A profiterole, cream puff (US) or choux à la crème is a choux pastry

Choux pastry

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux , is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, éclairs, French crullers, beignets, St. Honoré cake, Indonesian kue sus, and gougères. It contains only butter, water, flour, and eggs...

 ball filled with whipped cream

Whipped cream

Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....

, pastry cream

Custard

Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...

, or ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

. The puffs may be decorated or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce

Chocolate syrup

Chocolate syrup is a chocolate flavored condiment. It is often used as a topping for various desserts, such as ice cream or mixed with milk to make chocolate milk.-Basic ingredients:...

, caramel

Caramel

Caramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....

, or a dusting of powdered sugar

Powdered sugar

Powdered sugar, also known as confectioners' sugar or icing sugar, is very fine sugar. When intended for home use, it typically contains a small amount of anti-caking agent....

.

The term profiterole is traditionally used for small versions filled with whipped ice cream and topped with chocolate although the usage varies and can include other fillings.

Preparation

The choux paste is piped through a pastry bag

Pastry bag

A pastry bag is an often cone- or triangular-shaped, hand-held bag made from cloth, paper, or plastic that is used to pipe semi-solid foods by pressing them through a narrow opening at one end, for many purposes including cake decoration...

 or dropped with a spoon or pair of spoons into small balls and baked to form largely hollow puffs. Then the puffs are filled by slicing off the top, filling, and reassembling, or by injecting with a pastry bag and a narrow piping tip.

Presentation

The most common dessert presentations involve ice cream, whipped cream or a pastry cream filling, and are served plain, with chocolate sauce, or with a crisp caramel glaze. They can also be topped with powdered sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, frosting

Icing (food)

Icing, also called frosting in the United States, is a sweet often creamy glaze made of sugar with a liquid such as water or milk, that is often enriched with ingredients such as butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings and is used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies...

, or fruit.

Filled and glazed with caramel, they are assembled into a type of pièce montée

Pièce montée

A pièce montée is a kind of decorative confectionery centerpiece in an architectural or sculptural form used for formal banquets and made of materials such as confectioner's paste, nougat, marzipan, and spun sugar. Although the ingredients are typically edible, their purpose is purely decorative,...

 called croquembouche

Croquembouche

A croquembouche or croque-en-bouche is a French pastry, a pièce montée that is often served at weddings, baptisms, and first communions. It is a high cone of choux filled with pastry cream that can be dipped in chocolate bound with caramel, and usually decorated with threads of caramel, sugared...

s, often served at wedding

Wedding

A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...

s and during the Christmas Holiday in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Profiteroles are also used as the outer wall of St. Honoré Cake

St. Honoré Cake

St. Honoré Cake is named for the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, Saint Honoré or Honoratus , bishop of Amiens.This classic French dessert is a circle of puff pastry at its base with a ring of pâte à choux piped on the outer edge...

.

Gougères

Gougère

Gougère

A gougère, , in French cuisine, is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler, but there are many variants using other cheeses or other ingredients. Gougères are said to come from...

s are the savoury equivalent of profiteroles, and may be filled with a cheese mixture, game

Game (food)

Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...

 puree, etc. They are generally used as an hors d'oeuvre or a garnish or dumpling

Dumpling

Dumplings are cooked balls of dough. They are based on flour, potatoes or bread, and may include meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets. They may be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. They may have a filling, or there may be other ingredients mixed into the dough. Dumplings may...

 for soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

.

History

The origin of both the pastry and its name profiterole are obscure. It was introduced in France by Caterina de' Medici, wife of Henry II of France, who brought from Tuscany several recipes, including choux pastry and Profiterole.

The word profiterole (also spelled prophitrole, profitrolle, profiterolle) has existed in English since the 16th century, borrowed from French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. The original meaning in both English and French is unclear, but later it came to mean a kind of roll 'baked under the ashes'. A 17th-century French recipe for a Potage de profiteolles or profiterolles describes a soup of dried small breads (presumably the profiteroles) simmered in almond

Almond

The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...

 broth

Broth

Broth is a liquid food preparation, typically consisting of either water or an already flavored stock, in which bones, meat, fish, cereal grains, or vegetables have been simmered. Broth is used as a basis for other edible liquids such as soup, gravy, or sauce. It can be eaten alone or with garnish...

 and garnished with cockscomb

Comb (anatomy)

Anatomically, a comb is a fleshy growth, caruncle, or crest on the top of the head of gallinaceous birds, most notably turkeys, pheasants, and domestic chickens...

s, truffles, and so on. The current meaning is only clearly attested in the 19th century.

The "cream puff" has appeared on US restaurant menus since 1851, if not earlier.

The record for world's largest cream puff, weighing in at 125.5 pounds, was achieved August 11, 2011 at the Wisconsin State Fair

Wisconsin State Fair

The Wisconsin State Fair is an annual event held at the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. The modern fair takes place in August and lasts 11 days.-History:...

 by Dave Schmidt and Team Cream Puff. The Wisconsin State Fair is known for its dairy bakery that has been producing cream puffs during the fair since 1924.

Greece

Profiteroles in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

  are often served in a bowl, covered with chocolate sauce, and topped with whipped cream.

See also

• Moorkop
  Moorkop
  A moorkop is a pastry consisting of a profiterole filled with whipped cream. The top of the profiterole is glazed with white or dark chocolate. Often there is whipped cream on the top, with a slice of tangerine or a piece of pineapple.- History :...
  
  , a similar Dutch pastry
• Bossche bol
  Bossche bol
  A Bossche bol , sometimes called chocoladebol in its city of origin, is a pastry from the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch . It is effectively a large profiterole, about 12 cm/5" in diameter A Bossche bol (Dutch for 'Den Bosch ball'), sometimes called chocoladebol ('chocolate ball') in its city...
  
  , a giant profiterole from the Dutch city of Den Bosch
• Reuzenbol
  Reuzenbol
  A reuzenbol is a Dutch pastry similar to a giant profiterole, or a larger version of a Bossche bol....
  
  , an even larger version