Profiteroles
Many people come to Paris with dreams of falling in love, and I know more than one person who’s returned home starry-eyed after a steamy love affair—with profiteroles. Who can resist eggy, buttery pastry filled with vanilla ice cream, heaped on plates, served with a gleaming silver pitcher of warm chocolate sauce? It’s a table-side ritual that takes place nightly in romatic restaurants and cozy cafés across the city as dashing waiters douse profiteroles with warm sauce and the molten chocolate gushes over the golden puffs, filling every little nook and crevice possible. The profiteroles are served forth with a sly grin (and perhaps a bit of a wink), leaving you free to indulge. Profiteroles are seductively simple to make at home, and you can’t go wrong with any ice cream and sauce combination that sounds good to you. My personal favorite is profiteroles filled with Chartreuse Ice Cream (page 57), drizzled with Classic Hot Fudge (page 164), and scattered with lots and lots of crispy French Almonds (page 189). J’adore!
Recipe information
Yield
makes 30 cream puffs
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Step 2
Heat the water, sugar, salt, and butter in a small saucepan, stirring, until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and dump in the flour all at once. Stir briskly until the mixture is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Step 3
Allow the dough to cool for 2 minutes, then briskly beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth and shiny.
Step 4
Using two spoons, scoop up a mound of dough roughly the size of an unshelled walnut with one spoon and scrape it off with the other spoon onto the baking sheet (or you can use a pastry bag or spring-loaded ice cream scoop). Place the mounds, evenly spaced, on the baking sheet. Lightly beat the egg yolk and milk together and brush the top of each mound with some of the egg yolk glaze.
Step 5
Bake the cream puffs for 30 minutes, or until puffed and well browned. Turn off the oven and leave them in for another 5 minutes.
Storage
Step 6
The cream puffs are best eaten the same day they’re made. Once cooled, they can be frozen in a zip-top freezer bag for up to 1 month. Defrost at room temperature, then warm briefly on a baking sheet in a moderate oven until crisp again.
