Profiteroles with Vanilla Cream and Chocolate Ganache (2024)

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This profiteroles recipe fills deliciously crisp French choux pastry shells with homemade vanilla cream and tops them with chocolate ganache for a bakery-quality treat. You can also fill the pâte à choux with sweetened whipped cream and dust them with powdered sugar to make classic cream puffs!

Christmas morning I woke up at 3:43. It was a loud thud from above, and no not Santa, lol; just the neighbors making merry.

Try as I might, I couldn’t fall back asleep for the life of me, and instead of waking Mike up with my incessant tossing and turning, I decided to get up and make pastries. (Doesn’t everyone do this when they can’t sleep, lol?)

Ok, so it’s a little weird, but I had promised Mike homemade cream puffs for Christmas and I was planning to make them later that morning anyway.

And really, nothing tastes better than a cup of coffee with a homemade French pastry in the pre-dawn hours. ;)

What are Profiteroles?

A profiterole is a French pastry made from choux batter (called pâte à choux in French). When baked, the dough puffs up beautifully; the exterior is crisp and the inside is hollow! This means profiteroles are perfect for filling.

Don’t worry if you’ve never made choux dough before, it’s really not as complicated as it looks or sounds. And these pastries are very versatile. Sweet fillings are common (if you add cream inside, you have cream puffs!), but you can also go with something savory.

Or you can mix about 1 cup of grated cheese (such as Gruyère) into the batter before baking and you have gougères. (If you go with a savory option, omit the sugar and increase the salt to 3/4 teaspoon in the choux batter.)

And if you’re a fan of French cruller doughnuts (they’re my favorite!), this is actually the same batter that’s used to make them. Just pipe the choux batter into circles and deep fry them!

Savory Profiterole Fillings

Profiteroles are delicious and perfect for a luncheon if you fill them with any number of savory fillings. To add a savory filling, it works best to slice each profiterole in half horizontally (because these types of fillings generally can’t be piped).

Here are a few filling ideas for savory profiteroles:

• Mushrooms sautéed with garlic and butter
• Chicken salad(such as curried chicken salad or cranberry walnut chicken salad)
• Mushrooms in cream
• Smoked salmon dip

What Pastries Can You Make with Pâte à Choux?

You can use this batter to make a variety of different pastries, such as:

• Profiteroles – choux pastries filled with pastry cream, whipped cream, custard, ice cream, etc.
• Cream puffs – profiteroles filled with sweetened whipped cream (aka Crème Chantilly)
• Éclair – choux batter piped into an oblong shape before baking, and after baking filled with pastry cream or custard and topped with icing
• Paris-Brest – choux batter piped into a circle, and later filled with hazelnut praline cream
• Croquembouche – this is essentially a cone-shaped tower of profiteroles (typically filled with cream) with spun sugar holding it together
• French cruller doughnuts – the batter is piped into a circle, deep fried, and then glazed with a thin icing
• Gougère – this savory pastry is pâte à choux with shredded cheese (frequently Gruyère) mixed into the choux batter

To Make Classic Cream Puffs

You can fill profiteroles with a thick sweet cream for classic cream puffs! You can make sweetened whipped cream (aka Chantilly cream) or use Cool Whip if you’re pressed for time.

To make sweetened whipped cream, you’ll need:

• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Use a hand-held electric mixer to beat until the cream forms stiff peaks. Pipe this mixture into the cooled choux pastry shells, and dust the tops with a generous sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Profiteroles with Vanilla Cream Filling Ingredients and Substitutions

Vanilla Cream (aka Diplomat Cream) Filling Ingredients

Crème Diplomat is essentially Crème Pâtissière, aka Pastry Cream (Pastry Cream is a vanilla custard that’s thickened with cornstarch or flour) that’s combined with whipped cream.

• 1 large egg
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 cups milk (preferably whole milk)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Choux Batter Ingredients

This choux batter recipe was adapted slightly from Julia Child’s recipe for Puff Shells (Choux) in Mastering the Art of French Cooking; published by Alfred A. Knopf.

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs
• 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water (for eggwash)

Chocolate Topping Ingredients

• 4 ounces chopped good-quality semisweet chocolate (or about 2/3 cup good quality semisweet chocolate chips)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk (preferably whole milk)

Instructions

Step 1: Make the Custard Filling

If you want to fill these profiteroles with Diplomat Cream, make the thick custard (aka Pastry Cream) first so it has time to chill.

1. Whisk together the egg and egg yolks in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk together the milk, sugar, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Turn off the heat and very slowly ladle the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture while whisking, adding just a drop at a time at first.
3. Transfer the custard back to the saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat; boil 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Turn the heat off and whisk in the butter and vanilla.
4. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the custard (to prevent a skin from forming).
5. Cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate to chill.
6. Before filling the pastries, beat the custard until smooth with a handheld electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the custard, adding 1/3 of the cream at a time. This mixture (called Diplomat Cream) is ready to pipe into the center of each pastry.

Step 2: Make the Choux Pastries

While the custard is chilling, make the choux pastries.

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt up to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, pour in all the flour, and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to blend thoroughly. Put the saucepan back on the heat and continue to stir until the mixture thickens and forms a ball, and starts to film on the bottom of the pan, about 1 to 2 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the dough cool slightly, about 3 to 5 minutes, then make a well in the center of the dough, break an egg into it, and beat vigorously until the egg is absorbed; continue this way until all 5 eggs are incorporated.
3. While the dough is still warm, use a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop to scoop out it out onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each pastry. Lightly dip a pastry brush into the eggwash and very gently brush the top of each puff, being careful not to let the eggwash drip down the puff onto the baking sheet (this will prevent the puffs from rising).
4. Bake for 20 minutes (rotating the pans once halfway through), then turn heat down to 350F and bake until the puffs are golden brown and firm to the touch, about 5 to 15 minutes more, checking them every few minutes.
5. Remove the puffs from the oven and immediately pierce the side of each with a sharp paring knife (so the steam can escape). Turn the oven off, put the pastries back into the oven, and let them sit in there for 10 minutes with the door ajar. After this, transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Step 3: Fill the Pastries

1. Fit a pastry bag with a basic small-medium tip (I like to use a 3/16-inch tip); fill the bag with Diplomat Cream.
2. Once the puffs are completely cooled, insert the tip of the pastry bag into the puff through the slit that you cut to let the steam vent; gently squeeze the cream into the pastry and continue this way until all the pastries are filled.

Step 4: Top with Chocolate

The chocolate topping is optional. I like it paired with a custardy vanilla filling; it reminds me of Boston cream pie doughnuts! However, you can skip the topping, or simply dust the tops with powdered sugar if you prefer.

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave or double boiler, then stir in enough milk to make it smooth.
2. Spoon a little over each filled pastry and let the chocolate set before serving.

Make Ahead

You can make the custard filling up to 3 days ahead. Store it covered in the fridge, and wait to whip the cream and fold it into the custard until right before you want to fill the pastries.

You can make the choux pastries ahead as well! Once they cool to room temperature, store them in a covered container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. If you make the pastries ahead, you will need to re-crisp them before filling. To do so, thaw them if they were frozen and put them on a baking tray in a preheated 350F oven until warm and crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes, and then let them cool before filling.

Storage

Once profiteroles are filled with custard, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. However, they will lose their crispness as time goes on, so I definitely recommend filling them right before you want to serve them if possible.

More Sweet Pastries to Make

• Pain Suisse
• Banketstaaf
• Pączki

Let’s Connect

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This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on December 28, 2011. I updated it with more information and photos on December 28, 2023.

I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.

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