Profiteroles

Cream puffs filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce are a classic French dessert that has been popular in the United States for quite some time. I've made them once or twice since I learned that cream puffs are easy to make. The difference this time is that in addition to making the cream puffs, I also made the ice cream that fills them.

Cream puffs drying just prior to cutting off the tops.

Cream puffs start out as water (1 cup) and butter (about 75 grams) in a pot on the stove. Once they boil, flour is added (1 cup) and stirred over low heat until it forms a ball that separates from the sides of the pot. It cooks until it begins to dry out, then it cools for a short time. Eggs (four) are added one at time and stirred in. The dough goes into a pastry bag and is piped out into medium-sized balls. These get painted with an egg wash and after a short rest (about 20 minutes) are baked at 375ºF for about thirty minutes.

The puffs need to dry out, so after baking they sit in the oven, turned off and with the door ajar, for another twenty to thirty minutes. Then they're cut open at the top and any soft dough is scooped out (and eaten by the cook) leaving a completely hollow puff.

Assembled profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

The puffs can be filled with whipped cream or ice cream. I made a simple vanilla ice cream (cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla) in our ice cream maker. Ken put together a tasty chocolate sauce using powdered cocoa. Three profiteroles on a plate is the usual serving. Delicious!