Profiteroles
Choux pastry is lifted by steam alone — there is no yeast and no raising agent. Two rules therefore govern it: the paste must reach the right consistency (falling from the spatula in a V) and the oven must not be opened for the first 25 minutes — escaping steam and a drop in temperature are the most common reason choux buns collapse.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cooking the paste 12 min
- Adding the eggs 8 min
- Baking the buns 40 min
- Pastry cream 25 min
- Chilling the cream 60 min
- Filling 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook the flour into the liquid
Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt to the boil. Once the butter has melted and the liquid boils, take the pan off the heat, add all the flour at once and beat hard with a spatula. Return the pan to a low heat and stir 2 minutes until the paste forms a ball and a thin film appears on the base of the pan.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
TipThat film on the base is the sign the excess water has evaporated. Skip this step and the paste is too wet to rise.
A ball of paste and a thin film on the base — the flour is cooked.Cool before the eggs
Tip the paste into a bowl and stir for 3–5 minutes until it cools to about 60°C — warm, but no longer billowing steam. Egg added to very hot paste scrambles into lumps that cannot be smoothed out again.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
Add the eggs gradually and watch for the V
Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, mixing after each addition. Check after every one: lift the spatula — when the paste falls from it in a V and stops, stop adding. The last egg may not be needed.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
TipToo loose and the paste spreads on the tray, too stiff and it will not rise. The V is the most reliable test.
The paste falls in a V and stops — stop adding egg.Pipe and smooth the peaks
Heat the oven to 200°C (conventional). Spoon the paste into a piping bag and pipe 4 cm mounds 4–5 cm apart onto two lined trays. Wet a finger and flatten each peak — protruding tips scorch and become black spots on the finished bun.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
A wet finger erases the tip that would otherwise burn.Bake without opening the oven
Bake 15 minutes at 200°C, then reduce to 170°C and bake 20 minutes, until deep golden. Do not open the oven for the first 25 minutes — the steam escapes, the temperature drops and buns that have not yet set collapse. If your oven will not take both trays at once, bake them one after the other; the second tray can wait somewhere cool.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
Pierce and dry them out
Pierce each bun underneath with a skewer and return them for 5 minutes with the door ajar. The steam escapes and the inside dries. The buns should feel light as paper and be hollow. Cool them on a rack.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt
Deep golden and light — pale buns collapse as they cool.Make the cream and fill
Bring the milk to the boil with the split vanilla pod and its scraped seeds. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and starch, pour in half the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking, then tip everything back into the pan. Cook, whisking constantly, until the cream thickens, and keep it boiling for a minute after it thickens. Remove the vanilla pod, press film onto the surface and chill for about 60 minutes. Whisk the cold cream smooth, fold in the whipped cream and fill the buns through the hole underneath with a piping bag.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 40 g potato starch · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 200 ml whipping cream (30%)
Pour over hot chocolate
Bring the cream to the boil, pour it over the chopped chocolate, wait a minute and stir in the butter to a smooth sauce. Pile the buns into a pyramid and pour the hot sauce over just before serving — the contrast of cold cream and hot chocolate is the point of the dessert.
Ingredients: 200 g dark chocolate · 150 ml whipping cream (30%) · 20 g butter
Before you start
Buns ahead of time
Empty choux buns keep a day in an airtight container, and the pastry cream a day in the fridge. Refresh the buns for 3 minutes at 160°C and let them cool before filling to bring back the crispness.
Fill just before serving
The cream softens the buns within two hours. For a party, fill them no more than an hour ahead.
With ice cream
Instead of pastry cream, put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream in each bun. In French bistros this is the version you see most often — with an even stronger temperature contrast.
