A profiterole (pronounced pruh-FIHT-uh-rohl, but I like to say "olé" at the end for flair) has its own fairly strict definition that's not to be confused with cream puffs. You must scoop vanilla ice cream (not whipped or pastry cream) inside a delicate puff of choux pastry (pâte à choux to be French about it) and drizzle the concoction with chocolate sauce (not sprinkle it with icing sugar as I did because it looks so pretty!). And don't try to call a savory choux pastry a profiterole!

Profiteroles are quite simple to make, if you know how to make choux pastry! Getting the consistency of the choux pastry just right is tricky.

Choux be do be do
Choux pastry is cooked twice, once on the stove and once in the oven. First, you cook the water, butter, sugar and salt on the stove until it comes to a boil. Then, add the flour all at once and cook over low heat until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the pan. This is the tricky part. How long do you cook this mixture? How "dry" do you let the dough get?

Then, if you've figured that out, you whisk in the eggs off the heat, one at a time, until the mixture is light and airy, not runny, and the dough is "just right"! Here is where practice, practice, practice comes in. The size of your eggs, the type of flour used and how dry the dough is make a difference. Too many eggs, and your puffs will be flat. Not enough eggs, and your puffs will be tough. The dough should be glossy and stiff enough to pipe. Got that?

Pipe the dough into rounds and brush with egg glaze before baking at 425°F for 15 minutes and then at 350°F until they're browned, about 10 minutes.

Once you've mastered choux pastry, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce are easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Recipe: Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

Cigarettes aux amandes are a wafer-thin, crisp, sweet biscuit often served as an accompaniment to ice cream or hot chocolate. They’re sometimes called tuiles (or tiles) because they look like authentic roof tiles found along the French countryside. To me, they look a lot like Pringles! However, this recipe calls for them to be formed into cigarettes, so I’ll try that too.

Krumkake—the Uff Da treat
The recipe for tuiles reminded me of Krumkake (which means crumble cake or cookie, pronounced KROOM-kah-kah), a Norwegian favorite at Christmas time in our family. It’s a flat cookie that’s rolled around a cone-shaped pin or dowel, similar to a waffle cone or a pizzelle (the Italian waffle cookie). It, too, has an almond flavoring.

The batter is put into a Krumkake iron, which resembles a waffle iron. A traditional old world iron is placed over a hot burner on the stovetop, although now you can buy models that are electric. Typically, the iron stamps a pattern onto both sides of this thin golden-brown cookie, which has a crisp texture once it is cooled. Once cooked, you must quickly roll it using a cone roller before it becomes too brittle to roll. Krumkake is often served with whipped cream inside, but ice cream is delicious too.

A few years ago, my mom brought my grandmother’s heavy cast iron Krumkake iron on the plane for me to have. What an honor, and finally, I’ve used it. It’s been well-loved and has the patina of many Krumkake cookies layered on it. Although it’s not electric and doesn’t have a “color select dial” to let me choose from golden to brown, it worked just fine and I felt connected to times past and fond memories of eating this delicious cookie at Christmas. I also realized how easy it is to make and next time will not hesitate to pull it out of the back of the pantry.

Watch a pro make Krumkake
Here is a video videoof how the Krumkakes are cooked and rolled. These guys make it look easy! However, it's not everyone's favorite thing to make. 

Shaping
For both Cigarettes aux amandes and Krumkake, shaping them can be the trickiest part of the recipe. You must do it while the cookies are still very warm, or they will dry and become brittle and impossible to bend. You can use a pencil, a dowel, a skewer, a special cone shaped dowel, a bowl, a teacup, or a rolling pin. You can even buy a tuile sheet for shaping them into the traditional curved shape. If you're baking them in the oven, you can make your own template using acetate or stiff plastic (such as the top of a plastic container). You can also pipe patterns using a piping bag or paper cone. Use your imagination.

Ice cream
Now that the crunchy bit of the dish is done, it’s time for the creamy ice cream. Ice cream is so simple to make. All you need is an ice cream maker. Thankfully, after all the years of Christmas gifts and appliances I’ve received, I seem to have all the ones I need.

Ice cream is just crème anglaise that’s frozen. That’s it, that’s all. For the Charlotte aux pommes recipe, I learned how to make crème anglaise. This time, I added a real vanilla bean to the vanilla ice cream base and some instant espresso powder to the coffee ice cream base. Threw it in the ice cream maker, and 2 hours later, I had homemade, rich, delicious ice cream

Watch a pro make Crème anglaise
Here's a useful video videoon making Crème anglaise.

Recipe: Cigarettes aux amandes (Tubular almond biscuits) with Crème glacée vanilla (Vanilla ice cream) and Glace au café (Coffee ice cream)

⅔ cup sugar
1 large egg
3 large egg whites
4 ounces sliced almonds
⅓ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You can find the recipe in from Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link).

Makes:: about 24

3 eggs, beaten
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon almond flavoring

Whisk the eggs and the sugar. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Do not over-beat. Heat the iron. Drop about 1-2 tablespoons of batter on the iron. Follow the manufacturer’s directions. Roll on pin immediately.

Like Cigarettes aux amandes, these cookies should be served the same day they are made. That’s when they’re the most crispy. If you can’t serve them right away, store them in an airtight tin. Do not store with other cookies or they'll get soft. A friend of mine makes large batches of Krumkake at Christmas time for friends and family and delivers them in paper boxes tied with a ribbon. They keep well for weeks that way and they make a nice gift!

Recipe: Crème glacée vanilla (Vanilla ice cream)

Makes: 6 ¼-cup scoops

1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split open

You can find the recipe in from Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link).

Recipe: Glace au café (Coffee ice cream)

Makes: 6 ¼-cup scoops

1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

You can find the recipe in from Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link).

Tasting Notes
My kids were amazed that I was able to make vanilla ice cream, asking incredulously, “You made this??” And the coffee ice cream…let’s just say that I’ll never have to buy Coffee Häagen-Dazs® again! The problem was that the recipes only made 6 scoops of each kind! I’d definitely double these recipes next time!

I made both the Cigarettes aux amandes and the Krumkake. I found the Krumkake lighter, more crunchy, and tastier with the ice cream, but I’m part Norwegian! I even added some sliced almonds to the Krumkake batter and tried baking them the way the recipe for Cigarettes aux amandes describes. These turned out good too.

A delicious ice cream treat to enjoy any day of the year, even after the 13 feet of snow we’ve had to shovel this winter in Ottawa.

Quick Survey:
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor and
how much snow have you had to shovel this year?

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Running total: $219.91+ $3.57 (Cigarettes aux amandes) + $2.52 (Krumkake) + $7.36 (Crème glacée vanilla) + $3.68 (Glace au café) = $237.04

Butter used so far: 4 pounds, 27.5 tablespoons

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