Why, cream puff pastries! With yummy things inside! Things like ice cream or whipped cream, with strawberry toppings or chocolate!
Now we’re talkin’ – let’s take a moment to get reacquainted. I’m Lady Jennie and this is my blog. No, I’m not French royalty, I’m just some lady that lives in France.
I find when making a more complicated recipe, that it helps to be prepared. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease and flour your baking sheet.
And have all your ingredients at the ready.
Okay, so you need to make pâte à chou (literal translation is cabbage dough (for its shape) and loose translation is cream puff pastries). I’ve made this before in my chocolate éclair post, but don’t click there. It’s disastrous.
Melt ½ cup butter with just over 1 cup water. Add a half teaspoon salt
and a teaspoon sugar.
When it’s nice and melted, pour 1 ½ cups of flour in slowly
whisking all the while until the dough has absorbed all the moisture and is almost sticking to the pan. I used gluten-free flour. This is one of those recipes that does really well with GF flour.
Remove from the heat at this point and add the 6 eggs one by one.
Stir. Oh boy are you ever going to get an arm workout.
And then your dough looks like this.
Fill a pastry bag and use a 8mm tip. I have no idea what that is but I got the biggest one I had and struggled to squeeze the unwieldy dough through its teeth.
But not so bad, some of them. See here?
Bake for about 18 minutes and don’t open the oven for at least 10 minutes (or at all if you can help it). The pastries won’t puff.
Et voila.
Hello little cabbage.
Now let’s throw caution to the wind and make this warm chocolatey glaze. It’s my own recipe and was declared by not one, but two Frenchmen to be the best they’d ever tasted.
One was Sir, of course, but the other doesn’t owe me anything.
Break 200 grams of dark chocolate into little pieces.
Pour in 2 cups of heavy cream
and 2 cups of confectioner sugar.
Add 2 Tablespoons of butter and melt it all together over low heat, stirring constantly.
Drool.
Select your puff pastries and cut them in half.
See how … puffy they are? It’s all those eggs.
Fill them each with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
And pour the hot chocolate glaze over the top.
Do you love me again?
You love me again.
- Puff Pastry:
- 1 cup (250 grams) water
- ½ cup (110 grams) butter
- 1 t sugar
- ½ t salt
- 1½ cup (140 grams) flour
- 6 eggs
- Chocolate Glaze:
- 200 grams dark chocolate
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups confectioner sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30 grams) butter
- Filler:
- Vanilla ice cream
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease and flour baking sheet.
- Melt water, butter, sugar and salt over low heat.
- Add flour into melted liquid bit by bit, whisking constantly until all moisture is absorbed.
- Remove from heat and add eggs one by one, stirring constantly.
- Put dough into pastry bag with an 8 mm decorating tip and form little "cabbages."
- Bake 18 minutes without opening the oven.
- For chocolate glaze, break chocolate and melt over low heat with cream, powdered sugar and butter.
- Cut the pastries in half, fill with vanilla ice cream and top with hot chocolate glaze.
Love your very yummy and informative post. I used to work for a caterer and I was the one who made ALL of the mini eclairs and cream puffs. We used a different pastry bag tip but, I like your result much better.
Oh, what tip did you use to make them? I’m curious.
Oh yes. Not that I stopped loving you, of course, but just yum yum yum!
Oh yes indeed 🙂 yummy!
Salut! I’m new to your blog, and was just a vouyeur until now (hope that doesn’t sound as odd as it did when I just reread it…sorry!) Anyway, I’d like to confess that I tend towards savory rather than sweet, but since I’ve been on the Dukan Diet (all things
Fench,
My watered as soon as I saw the first photo!! I LOVE profiteroles, and haven’t had any in years. With this recipe, that could change… 🙂
Thank you!
Corrine
Oh I hope so. A Lady in France. Satisfying French food cravings everywhere. 😉
Oh. My. Gosh.
I can totally make this!! YUM!
You definitely can Brittany! (let me know how it goes)
I LOVE YOU ALWAYS.
Yummy, hello profiteroles!
Awwww!
Sorry for the truncated response above–I blame my phone, but it’s really my fault for not getting to a proper computer. Anyway, your profiteroles may be what finally pushes me to cheat on the Dukan Diet in a spectacular way. And they don’t look *too* hard, but that may be the hunger talking…
Andra, I’ve done Dr Dukan and there are some really tough periods. I wonder if you could compromise. What if you filled them with unsweetened whipped cream instead, and then made the topping using unsweetened chocolate mixed with 1-2 cups of splenda or xylitol? That way you don’t throw everything out the window but you give yourself a little treat. 🙂
beautiful!
Oh good grief!! I might actualy have to try this! (and then eat them all and have no hope of every wearing a bathing suit again)
Let me know how it goes if you do try them!
A little secret Abbey. I think you could get the same effect by spooning the dough into muffin tins instead of using the pastry bag. The rest is easy peasy.
Well that just TAKES THE CAKE………..you go Girl!
Now we’re talkin 😉
yum! I saw a similar recipe the other day and was thinking about making them. My mom used to make cream puffs when we were younger and I remember something about the humidity affecting how they’ll turn out. Is this true?
Hey Jackie, I know that you can’t store them in any kind of humidity or they will be ruined. They’re best eaten right away, but if not they need to be in a closed container. And then I know the trick about not opening the oven, but I haven’t read anything else on the subject.
I love profiterole’s – if I could I would skip the vanilla ice cream and just eat the puff and chocolate sauce!
Now that’s the beauty of making your own. You can!! 😉
Too much work for me, but I love eating them. 🙂
Now we’re talking. It’s not that I’m not a fan of salads, but they can’t hold a candle to chocolate and ice cream and pastry.
Best of all, I think I could make this!
I feel better now.
Oh my goodness gracious, those look divine! And that’s not just because I’m on day five of a seven day food cleanse. Now I know what my first foray back into dairy will be. Thanks for these gorgeous images that I’ll hold in my heart until the weekend! xo
Thank you- perfect timing! I need to make these at least once for my poor husband. He’s missing France and keeps making French food, but isn’t much of a baker.
MMMM- these look heavenly and remind me of the Italian version we make here. Many similarities, but the main difference is ricotta!! I just adore your recipe posts!!!!!
Lady, I love you so much I’d eat salty fish with you, too.
(As long as you made these for dessert.)
Or not. I’d settle for the (no doubt) scintillating conversation.
Someday we will meet.
I promise (myself).
You may be less committed.
Oh for the love of all things YUMMY!
(What if we come visit you, and you make them? They’ll turn out so much better that way, yes? :))
Those profiteroles look nice and the steps to make them are so detailed (love the pictures that accompanied the steps). It inspires me to try out this recipe, or maybe just eat them. 🙂