Cream Puffs: A History, a Recipe, and an Experience

Sweet profiteroles with chocolate ganache drizzle.

Cream puffs are a delicacy that can wrap up any meal, no matter the formality. Also called profiteroles, “les choux à la crème,” or kue sus, they’re small pastry balls filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, or even types of custards/ice cream, and topped with chocolate sauce, caramel, or powdered sugar. These are just the archetypes — there exist tons of variations of cream puffs. For instance, they can even be made a savory treat, with pureed meats, cheese, and more.

Below, I’ll delve into their history, how to make and plate them, and how Kristina’s tasted.

History of cream puffs.

Caterina de Medici

The various spellings themselves, profiterole, prophitrole, profitrolle, or profiterolle, have appeared in English since 1604. Although its true literal translation is unknown, it has French roots, and roughly means “a kind of roll baked under the ashes.” In the 17th century, a French recipe for “Potage de profiteolles” described a soup of small, dried breads simmered in almond broth and garnished with truffles, coxscombs. It’s rumored that Caterina de Medici, Henry II of France’s wife, imported the recipe from Tuscany. Thus, savory profiteroles became commonly used as garnishes for soups. Since then, and especially in the 19th century, they’ve grown to include (and become world renowned for) their sweet variant. The term “cream puff” appeared on US restaurant menus since 1851.

However, they are known and loved far outside just France and the U.S. In fact, profiteroles are one of the national dishes of Gibraltar. In addition, “Bossche bol” is a giant profiterole from Den Bosch, Netherlands. Éclairs are elongated variants of choux/cream pastries. Gougères are appetizers made with the choux pastries from profiteroles. Finally, Moorkops are a more well known variant of Dutch pastries.

Sweet cream puffs with a ricotta filling.

Here are some other cool facts about cream puffs. January 2nd is national profiterole day. The world’s largest cream puff weighed 125.5 pounds and was created on August 11, 2011 at the Wisconsin State Fair by Dave Schmidt and Team Cream Puff. The Fair is now known for producing cream puffs of the highest quality since 1924.

Dave “Puff Daddy” Schmidt’s record profiterole (I’m not kidding, they actually call him that).

How to make them.

Choux pastry dough is usually piped onto sheets using a bag, or dropped with a pair of spoons into balls and baked to form knotted (or specifically designed), hollow puffs. After cooling, they are injected with a filling, either sweet or savory. For sweet profiteroles, additional glazes may be used.

Here’s an extremely simple recipe.

You’ll need:

2, 3.5 ounce packages of instant vanilla pudding mix

2 cups of heavy cream

1 cup of milk

0.5 cups of butter

1 cup of water

.25 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of all-purpose flour 4 eggs.

Mix together the vanilla instant pudding mix, cream and milk. Cover and place in the fridge. Then, preheat your oven to 425 F (220 C). In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in the flour and salt until the mixtures form a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl, and use a stand mixer to beat the eggs in one at a time. Next, transfer the contents to a bag and drop onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 20–25 minutes in a preheated oven until golden brown and the centers are dry. After cooling, either split or puncture them to fill with the pudding (either using droppers or pastry bags).

Using a pastry bag to fill profiteroles.

Presentation

The most common presentations include chocolate ganaches, caramel, and/or powdered sugar over the filled cream puff. They could also be served plain, with fruit, or iced. If you’re feeling extra fancy, you could assemble them into a type of structure called a “croquembouches,” often served at French and Italian weddings, during French Christmas, and important celebrations in Gibraltar. They’re also used as the outer structural support/decoration for the famous St. Honoré Cake.

Kristina’s Cream Puffs.

Kristina’s cream puffs checked all the boxes and blew our expectations away. Here’s how she did it.

Kristina’s beautifully imperfect choux pastry shells with custard filling.

Firstly, she had live preparation. Usually an experience reserved for fine dining of the highest calibre, she dressed the filled profiteroles with a chocolate ganache in front of us. Not only did this mentally enhance the taste and how striking the flavors of the cream puff were, but it also felt like she was personalizing each one for each student and teacher. When you held a profiterole in your hand, it had a satisfying, yet still small, weight to it. You could see the filling peeking out of the side, and the golden swirls of the chou pastry swirled around the smooth interior. When you took a bite, the halves of the puff perfectly caved inwards, rewarding you for waiting until it was prepared by a satisfying separation. There were little to no crumbs and the chocolate didn’t overpower any of the other flavors. Overall, the filling was the star of the show, far surpassing a simple whipped cream interior. With each bite, the puff encouraged you to slow down and enjoy each chew, to not rush the best cream puff you’ll probably ever have. I finished mine in 4 bites, a perfect number for snacking or for a final course for an expensive dining experience.

I’m not sure I’ll ever have a profiterole as good as Kristina’s but I’ll definitely let you know if I do!