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Profiteroles, also known as Cream Puffs, are lovely light balls of choux pastry filled with whipped cream and covered in a tempting chocolate sauce. Choux pastry is an unsual pastry as it goes against all the rules of other common pastries - it involves melting the butter, cooking the flour and creating a pipeable pastry mix. But when done right, it works beautifully and creates such perfect tasty treats!
Ingredient Tips & Equipment Information
- Make sure all your eggs are at room temperature before you start baking. The butter and milk can be cold as you're going to heat them up anyway.
- You can use either real butter or a baking spread, but real butter has the best flavour.
- If you can't get hold of golden syrup for the topping, you can leave it out or replace it with liquid glucose or corn syrup.
- I recommend using whole milk for the profiteroles, but semi-skimmed milk will work well too.
- Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales*. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50) .
- For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons* and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.
For the full recipe with measurements, head to the recipe card at the end of this post.
How to make Profiteroles
In a saucepan, melt butter into milk and water on a low heat. Then bring it to the boil, take it off the heat and add flour, stir it in quickly with a wooden spoon. Leave it to cool, then use an electric mixer to mix eggs into the dough until it is smooth and glossy.
Pipe blobs of the mixture onto a lined baking tray, then wet your finger with some water and pat down the peaks.
Bake them for 20 minutes until they puff up and go golden. Use a piping bag and a nozzle with a sharp tip to pipe whipped cream into each profiterole. Then dip each one into chocolate sauce.
Can profiteroles be made in advance?
Yes! Although profiteroles are best fresh, you can make the profiterole pastry shell, cool and store them in an airtight container for up to 2 days. They can also be frozen, once they've defrosted pop them back in the oven for 5-10 minutes to crisp up again.
What is the best way to fill the profiteroles?
Use a piping bag fitted with a thin sharp ended nozzle to break through the base of the pastry and then squeeze in the filling until you feel resistance. You can get special cupcake and donut filler nozzles, or I like to use a leaf nozzle which has a sharp 'V' shape at the tip. You can also use a thin round nozzle as well, and use a sharp knife to make a hole in the pastry first.
What else can you fill profiteroles with?
These profiteroles are filled with a slightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream. You could add any flavouring extract to the cream for other flavours, for example: coffee, orange or lemon. You can also add alcohol to the cream, for example: Baileys, brandy or limoncello. Profiteroles can also be filled with creme patisserie (pastry cream/custard), again this can be any flavour of your choice. They can also be filled with ice cream, but this can be fiddly.
Can this recipe be made gluten or dairy free?
Yes! For a gluten free version you can replace the plain flour with a gluten free plain flour blend. You may also like to add ¼ tsp Xantham Gum for better texture. To make them dairy free, replace the butter with a dairy free block or spread, and the milk with a dairy free version. You will also need to fill them with either whipped coconut cream, or a dairy free whipped cream, and dip them in a dairy free dark chocolate. Unfortunately this recipe cannot be made vegan or egg free.
Can the profiteroles be made without an electric mixer?
I have found I get better results using an electric mixer, but I have made this recipe many time using a hand whisk and good old elbow grease too.
More tips for making profiteroles:
- It is very important to let the mixture cool before adding the eggs, otherwise you will end up with scrambled eggs in your pan!
- You could modify these Profiteroles to suit your taste, for example stir some lemon zest in the cream and dip in white chocolate instead, or at Christmas stir some Baileys into the cream filling! You can also dip them in caramel sauce.
- Instead of dipping each profiterole in chocolate sauce, you can put a few on a plate and drizzle chocolate sauce over them.
Troubleshooting
If you have any questions about this recipe, or if something went wrong and you need help, please use the comment form below and I will get back to you. You can also get in touch with me on my Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. I'd love to hear from you!
Recommended equipment & ingredients*
- Baking trays
- Mixing bowls
- Cooling rack
- Kitchen scales
- Electric hand mixer
- Piping bags
- Round piping nozzle
- Injector nozzle
*I earn a small amount of money if you buy the products after clicking on the links. You will not be charged anything extra for this. Thank you for supporting The Baking Explorer!
More profiterole recipes...
Profiteroles
Made with choux pastry and filled with whipped cream and topped with chocolate sauce
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Pastry
Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes minutes
Servings: 30
Author: thebakingexplorer
Ingredients
For the choux pastry
- 85 g Butter
- 110 ml Water
- 110 ml Whole milk
- 115 g Plain flour sieved
- ½ tbsp Caster sugar
- A pinch of Salt
- 3 Eggs large
For the filling
- 300 ml Double cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp Icing sugar
For the chocolate topping
- 125 g Dark chocolate
- 25 g Golden syrup
- 25 g Butter
Metric - US Customary
Instructions
To make the choux pastry, measure the butter, water and milk out into a pan and melt together on a low heat stirring every so often
Meanwhile, sieve the flour into a bowl and stir in the sugar and salt
Once the butter has melted into the milk and water, bring it to the boil then add the flour mixture and quickly stir it in using a wooden spoon. Beat it together quickly for about 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool for at least 10 minutes, or until cool to the touch
While it is cooling, pre-heat your oven to 180C Fan/200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 and line three baking trays (or however many you have) with baking paper, use some butter to help it stick to the baking tray
Put the mixture into a bowl or into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer. Mix until it is smooth, glossy and the mixture just drops off the spoon
Tip the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle
Pipe blobs of the mixture onto the lined baking trays keeping them about 2 cm apart, then dip your finger in water and pat down any peaks that have been created from piping. Put any mixture that is leftover in the fridge if you run out of baking tray or oven space
Bake the profiteroles for 20 minutes, until risen and golden, then leave to cool completely
To make the filling whisk together the ingredients until thick, transfer to a piping bag with a thin, sharp nozzle (I used a small leaf nozzle). Use the nozzle to pierce the bottom of the profiterole and pipe the cream inside until full
To make the chocolate sauce, put all of the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then microwave for 10 seconds at a time untl fully melted and mixed together
Dip the top of each cream filled profiterole into the chocolate sauce then stack them up on your serving plate, add some sprinkles if you like too!
Serve immediately and store any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container and eat within 2 days
Made this recipe?Share on Instagram with me @TheBakingExplorer or tag #thebakingexplorer!
Nutrition
Calories: 113kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 38mg | Sodium: 39mg | Potassium: 53mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 270IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 1mg
