← Nouns Cooking · French

Ingredients

• 250 ml Water
• 100 g Butter, cubed
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 pinch Salt
• 150 g plain flour, sifted
• 4 Eggs, beaten
• 500 ml vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream)
• 150 g dark chocolate (about 60%), chopped
• 200 ml double (heavy) cream

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F) and line two trays with baking paper.
2. Bring the water, butter, sugar and salt to a rolling boil. Take off the heat, tip in the flour and beat hard until smooth, then return to medium heat and beat for 1–2 min until the dough forms a ball and leaves a film on the pan.
3. Cool for 5 min, then beat in the eggs a little at a time until the dough is glossy and drops from the spoon in a thick V shape.
4. Pipe or spoon about 24 walnut-sized mounds onto the trays and smooth any peaks with a wet finger. Bake for 25 min until puffed and deep golden, then pierce the base of each with a skewer and return to the switched-off oven for 5 min to dry out. Cool completely on a rack.
5. For the sauce, bring the cream just to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate and leave for 2 min, then stir until smooth.
6. Just before serving, split the puffs and fill each with a small scoop of ice cream. Pile them into bowls and pour over the warm chocolate sauce.

Tips

• Scoop the ice cream onto a frozen tray ahead of time so filling is fast and nothing melts.
• Unfilled choux puffs freeze well; re-crisp them from frozen in a hot oven for 5 min.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

RecipeTin Eats Serious Eats 196 flavors