Profiterole

Aprofiterole(French:[pʁɔfitʁɔl]),chou à la crème(French:[ʃualakʁɛm]), also known alternatively as acream puff(US), is afilledFrenchchoux pastryball with a typically sweet and moist filling ofwhipped cream,custard,pastry cream, orice cream. The puffs may be embellished or left plain or garnished withchocolate sauce,caramel, or a dusting ofpowdered sugar.
Savory profiterole are also made, filled with pureed meats, cheese, and so on. These were formerly common garnishes for soups.The various names may be associated with particular variants of filling or sauce in different places.
Choux pastrydough is piped through apastry bagor dropped with a pair of spoons into small balls and baked to form largely hollow puffs. After cooling, the baked profiteroles are injected with filling using a pastry bag and narrow piping tip, or by slicing off the top, filling them, and reassembling. For sweet profiteroles, additional glazes or decorations may then be added.
The most common presentations are pastry cream, whipped cream, or ice cream filling, topped with powdered sugar or chocolate ganache and possibly more whipped cream. They are also served plain, with a crisp caramel glaze,iced, or with fruit.
Filled and glazed with caramel, they are assembled into a type ofpièce montéecalledcroquembouches, often served atweddingsinFranceandItaly, during the Christmas holiday inFrance, and are served during important celebrations inGibraltar. Profiteroles are also used as the outer wall of aSt. Honoré cake.
The French wordprofiterole, 'small profit, gratification', has been used in cuisine since the 16th century.
In the 17th century, profiteroles were small hollow bread rolls filled with a mixture of sweetbreads, truffles, artichoke bottoms, mushrooms, pieces of partridge, pheasant, or various poultry, accompanied by garnish. They could also be served in a soup.
François MassialotinLe Cuisinier royal et bourgeois(1698) gives several recipes for profiterole soup, with fillings of minced ham and poultry on a stew of mushrooms, asparagus, artichoke bottoms, rooster crests, sweetbreads, and truffles. The profiteroles are made of bread dough.
Joseph Menon in hisTraité de cuisine(1732) and François Marin inLes Dons de Comus(1750) give other examples of savory recipes while keeping the same principle.
The profiteroles we know today, using choux pastry, were created in the 19th century.
Jules Goufféin hisLivre de cuisine(1870) explains that a profiterole is a small choux pastry. Gustave Garlin inLe Cuisinier moderne(1887) mentions profiteroles filled with cream and glazed with chocolate or coffee, worked to be smooth and shiny.
A widely-repeated legend claims that choux pastry, the key ingredient of profiteroles, was invented by the head chef to the court ofCatherine de' Medici.But this is a19th-century invention.
The pastry cook's art of choux pastry began to develop around the 17th century.The patissier Jean Avicedeveloped the pastry further in the middle of the 18th century and created choux buns, with the dough becoming known as 'pâte à choux', since only choux buns were made from it. In the 19th century,Antoine Carêmedeveloped the recipe used today.
Cream puffs have appeared on U.S. restaurant menus since at least 1851.
TheWisconsin State Fairis known for its giant cream puffs.
InHawaii,coco puffs(not to be confused withCocoa Puffs) made by Liliha Bakery are a popular dessert. They are filled with chocolatecreme patissiereand topped with a frosting known as "chantilly" (similar toGerman chocolate cakesans coconut and nuts).