Profiteroles with Chantilly Cream

Profiteroles are an elegant classic dessert, and they're surprisingly easy to make! Bite-size French choux pastry balls are filled with delicate chantilly cream and topped with powdered sugar or chocolate sauce. It's a relatively simple recipe for bakers of all skill levels, and it takes only an hour!

For more tasty French-inspired treats, also try our vegan pots de creme or dark chocolate skillet soufflé with tonka bean cream.

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Profiteroles are one of those desserts, along with many other classic French or Italian pastries, that we used to feel intimidated to make. The funny thing is, they're not complicated or time-consuming at all, which means that there is no reason not to make homemade profiteroles!

There are just two components to making them: the choux pastry and the chantilly cream (a sweetened whipped cream). There's no fancy equipment required. All you need is a stand mixer or electric hand mixer and a pastry bag for piping the choux pastry balls.

It's a great recipe for practicing baking techniques and building confidence in the kitchen, and your family and friends will love you for making them. Serve as a special treat for any occasion, or as part of a French or Italian-themed dinner menu.

What are profiteroles?

A profiterole, also known as a cream puff, is a puffed choux pastry ball filled with whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or a scoop of ice cream. They can be left plain, or decorated with chocolate or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Profiterole vs. éclair

Apart from their shape, there are a few minor differences between a profiterole and an éclair. While éclairs are always filled with cream, a profiterole can also be filled with ice cream. Éclairs are also usually finished with a chocolate glaze and profiteroles with a chocolate sauce.

What is choux pastry?

Choux pastry is a delicate french pastry dough used in many pastries from eclairs to profiteroles. It's made from a few simple ingredients: butter, water, flour, and eggs. Instead of a rising agent, the high moisture content creates steam as the dough is baked, puffing the pastry.

Ingredients you'll need to make profiteroles

Here's everything you'll need to make choux pastry at home:

• Water – boiled water is the start of making traditional French choux pastry.
• Unsalted butter – using unsalted butter gives you more control over the amount of salt you include. If salted is all you've got on hand you can use it, but omit the added salt.
• Sugar
• Salt
• Flour – a regular all-purpose flour is traditional for choux pastry.
• Eggs – when it comes to baking, it's best to use eggs at room temperature because they rise more easily. This can make a difference in the loftiness of your pastry puffs (and other desserts).

Here's what you'll need for the chantilly cream:

• Heavy cream – heavy cream is whipping cream with no less than 36% milk fat.
• Vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar – powdered sugar is light and easily dissolves into the cream for a silky smooth texture.

How to make profiteroles

Who knew that making a fancy-looking dessert like profiteroles could be so easy? No stand mixer is required, just a little bit of elbow grease.

Here's how to make this profiterole recipe in a few simple steps:

1. To begin making the choux pastry dough, bring a pot of water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil.
2. Then, add some flour and stir it like crazy until it forms a ball. Once the dough cools for a couple of minutes, you'll stir in the eggs.
3. Now it's time to transfer the dough to a pastry bag and pipe it into balls on a baking sheet.
4. Before the profiteroles go into the oven, spray them with a little water. When they come out of the oven, prick the tops with a knife. The water helps them puff up and pricking them helps them keep their shape.
5. To make the whipping cream (you can call it chantilly cream to be fancy), simply beat cream and vanilla for a few minutes then sweeten it with powdered sugar and beat it a few minutes more.
6. Now, take that cream you just made and use it to fill the profiteroles. We like to serve these guys with a dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Yum!

Full recipe instructions are in the recipe card below.

FAQS

When to serve profiteroles

Profiteroles are a special treat, making them perfect for serving at special occasions like baby or wedding showers, and birthday parties. They're also a delicious way to cap off a dinner party, especially if it has a French or Italian menu.

If you're using ice cream as the filling instead of cream, try them with one of our homemade ice cream recipes. You can also try filling them with pastry cream!

And while we can't tell you not to eat a profiterole for breakfast, we can say from experience that they taste especially great with coffee or espresso.

Special dessert recipes

• Amaretto Poached Pears
• Homemade Bacon Turtles
• Homemade Oreo Cookies
• Julia Child's Chocolate Mousse
• Orange Blossom Panna Cotta with Candied Mandarins

This recipe has been shared with us by the publisher of Grace Massa Langlois's cookbook Grace's Sweet Life. There are many other tasty recipes in her cookbook that we recommend you check out!