Say it with me: pro-feeeeet-er-rolls. Very good!
We're going to make profiteroles (AKA cream puffs) for Valentine's Day, ok? They're French, so you know this recipe will impress your Valentine. If there's one thing men like it is delicious things stuffed inside other delicious things with delicious sauce on top. You can trust a woman who is getting married in 16 days. Six.teen!
Profiteroles are made with the French dough, pate a choux. It's the same dough used for eclairs, because as it bakes, the water in the dough evaporates and leaves a hollow center inside the pastry. You can stuff them with custards, whipped cream, or fruit sorbets. If you have leftover sorbet from my Champagne Sundaes, use it for this recipe. I also think chocolate whipped cream would be great with a fresh raspberry sauce. Or, this vanilla custard with Frangelico. Or whiskey-ed cherries. Or this butter whiskey sauce. Or anything else your little heart desires.
Cream puffs are a romantic dessert for Valentine's Day because you can feed each other these little bites between sips of bubbly. (Did you see my post on champagne tips)?
The process of making the dough feels odd. It goes against everything you would think about a light and fluffy pastry. The first step is melting the butter in water over low heat. It's important to prevent the water from boiling because then it will evaporate and alter the liquid ratio in the dough. Next, flour is added directly to the butter and water mixture. Weird, right? Finally, you whip the dough to cool it off before adding the egg, pipe it onto a baking sheet, and bake. You'll squeal with delight when you cut them open and find a hollow shell.
Now, go on! Bake delicious things to stuff inside other delicious things with delicious sauce on top. Your Valentine will thank you for it.
Homemade profiteroles filled with a raspberry sorbet.Profiteroles with Raspberry Sorbet and Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 221Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 50mgSodium: 67mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 16gProtein: 3g
Meghan {For the Love of Dessert} says
Wow, you're right the process of making that dough does feel weird!
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking says
My mom is a master of pate a choux. I have lots of memories of her making eclairs and profiterols for us. I've never attempted to make some since I'm pretty sure they'll all be gone before I have a change to snap some photos
Yours look so good, I just want a couple right now!
Thanks for sharing Christina, congratulations on your upcoming wedding and thank you for the lovely comment you left on my guest post on Aimee's blog
Elizabeth says
I love pate a choux!!
katie says
These look great I never thought to make my own profiteroles!
Sarah | Shine Food says
Cream puffs for Valentine's Day are a marvelous idea, and my experience with pate a choux was also completely unintuitive...but also so easy!
I hope you'll consider adding this recipe to this month's Shine Supper Club. This would be a perfect addition!
Megan {Country Cleaver} says
I just learned how to make puffs this last week - so much fun and SO impressive! These are perfect, I love the sorbet in them too. Never would have thought of that!
Julie says
I LOVE LOVE LOVE cream puffs. My southern grandmother made them for every party, bridge club, etc that she had (and she had a lot). She would fill them with either custard or chicken salad. We got the rejects (read--not pretty ones). We also had them for our wedding reception. Dang it. I need to make some for us.
CC says
The recipe is for chai cupcakes, not cream puffs.
Cher says
You mentioned a vanilla custard sauce with frangelico in the comments for cream puffs. There are no instructions how to make this. Do you omit the vanilla extract and add 1 tbsp of frangelico ? I love lemon but not great with experimenting. Please advise thanks :)