A rich, creamy custard filling inside light, airy, crispy, perfectly baked choux pastry shells, and then drizzled with a luscious chocolate sauce on top – there’s a reason why these classic Chocolate Profiteroles (Cream Puffs) are so popular!
One of my most popular recipes on the blog is this choux pastry tutorial with all the troubleshooting tips for making absolutely PERFECT choux pastry every single time. I’ve been making choux pastry for a long time, but for the last two years, I’ve only published a grand total of TWO recipes with my choux pastry on the blog – these pumpkin cheesecake profiteroles (cream puffs) and chocolate eclairs.
It’s time to change that, and I figured I’ll start with these Perfect Chocolate Profiteroles (Cream Puffs), a favorite holiday dessert for many! Perfectly baked choux pastry cases filled with creamy creme pattisiere and topped with a luscious chocolate sauce. It’s simple, classic and addictively delicious.
Chocolate profiteroles (or cream puffs) were a BIG part of my childhood, even though the cream puffs that I grew up with were different from the classic. They had a filling that was sweeter than classic creme patissiere, but that’s a recipe for another day. 🙂
Today, it’s the classic chocolate profiterole’s turn to shine!
I won’t be going into specifics about homemade choux pastry, because you can find all the details for that in this post right here. If you’d like to know how make PERFECT choux pastry without fail every time, you should definitely read that troubleshooting post. There I talk about everything from ingredients and quantities to what to look for at each step of the recipe, and other tips and tricks to make sure you’re on the right path to making crispy on the outside, custard-y on the inside, choux pastry with a big, airy pocket for a creamy, delicious filling.
For this chocolate profiteroles (cream puffs) recipe, I piped choux pastry that was about 2 inches in diameter. It gave me choux pastry shells that were about 2.5 inches in diameter. I get 25 shells total, with this recipe.
The creme patissiere (pastry cream) recipe that I used for these chocolate profiteroles is this one that I shared recently. However 1 batch of that pastry cream recipe is only enough for about 18 of these choux pastry cases. So I made 1 1/2 batches of that pastry cream recipe to fill these bad boys. You can check out that post to find out how to make rich, creamy (and gluten-free and dairy-free!) creme patissiere for all kinds of desserts.
The chocolate sauce drizzled over these chocolate profiteroles is also the perfect pairing because it’s not too sweet, and I add a touch of bourbon to it for an extra kick. It doesn’t make the sauce boozy, but adds another warming layer of flavor. You can leave out the bourbon if you like, and just add extra cream or water to the sauce in its place. I love pouring warm chocolate sauce over the profiteroles just before digging into them, so I always serve the profiteroles and sauce separately. And I also love pouring plenty of it! Honestly, I have a hard time trusting anyone who doesn’t want delicious chocolate sauce over their profiteroles! 🙂
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Chocolate Profiteroles with Pastry Cream (Cream Puffs)
Ingredients:
Choux Pastry
Pastry Cream
- 1 ½ batches of pastry cream for 30 servings ingredients as follows
- 3 cups milk
- 9 tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 1.5 tbsp vanilla bean paste / extract / 1 vanilla bean pod
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- 4.5 tbsp unsalted butter softened
Chocolate Sauce
- 6 oz semi sweet chocolate
- ⅓ cup cream
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- Generous pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp agave / corn syrup optional
- 2 tbsp bourbon optional
Instructions:
Choux Pastry
- Preheat oven to 420°F.
- Prepare choux pastry dough according to the recipe here. When the choux pastry dough is ready, place it in a pastry bag that has a large round tip (or simply cut the tip off of the pastry bag).
- Prepare a baking tray with parchment paper and mist the surface with water (either using a mister or lightly sprinkle water with your hands - this is an optional step).
- Pipe 1 - 1 ½ inch round choux pastry mounds on to the baking sheet, with at least 1 inch space between each. (When piping choux pastry, keep the tip slightly embedded just under the surface of the piped choux pastry. This is to ensure the piped shape is as smooth as possible). Then gently flatten the pointy tip with a damp finger.
- Transfer the piped choux pastry to the oven, and immediately lower the heat to 375°F. Bake in preheated oven for 30 - 40 minutes in the center of the oven, or until the choux pastry shells puff up and are golden brown on top. Do not open the oven door at least until you have reached the 25 minute mark.
- Remove from the oven, and prick each shell with a toothpick and let them cool down completely.
Pastry Cream
- Follow the instructions in this recipe to make pastry cream (with scaled up ingredient quantities).
- When the prepared choux pastry has been chilled, place the pastry cream in a piping bag with a bismarck filling tip, or round tip (about ½ cm). Keep it chilled until needed.
Chocolate Sauce
- Place all the ingredients, except for the butter and bourbon, in a saucepan or microwave-safe bowl.
- Heat over medium low heat (or over a double boiler). Stir and melt the chocolate to get a smooth, shiny sauce. This can be done in the microwave as well.
- While the sauce is warm, add the softened butter and bourbon and whisk to mix completely.
- Use immediately. If it cools down too much, you can warm it up again in the microwave in 15 second intervals.
Assembly
- Cut an ‘x’ on the bottom of the choux pastry (see photos in the post). Pipe in the pastry cream (with a bismarck tip), until the pastry cases are almost full.
- Place the profiteroles on a plate and keep in the fridge (covered) until ready to serve. The cases are best filled as close to serving time as possible, to prevent them from getting too soggy.
- Dip them in the chocolate sauce or pour the warm chocolate sauce over the profiteroles just before serving.
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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Sue says
I followed your directions and got rave reviews. Thank you! Anxious to learn about alternative filling flavors
Ranecia says
Loved the detailed comments for trouble shooting problems with Choux pastry. Mine always seemed to deflate and I now know the reason why.
My 11 year old daughter is practicing for a baking competition and I guided her through your recipe and comments yesterday and it came out perfectly! Her first time making profiteroles so we are definitely saving your recipe for future use!
Thank you so much!
Nelle says
I used your recipes to make creme puffs (without the chocolate sauce) last night and they are wonderful!!! I used your guides to also make them dairy free, I am wondering, can the chocolate sauce also be made dairy free? If so what do you suggest?many thanks
Dini says
Hi Nelle!
I’m glad that you enjoyed the creme puffs! 🙂
You can make the chocolate glaze without dairy as well! Use vegan butter instead of regular butter, a dairy free chocolate instead of regular chocolate, and canned coconut cream (unsweetened, at least 22% fat) instead of regular cream. I hope that helps!
Shirley says
Hi
If making these profiteroles for distribution for our school project how do you safeguard from them becoming soggy once filled?
Thanks so much
Dini says
Hi Shirley
I don’t think there is a way to keep filled profiteroles crisp for a long period of time after they have been filled. It’s just the nature of choux pastry I’m afraid. But also note that the chocolate glaze will also soften the pastry.
However, if you use bread flour to make the pastry, you will end up with a thicker shell. The thicker shell will be better at keeping the filling from seeping out. I also prefer to use thicker or very light fillings. Runny fillings have more liquid that will be soaked in by the pastry.
I hope that helps!
Erin says
This recipe is fantastic! How long do they keep?
Dini says
Hi Erin
I’m so glad that you enjoyed the profiteroles! 🙂 Thank you so much for letting me know!
Once the pastries are filled, they are best eaten within two days, or they will become soggy. You could extend that by freezing the filled pastries, and letting them thaw out at room temperature before eating.
You can keep the unfilled pastries for about 1 month, provided they are frozen and stored in an air-tight container. The pastry cream will last about 3 – 4 days in the fridge.
I hope that helps!
Mrs Mobasher says
Amazing recipe
JR023 says
My first every time making profiteroles, what a success!! thank you!! I made them with a chocolate cream patissiere. Unreal how delicious they were!
Mark Reid says
Thank you SO much. You answered all of my questions and a few I didn’t realise I should have had.
GL says
Have I missed something – lots of info. here but the recipe is hidden! You mentioned 2:1:1:2 of flour, butter, water & eggs but then dive into the method of heating up the water and adding salt and sugar BUT no mention of how mush salt or sugar???
Dini says
Hi GL!
If you scroll to the top of the post, there is a Jump to recipe button that will take you to the recipe directly. You can also click here for convenience.
In the recipe ingredients I have included the link to the choux pastry recipe as well. There are jump to recipe buttons at the top of each post so you can get to the recipe right away 🙂
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Lauran says
Excited to make this! How much pastry cream should i make for this recipe?
Laura Fosson says
I have a question. You say for the cream 1.5tbls of vanilla paste/extract OR one bean. One bean is equal to the other two?
Dini says
Hi Laura!
Approximately 1 – 1.5 tbsp of vanilla paste = 1 – 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract = 1 plump vanilla bean. The conversions are approximates, because it will depend on the quality and freshness of the vanilla paste, extract and vanilla bean. Hope that helps!
Liz says
My mom taught me how to make profiteroles when I was a girl! Yours are perfect and your pastry cream is absolutely incredible!!
Renee Goerger says
There really is nothing better than pastry cream filled profiteroles. This is an awesome recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Amy says
Hi there! I love your blog and am going to start trying a few of your recipes today. My sister lives in NSW Aus so I feel ya on NZ and Auz.
Wondering if you can give me a tip on filling eclairs/cream puffs so they do not leak when you eat them? My son is a fastidious boy but loves eclairs. When I make them, they often leak Pastry cream when he is eating it and it upsets him. Is it because the pastry is over filled, or do you feel it is just a quality of this type of treat? I would love to make the experience more enjoyable for him, because he LOVES the taste. Thanks for your help! And Happy New Year!
Dini says
Hi Amy!
Nothing beats a chocolate profiterole! 😀 It can be messy for kids, because the filling might ooze out when they bite into it. But there is a quick and easy fix for this. Simply reduce the amount of pastry cream you use to fill the pastry cases. I usually fill the cases by feeling how heavy it gets. It might take a little trial and error to find out what the right amount is for you.
Another tip is to just add the pastry cream through one hole (usually at the bottom), rather than to split open the profiterole to insert the filling. Then the pastry cream has fewer openings to leak out of.
My husband prefers with less filling too, and I can tell you that it honestly doesn’t take away from the taste at all! 🙂 I hope that helps.
Happy New Year to you too!