You fill choux puffs with vanilla ice cream and drown them in warm chocolate sauce: cold cream, hot chocolate, a pastry that shatters then yields. Paris still serves it with ceremony. The sauce must be poured at the table, in front of whoever is eating.
The choux is the same dough as the gougère, turned sweet. A pâtisserie classic of the capital, not a regional dish — which is why it belongs here, as the French idea of a proper ending.
Bake at 400°F until the puffs are dry inside; a damp choux collapses under the ice cream. Fill at the last moment; they wait for no one. A Banyuls has the weight for the chocolate.
Method
- 01
Bring the water, 4 tablespoons of the butter and the salt to a full boil, the surface rolling and the butter melted. Add the flour all at once and beat over the heat with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and leaves the pan clean. You will smell a faint toasting; that is the flour cooking, and a wet panade will never puff. This is the same dough as the gougères, turned sweet.
- 02
Take the pan off the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each disappears before adding the next. The dough will look slippery and broken at first, then suddenly glossy and thick enough to hold a peak. Pipe 16 small mounds onto a lined tray, leaving room for them to swell. A damp finger will smooth any peaks so they don't scorch.
- 03
Bake at 400°F until the puffs are well risen, golden, and dry inside, 20 to 25 minutes. Split one to check; if the interior is still damp and eggy, return them to a low oven for 5 minutes more. A damp choux collapses under ice cream, and there is no recovering it. Cool them on a rack so the steam escapes and the shells stay crisp.
- 04
Warm the cream until it steams, pour it over the chopped chocolate, and let it sit a minute before stirring in the remaining 1½ tablespoons of butter to a glossy sauce. Split the puffs, fill them with vanilla ice cream, pile them into bowls, and pour the sauce over at the table — cold cream, hot chocolate, a pastry that shatters then yields. Fill at the last moment; they wait for no one.
