Profiteroles!
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Classic profiteroles with a vanilla mascarpone cream filling, and a chocolate sauce.
Christmas desserts
‘Tis the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.” Also, ’tis the season to eat whatever you want, including delicious and indulgent desserts. I’m joking really, you can eat what you want at any point in the year, but the general consensus between most people is that at Christmas you become slightly more cosy and indulgent with your pudding choices, and profiteroles are a good way to tick this off the list.
My Christmas dessert selection is quite broad, from my white chocolate berry tart, to my gingerbread chocolate tart, and my baileys bread and butter pudding. These puddings are all delicious with quite a varying amount of flavours in there, but I adore them all. I want my desserts to please everyone around the table, and whilst some people might not like baileys, or some might not like gingerbread, everyone likes profiteroles in my books.
Choux pastry
For such an incredibly long time, I have had request after request for a profiterole recipe that you all can enjoy at home. I will say from the off, a recipe such as this isn’t ‘fool-proof’, just like macarons. They can be hard to get right sometimes, and you just need a little faith. I first learnt to make these when I was at cookery school before this blog began. It was something I had really wanted to learn to make for so long, but when looking at recipes online I would see ‘choux’ and ‘pastry’ and feel a bit disheartened and give up. After being taught it, I realise it’s easier than I thought.
I would also say that these are a bit faffy, but 100% worth it if you want to wow your guests at the dinner table over the festive period with homemade profiteroles. Yes, shop bought ones are utterly delightful, but making anything yourself is always better. For my first profiterole recipe, I wanted to go quite classic to make sure you guys can crack it, and then we can adventure on to new flavours and ideas. I went for a simple vanilla cream filling, but you can flavour it to what you prefer. You can even use whipped cream instead, as that does make them a lot lighter but it’s up to you.
Making the choux
It might sound odd, but you have to add the water, butter, sugar and salt to a pan. This needs to heat until just boiling, and then you take the pan off the heat, and add in the flour. It needs a fair amount of beating with your arm, but it will eventually come together to a smooth, and very thick paste. The liquid needs to reach a hot temperature (just before boiling) as this instant heat when you then add in the flour essentially helps cook out the flour slightly, and thicken the mixture.
Once you have a smooth lump of pastry, you need to leave it to cool for five minutes. This stage is to prevent scrambled eggs. After the five minutes of cooling, I grab my beaten eggs (very important to have beaten them together as you need to add a little at a time). Pour in small amounts, mixing well each time, as you might not need all of the egg.
Eggs have a varying size, so sometimes you might have a little leftover, and that is totally okay. I beat a little in each time, until the mixture is a thick dropping consistency. It will form a V shape if you pick the spatula out of the pan, and then it will dollop back down. If it’s too thin, it will pour, and you will likely have choux based biscuits.
Baking the choux
Once I have my thick dropping consistency, I pipe my profiteroles onto a lined tray. I pipe directly downwards, with a round piping tip in my large piping bag, and pipe rounds that are slightly larger than an inch in size onto my tray. You can use other shapes of piping tips if you want, but for these, I just wanted the classic round.
If the mixture is as thick as it should be, you might get little ‘nipples’ on top of the pastry, and you want to very delicately pat this down with a wet finger, to prevent it catching in the oven. I bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, usually more towards 25 minutes as the heat circulation in my oven is good.
As soon as the profiteroles are out of the oven, you need to carefully (as they will be hot), turn them over and pierce the bottom of each one to create a hole. Place each one back onto a tray, hole side up. This allows the steam out of the profiterole to prevent them collapsing, and also becomes the hole for adding the filling in later.
Mascarpone filling
I went for a simple vanilla mascarpone cream filling for these profiteroles, as it’s sweet, easy to make, and a general crowd pleaser. You add the full-fat mascarpone to a bowl, with the double cream, vanilla extract and a little icing sugar and whisk together until its soft peaks.
You don’t want to over whisk here, because by the time you add the filling to a large piping bag, it can solidify a little more and become bitty. Making sure the mixture is smooth is key for a delicious filling. I use my piping bag and pipe the filling into the base of the profiteroles, until nice and full. They can then stay like this, but you can also create a delicious topping for the profiteroles.
Topping
I used a simple chocolate ganache style sauce for the topping because you want something sweet, chocolatey and ever so slightly gooey to stick all the profiteroles together in a pile. The beautiful thing about profiteroles is you can afford to be messy. Just get a nice dish, plate, bowl, or anything and pile the profiteroles on. You don’t need to take ages presenting them because they always look glorious.
I use a mixture of milk chocolate and double cream, melted together. You can either chop the chocolate finely, heat the double cream in a pan until just before boiling point and then pour over and stir, or you can microwave the two together and stir until smooth. You can then either dunk each profiterole in the sauce and place onto a plate, or you can pile up the profiteroles and just pour the sauce over the top.
Tips & Tricks
You could serve these in individual dishes, or one giant pile like I have, but they always look incredible. You need to have faith when making the choux pastry as it can look a little odd at some points when making it, but stick with it. Make sure to pierce the bottom of each profiterole to let the steam out so they stay in their wonderful shape, and enjoy this classic delicious dessert.
- I use these large piping bags for the choux pastry and the filling
- I use this round piping tip to pipe my profiteroles
- These are best on the day of making, but can last 2-3 days in the fridge
- This choux pastry will work for eclairs, with an increased baking time.
Profiteroles!
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
- 150 ml water
- 65 g plain flour
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 2 medium eggs (beaten)
- Pinch of sugar
- Pinch of salt
Vanilla Mascarpone Cream
- 250 g mascarpone
- 75 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
Chocolate Sauce
- 100 ml double cream
- 150 g milk chocolate
Instructions
For the Choux Pastry
- Preheat your oven to 200ºc/180ºc fan, and line a large tray with parchment paper.
- Bring the water, sugar, salt and unsalted butter to the boil in a pan over a medium heat.
- Remove from the heat as soon as it boils, and add in ALL of the flour in one go.
- Stir like crazy and beat for about 15 seconds or so till a smooth ball shape is formed and it's coming away from the edge of the pan. If it doesn't come away, cook the mixture on a low heat for a little longer and try again.
- Leave the mixture to cool for five minutes or so, off the heat.
- Beat your eggs, and then GRADUALLY beat it into the flour mixture. Beat fully and well each time you add in more egg until you reach a smooth, glossy and dropping consistency.
- If the mixture becomes really thin, you've added too much egg. If it curdles, you've added too much at one time, and if the mixture is too stiff, you've not added enough.
- Pipe little rounds onto the tray, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes roughly until crisp. I made 20 profiteroles with this batch.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and pierce the bottom of the profiterole immediately with a skewer and leave to rest with the hole facing upwards to let the steam escape and let the pastry cool.
For the Vanilla Mascarpone
- Add the vanilla, mascarpone and double cream and stir with a spoon to combine.
- Add in the icing sugar and stir again. Whisk up until thick.
- Pour the mixture into a piping bag, snip off the end, and carefully fill the profiteroles with the cream through the steam hole until full.
For the Chocolate Sauce
- Heat the cream in a pan over a low-medium heat.
- Add in the chopped chocolate and whisk until smooth.
- Leave to cool before using.
- Coat the profiteroles with the sauce and then decorate how you fancy. I made a giant pile and then drizzled over some extra chocolate!
Notes
- I use these large piping bags for the choux pastry and the filling
- I use this round piping tip to pipe my profiteroles
- These are best on the day of making, but can last 2-3 days in the fridge
- This choux pastry will work for eclairs, with an increased baking time.
Hi Jane, does your profiteroles recipe appear in your ‘Celebrate’ book? Many thanks
Hi,
I love this recipie, my first ever attempt at profiteroles was a success! But I would like to make éclairs, can I use this choux recipie for making eclairs? Or would I need to alter anything? Thanks
Yes you can! Baking time may be 1-2 minutes longer as they’re larger x
Made this as larger ones for my son first time making them, wow amazing, they were fab, thank you so much x
Hello. Making these for xmas day. Can you double or triple the ingredients to double/triple the batch or is it best to make a batch at a time?
Hiya, this should be fine! Hope this helps! x
If I make the shells today but don’t fill them until tomorrow, where should I store the empty shells overnight…an airtight container or a cake box? Thank you
Hiya! I would use a cake box. Hope this helps! x
Is there anyway you can do the cream lactose free? 🙂
Do you use a piping nozzle?
Hiya! No – I just snip off the end of a piping bag! Hope this helps! x
Hi i was thinking of making these but wanted to do a kinda Buenos filling would i just add some bars of it melted to the filling mix
Hiya! I personally have not tried this, but it is definitely worth a go! Let me know! x
How many does this batch make? I ask as it mentions 20 in the instructions and then 30 in the notes. Thank you
Hiya! How many you make depends on how large you pipe them! Hope this helps! x
I never normally think to leave reviews, but after making these for our girls Christmas dinner, I just had to!! They were so easy to make compared to other Choux recipes, and the compliments I received from these were outstanding!! Everyone said they are the best profiteroles they’d ever had and they were not wrong! Thankyou
I make these as eclairs and they are lovely but flat
Are there any tips to ensure they rise more
This sounds like they are maybe deflating after they have baked? This means they may be sweating slightly so make sure to pierce the holes in the bottom super quick to prevent this! x
Can you freeze your profiteroles and keep in advance?
Yes absolutely you can freeze these for up to 3 months. Enjoy! x
Just wondering, as my sister can’t take normal cream, will Soya cream work as I have started noticing this in some popular shops. Any ideas on Mascarpone too?
Profiteroles were her favorite and the only thing she misses!
I made her the Nutella cupcakes earlier this year & she loved them. So for Christmas dessert having batch of Ferrero Rocher brownies will be nice. Your recipes
give all of us lots of tasty treats to munch on all year round! lol
If can pull the Profiteroles off for her, she’ll completely love it & for once its something that will look practically the same as ours & is safe for her to eat! 😀
This is probably near impossible but worth an ask.
Thanks ,
Lee
Hi Jane, I was wondering can you use a stand alone electric mixer with a paddle attachments to add the eggs or would it be better to use a spoon?
Ella
I would just use the spoon!
Hi Jane,
I love your blog soooo much!
I had a question, will these go soft if i make in the morning to serve in the evening?
Thanks
Nimisha
They’ll soften slightly once filled as with any profiterole, but they will still be fine! x
What type of vanilla do you use in this recipe?
I use vanilla extract, or vanilla bean extract!
Can i use Margarine instead of unsalted?
I chose to make these with my six year old daughter, and other than adding the flour to the boiling liquid, she was able to do everything, and there were enough stages to keep her engaged. The end result was fabulous, pillow like profiteroles, moreish cream filling and a ridiculously delicious chocolate ‘sauce’. I used half 70% chocolate, half milk and it was a lovely mix. Sprinkled with smarties and they looked amazing.
Hi, can they be frozen once filled with the cream mixture?
Yes they can!
Hi Jane,
What size are your little rounds?
Thank you.
Maybe about an inch or so?
I have never been brave enough to try profiteroles before but I thought I would try your recipe as lots of your other recipes are perfect and they were amazing!! I don’t really like store bought profiteroles but I definitely love homemade ones. Thank you ☺️ xx
Hi Jane,
I made these and all but three of them stuck to the greaseproof paper! Do you know why/how I can stop this happening in future?
Thank you!
It may just be the paper you are using as mine have never stuck and they come off really easily when baked! X
Can they be frozen before filling so you can make them in advance and defrost when ready? I’m thinking for Christmas 😁
You can, but they may need putting into the oven for a little bit to crisp up again!
How long do they keep unfilled? I’m baking today but not filling till tomorrow
Many thanks
They can last about 2 days, in the fridge!
Hi, just wondering what these are meant to look and feel like in the middle once cooked? Thanks
Once baked they will be an empty shell basically – the colouring of the shell you can see in the photos on the outside!
Mine were a little soggy in the middle, do you no what could of caused this please? Thank you
That probably means they just needed a bit longer! Make sure to pierce the hole in the bottom as soon as you can though so that they don’t sweat as that can also cause it! x
Stumbled across your blog- I’m so glad I did! Made these for the first time with this recipe and I can’t believe they worked, will be making these again 😊
Awh yay!! I’m so glad you liked them!!
Hi, I was wondering where you found the freeze dried raspberries that you’ve used to decorate in the picture? I’ve been looking all over for some and can’t seem to find them anywhere! Much appreciated if you could let me know. Thanks!
I’ve bought them in Waitrose, Sainsburys and Lakeland – and also online!
I loved profiteroles and always wanted to make them…so with this lockdown I’ve now had the time to finally make them, I stumbled across your recipe and love it Xx.
Ahh yay!! It’s 100% worth it isn’t it! x