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Chocolate Profiteroles

Chocolate profiteroles are small puff pastry shells filled with chocolate and served with vanilla‑flavored whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Profiteroles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Shave the chocolate into a cup and place it in a pan of boiling water until melted.

  2. Make a paste similar to chocolate eclairs, using 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Once the paste is cooked, beat in the melted chocolate.

  4. When the mixture is cold, add the eggs and beat until light.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto lightly buttered pans, forming round cakes.

  2. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Serve hot or cold with whipped cream flavored with vanilla, heaped in the center of a flat dish with profiteroles arranged around it.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten in to give the batter structure and lift as it bakes.
Chocolate
Gives the batter its chocolate flavor and color.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the batter brown in the oven.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness to the served profiteroles.

The step that matters

Let the paste go cold before adding the eggs. If the paste is still hot, the eggs can scramble or cook partially, so the batter will not blend smoothly and will not rise well.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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