Originally made in Italy with a far more bread like texture, these pastries were brought to France in the 16th century when Catherine de Medici married the King of France. They were served to the court and have been a French delicacy ever since. This recipe is for individual cream puffs filled with pastry cream and dipped in chocolate. However, a croquembouche (tower of profiteroles) is very popular in France as a wedding cake. I brought these to a BBQ the other day and they were a tremendous hit, although I do recommend leaving a few in your fridge as you won’t be bringing any leftovers home!! Profiteroles are an incredible dessert – light, fluffy and delicious.
Top tips: When you are piping the pâte à choux (dough), keep the piping bag vertical to the baking tray and pipe until you get to the desired size, then press down and twist slightly before lifting up to get a smoother top.
Serves: 12-15 profiteroles
Cook time: 15 minutes
Prep time: 20 minutes
Makes: 18 profiteroles
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter
½ tsp sugar
Pinch of salt
50g all-purpose flour
3 eggs
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- In a pan mix ½ a cup of water with the butter, salt and sugar, bringing everything to the boil.
- Add all the flour to the pan and mix to combine, cook the flour mixture until a film forms on the bottom of the pan. This should take around 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and leave to cool slightly for 2-3 minutes.
- Add 2 of your eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next.
- Transfer the pâte à choux (dough) to a pastry bag with a large circular tip.
- Pipe the dough into 1 ½ inch rounds. Using a moist finger, smooth any peaks on the top to allow for an even rise.
- Brush with the remaining egg to glaze, place in the oven for 25-30 minutes – they should be golden brown.
- You can serve in many ways, but my favourite is filled with crème pâtissière (pastry cream) and dipped in chocolate. To do this, fill a piping bag with pastry cream, slice a small hole in the bottom of each puff and fill until you feel the weight of the cream, then dip in melted chocolate and leave to set in the fridge. Click here for my crème pâtissière recipe.
- The profiteroles are best served on the same day but can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days.
#Accessibility (image description: Set on a dark background, we can see one profiterole in the foreground and three stacked in the background, blurred out. The Profiterole in the foreground has a chocolate dipped top, the chocolate has now set but there is one drip coming down the front of the pastry and we can see condensation where it has just come out of the fridge. The light is reflecting on the chocolate and the pastry is a nutty but light golden colour.)