Profiteroles with Custard Cream and Chocolate Sauce

I believe that if we write too many words about Profiteroles, we will ruin the experience of enjoying them. So let’s just conjure up a few words to describe them: liquid chocolate draped over a soft pouch filled with tender cream; producing images from childhood that the world was almost perfect and nothing could go wrong. Did I destroy the experience with too many words? I hope not.

Profiteroles straight out of the oven

Profiteroles are wonderful, however because they can be a little tricky to make (especially the choux pastry dough), I am providing step-by-step instructions. If they don’t turn out perfect the first time, don’t be discouraged- keep on trying. They will still be delicious!

(Also, please see my post Profiteroles Re-visited for more tips)!

The Recipe – with Tips!  (see printable version below)

Choux Pastry

• 250 ml (1 cup) water
• 90 g (6 tbsp.) butter, cubed
• 150 g (1 cup) plain flour
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3-4 eggs

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 425 F (220 C). Combine water and butter in a saucepan and bring just to the boil.
• Remove pan from the heat. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. In one go, add these dry ingredients to the water/butter mixture. Over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a dough and falls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
• Tip: It’s important to let the dough cool a little, otherwise you may ‘cook’ the eggs when you add them in the next step! To help the dough cool, I work it back and forth a little using the back of a spoon.

• 

  Stir until the dough falls away from the sides of the pan

• Beginning with three eggs, beat in one egg at a time, stirring in each egg until the dough is smooth and the egg is fully incorporated into the mixture. After the third egg, the dough should be elastic and fall easily away from your spoon or spatula.  If the dough is still a bit stiff, then add another 1/2 egg or another full egg until the dough reaches the right consistency; the dough should not be ‘runny’ like pancake batter, but smooth and elastic.
• Tip: If your dough winds up being too ‘runny’, then try adding a little more flour.

After adding the eggs, the dough should be smooth and elastic- not runny.

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Using a piping bag with a large tipped nozzle, pipe balls of dough onto the tray (spaced at least 2 inches apart), using about 2 tbsp. of dough for each ball. Pipe in concentric circles starting from the center and working outwards. Smooth down the ‘pointy tip’ of the dough ball using a wet finger.
• Tip: don’t make the puff balls too big- about 2.5 inches in diameter is a good size. To pipe your balls, you could also fill a large Ziploc bag with the dough and pipe the balls from a small hole cut from the corner of the bag.

Pipe the dough using a piping bag with a large nozzle hole.

• Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 425 F (220 C), then lower the temperature to 375 F. (190 C.) for the remaining 10-15 minutes. The pastry balls will be done when they puff up and become golden. Each ball should feel light and airy, with a crisp exterior.
• Tip: In order to achieve the crisp exterior of the puff balls, you need to first put them into the oven with a high temperature of f 425 F (220 C) and bake for about 10 minutes, before lowering the temperature. Otherwise, your puff balls will probably deflate quickly after they come out of the oven. However, even if they do deflate, don’t worry, they will still taste good!

The puff balls should be crisp on the outside when baked.

• Remove the tray from the oven and turn off the oven; slit a small hole in the base of each pastry ball to release any steam. Return the tray to the oven for another few minutes to dry out the inside of the puff balls.

The Custard Cream Filling

• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 175 ml (3/4 cup heavy cream)
• 2 tsp vanilla flavouring
• 3 egg yolks
• 75 g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 50 g (1/3 cup) flour

Directions

• Warm the milk, cream and vanilla flavoring together over medium heat- do not boil.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks, then add the flour.
• Over medium heat, gradually add small amounts of the egg/sugar mixture to the milk/cream mixture. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens-  then place in the fridge until chilled- the custard will continue to thicken as it chills.
• Tip: Make sure the temperature of your milk/cream mixture is not too hot as you add the egg/sugar mixture, otherwise the eggs may start to ‘curdle.’ After thickening,the custard should still be able to pour easily; if it becomes too thick, then add a bit more cream or milk.

• 

  Whisk yolks and sugar together

  

  Pastry cream should be pliable, not runny

  
  
• When the custard has chilled, lift the top of each puff ball with you fingers and spoon 1-2 tsps. of custard into each ball. Alternatively, you could pipe the custard into each puff ball, however I feel it is easiest to simply ‘spoon’ it in.

Lift the top of each puff ball and fill with custard.

Chocolate Sauce

• 113 g (3/4 cup) dark semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 65 ml (1/4cup) thickened cream
• 2 tbsp. sugar

Directions

• Over low heat, melt together the chocolate and butter. Mix in the cream and sugar and stir until the sauce is thick and smooth.
• To serve, place one or two cream puffs on a plate and cover with a little chocolate sauce.
• Tip: You could also melt the chocolate by putting it in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. This will prevent the chocolate from heating up too quickly and ‘seizing’ (that is, turning into a hard, grainy lump).

P.S. I’d love it if you’d ‘like’ my G’day Souffle’ Facebook page- it would really make my day! Also, this is my ‘most popular post’, so I’d love to hear how your profiteroles turned out- please leave a comment below!

Profiteroles with Custard Cream and Chocolate Sauce

Print Recipe

★★★★★

4.7 from 10 reviews

Soft pastry puffs filled with custard cream and filled with a rich chocolate sauce

• Author: Fran Flint
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 12 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: French

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• For the Choux Pastry
• 250 ml (1 cup) water
• 90 g (6 tbsp.) butter, cubed
• 150 g (1 cup) plain flour, sifted
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3 – 4 large eggs
• For the Custard Cream Filling
• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 175 ml (3/4 cup) heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla favoring
• 3 egg yolks
• 75 g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 50 g (1/3 cup) flour
• For the Chocolate Sauce
• 113 g (3/4 cup) dark baking chocolate
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 65 ml (1/4 cup) thickened cream
• 2 tbs. sugar

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. For the Choux Pastry:
2. Pre-heat oven to 425 F. (220 C.)
3. Combine water and butter in a saucepan and bring just to the boil.
4. Remove pan from the heat. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. In one go, add these dry ingredients to the water/butter mixture.
5. Over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a dough and falls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
6. Beginning with three eggs, beat in one egg at a time, stirring in each egg until the dough mixture is smooth and the egg is fully incorporated. After the third egg, the dough should be elastic and fall easily away from your spoon or spatula. If the dough is still a bit stiff, then add another 1/2 egg or another full egg until the dough reaches the right consistency; the dough should not be ‘runny’ like pancake batter but smooth and elastic.
7. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Using a piping bag with a large tipped nozzle, pipe balls of dough onto the tray (spaced at least 2 inches apart), using about 2 tbsp. of dough for each ball. Pipe in concentric circles starting from the center and working outwards.
8. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 425 F (220 C), then lower the temperature to 375 F. (190 C.) for the remaining 10-15 minutes. The pastry balls will be done when they puff up and become golden. Each ball should feel light and airy.
9. Turn off oven and remove the tray from the oven; slit a small hole in the base of each pastry ball to release any steam. Return the tray to the oven for another few minutes to dry out the insides of the pastry puffs.
10. For the Custard Cream Filling:
11. Warm the milk, cream and vanilla flavouring together over medium heat- do not boil.
12. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks for at least 30 seconds until the mixture becomes smooth and pale yellow in color, then add the flour.
13. Over medium heat, gradually whisk in the egg/sugar mixture to the milk/cream mixture. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens- if the custard is so thick that it will not pour easily, then add a little more milk or cream. Place in the fridge until chilled; the custard will continue to thicken some as it chills.
14. To fill each puff ball with custard, lift open the top of each pastry ball and fill with 1 -2 tbsp. of custard.
15. For the Chocolate Sauce:
16. Over low heat, melt together the chocolate and butter. Mix in the cream and sugar and stir until the sauce is thick and smooth.
17. To serve, place one or two pastries on a plate and cover with chocolate sauce.

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