Dairy Free Chocolate Profiteroles

Imagine… Luscious scoops of ice cream tucked into crisp golden pastry shells and dripping with warm chocolate sauce. A simple yet elegant dessert–chocolate profiteroles!

Click here to PIN Dairy Free Chocolate Profiteroles!

Why are they called profiteroles? From profit, the stem word, in both French and English. Restaurants put glamorous profiteroles on their menus because, you got it– they’re profitable! They’re show-stopping, inexpensive and easy to make!

The pastry dough for profiteroles is classic French pâte à choux made with eggs, butter, flour and sugar.  To make these dairy-free puffs, we trade coconut oil in for the butter.

The dough is shaped into rounds, either by dropping it from a cookie scoop or piping it out of a pastry bag. In the oven, it puffs up with an air pocket inside. The puffed rounds look a little like the heads of cauliflower and so comes the name, pâte à choux. Literally translated, it means “pastry resembling cauliflower heads!”

When these airy puffed pastries are filled with something rich, smooth and creamy, they’re known as cream puffs. But fill those cauliflower-looking cream puffs with a frozen indulgence instead, ta da—they become profiteroles!

Make them Dairy Free:

• Choux pastry usually calls for butter. Not these, they’re made with coconut oil, an easy substitute for the butter.
• Classically, vanilla ice cream goes in chocolate profiteroles. For a dairy-free dessert, fill your puffs with a coconut-based “nice cream.” I filled these with Coconut Bliss frozen dessert, which paired perfectly with the chocolate and orange zest.
• Dip the top half of your cream puff in rich dairy-free chocolate sauce, simply bittersweet chocolate, coconut oil, and maple syrup.

Homemade chocolate profiteroles ~~ is your mouth watering in anticipation?

Just so you know, some of the links below are affiliates. When you purchase products via my links, it doesn’t cost you anything and I earn a tiny commission, which helps me continue to provide free content here on Letty’s Kitchen. Thank you!!

How to make chocolate profiteroles:

• To help form your rounds all the same size, trace 2-inch circles on parchment paper, turn the paper upside-down on the baking sheet, and pipe your dough.
• Very helpful tools for making the pastry shells:
  Baking sheets, parchment paper, heavy-duty stand mixer, disposable or cloth pastry bags, 5/8-inch plain pastry tip. (Affiliate links.)
• *** If you don’t have all those tools, you can make do. Mix the dough with a strong arm and wooden spoon, and instead of parchment paper, a pastry bag and a pastry tip, you can lightly oil your baking sheets and use a small cookie scoop or a ziplock bag with a hole cut out to form the rounds.

For miniature profiteroles or cream puffs:

*** Using a small (#100) cookie scoop, portion the dough into rounds, about the size of a walnut. Bake at a lower temperature, 350° F. They will take less time to bake so keep a watch on them.

Can you freeze cream puff dough?

• Yes! You can bake the shells ahead and freeze them. To reheat, place the frozen shells in a 350° F. preheated oven for 4 or 5 minutes to thaw and re-crisp. 
• Alternatively, you can portion the dough into the rounds and freeze them unbaked. If you wish, once they’re frozen you can take them off the baking sheet and store in a ziplock bag. When you’re ready to bake, arrange them back on the baking sheet, cover, and let thaw before baking. The frozen rounds don’t rise as high as fresh dough but it works pretty well–we often did that when I worked as a pastry chef. **** Be sure to wrap well so a skin doesn’t form on top of the raw dough.

Did you know?

• When you pipe cream puff dough into rectangles and fill with creamy custard–they’re known as éclairs.
• For a savory pop-in-your-mouth snack, mix grated aged cheese and pepper into cream puff dough–they’re called “gougères.”
• Churros, the deep-fried Mexican treats, are essentially choux pastry piped using a star tip and fried.

You might also like:

• These vegan chocolate truffles have a surprise ingredients that keeps them from completely melting at room temperature.
• This vegan whole wheat oil pie crust has a pleasing nutty flavor.

This recipe comes from Simply Sweet Dream Puffs, (Affiliate link) a cookbook by my friend and fellow Utah blogger, Barbara Bakes.

• In her cookbook you’ll find all about making cream puffs, eclairs, and profiteroles. And ideas for all sorts of sweet pâte à choux flavors. Think mango-lime cream puffs, strawberry cheesecake, and bananas foster profiteroles.
• The cookbook also includes a gluten-free pâte à choux recipe. I didn’t try it, but judging from the dairy-free variation, they’ll bake up perfectly.
• You might want to view Barbara Bakes cream puff video here.
• Print Barbara’s free profiterole templates from here.
• I received a Kindle edition of Simply Sweet Dream Puffs from Barbara’s publisher. All opinions are my own.
• Simply Sweet Dream Puffs is available only as an e-book. You can order the Kindle edition via my Amazon Affiliate link. It’s also available wherever e-books are sold, including Barnes and Noble, and other on-line stores.

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Print Recipe

4.55 from 11 votes

Dairy Free Chocolate Profiteroles

Luscious scoops of ice cream, tucked into crisp golden pastry shells, and dripping with warm chocolate sauce. This is a super-impressive dairy-free dessert. Makes 14 pastry shells and about ¾ cup chocolate sauce.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time50 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Dairy Free, French

Keyword: profiteroles, dairy free, pastry

Servings: 14 servings

Author: Letty | @lettyskitchen

Ingredients

Pâte à choux:

• 3/4 cup water
• 6 tablespoons melted coconut oil (I use extra virgin)
• 1 teaspoon organic cane sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs , room temperature (see note)

optional Egg Wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water

Chocolate Sauce:

• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate , cut in 1/2-inch pieces (I used Trader Joe’s 72% dark)
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

To serve:

• 2 pints dairy-free frozen dessert
• Orange zest , or chopped toasted nuts

Instructions

Pâte à choux:

• Preheat oven to 425°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Measure flour and set aside.
• Bring 3/4 cup water, coconut oil, sugar, and salt to a boil in a 3-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Immediately remove from heat, and quickly stir in flour-- all at once. Return to heat and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes, or until dough is smooth and forms a ball. Transfer dough to the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with a paddle, and let cool 5 minutes.
• Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating until mixture is smooth and glossy. Scrape dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch plain tip. Pipe dough onto prepared pans into 2-inch rounds (1 1/2 inches high). (see note) Smooth out peaks and round tops with a moistened finger.
• If you wish, brush tops of dough with egg wash made by whisking the remaining 1 egg and 1 teaspoon water. (Save the extra egg wash for French toast.)
• Bake at 425° for 5 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 375°, and bake 30 minutes or until puffy and golden brown. (see note) Turn oven off; let shells stand in closed oven 10 minutes. Remove from baking sheets to wire racks, and cool completely.

Chocolate Sauce:

• Place the chocolate, coconut, and maple syrup in the top of a double boiler, over gently boiling water; upper pan should not touch water. When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from the heat. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until smooth.

To serve:

• Cut each profiterole in half horizontally. Scoop ice cream onto the bottom half. Dip the tops in warm chocolate sauce and place on top of the ice cream. Garnish with freshly grated orange zest or chopped toasted nuts. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Bring cold eggs to room temperature by placing them (uncracked) in warm water before starting the recipe.
• Alternatively, you can form the dough rounds using a round 1¾-inch ice cream scoop.
• Resist the urge to open the oven door while the pastry bakes: The dough can collapse if the temperature in the oven drops too quickly.
• You can bake the shells ahead and freeze them. To reheat, place the frozen shells in a 350° F. preheated oven for 4 or 5 minutes to thaw and crisp. 
• The chocolate sauce can be made several days ahead and held at room temperature or refrigerated. To reheat, place in the top of a double boiler until almost remelted. Remove from the heat and stir gently.

Nutrition

Calories: 203kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 62mg | Potassium: 97mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 74IU | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

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**** Nutrition information is meant to be an estimate only. Nutrition calculations do not include the ice cream, as the numbers will vary depending on the ice cream you choose.

**** This is an update of the Chocolate Profiterole recipe I posted way back in February 2016.