Irish Cream Profiteroles (Cream Puffs)

I am loving these Irish Cream Profiteroles more than I reasonably should.

I have a lot of truly wonderful friends, and each one fills some sort of special role in my life. My friendship with my friend Maureen (The Eclair Girl) is unique to all of my other friendships in that she is the only one that I can really talk about pastry with.

We ask each other questions, bitch when something doesn’t work, and trade recipes.  I got a text from her two days ago, with an ethereal picture of the most beautiful little chocolate topped creampuffs that I had ever seen, with the caption, “Irish Cream Profiteroles”!

Irish Cream Profiteroles

Now, I’m not one to go bananas over writing posts for all the different holidays. I’ll do it to a degree, a cookie recipe here or there, maybe some recipes for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t devote a whole week or month to it – and lately it seems as though you can’t click anywhere on the Internet without seeing the recipe featuring Guinness or Bailey’s or Irish whiskey or the like.

I had no plans to make food or dessert in celebration of St. Packrick’s Day, or really celebrate it at all (somehow its just not as much fun after having a child. It’s all fun and games until you have to get up and be a parent at 7 am.)

However, once I saw those little puffball of delights filled with a beautiful Bailey’s pastry cream– I knew I had to get to work.

Made this yesterday and I have to say, they are probably in the top few dishes that I’ve ever made. They even evoked a “Wow, these are REALLY good!” out of Dave, who rarely remarks on things that I make anymore (as he says, “Everything is always good!”), so when I get a real, unprovoked accolade- THAT is really saying something.

These are made with pâte au choux, the same dough that we used for the gougères and the chocolate eclairs. It gets piped on the cookie sheet in slightly larger rounds, which bake up big, beautiful and hollow. Then get filled with the delicious Bailey’s cream and topped with chocolate ganache. I guarantee if you take these to your St. patties day party, you’ll be the other star of the show.

Ingredients

A lot of these simple ingredients might already be in your pantry. However, the rest can easily be found at your local grocery store.

• Butter – We will use the butter for both the pâte au choux and the chocolate ganache topping. Always use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Salt – If you used salted butter, you can omit this altogether. I like to use fine sea salt rather than table salt. Table salt tends to have a higher sodium content.
• Flour – All purpose flour is what you need here. It will be used to make the base of our pâte au choux dough.
• Eggs – Any time you are baking, it is recommended to use room temperature eggs. Always assume a recipe is calling for large eggs.
• Heavy cream – We will use the cream for both the pâte au choux and the chocolate ganache topping.
• Powdered sugar – You will use this to make the Bailey’s Irish Cream filling. It helps keep the texture light and fluffy while also sweetening it.
• Cocoa – I like to use a high quality cocoa powder when making a ganache. You will need to use unsweetened cocoa powder here.
• Bailey’s Irish Cream – We always have a bottle of this in our liquor cabinet. But you can easily find this at any local liquor store.
• Semi sweet chocolate chips – You can use any kind of semi sweet chocolate, it doesn’t have to be chocolate chips.
• Sugar – White granulated sugar will work perfectly. This will help to sweeten the the chocolate ganache.

How to Make Irish Cream Profiteroles

You are going to love how easy it is to make these Bailey’s Irish Cream cream puffs.

1. Prepare oven and pan. Preheat oven and prepare two cookie sheets by either spraying with nonstick spray, lining with parchment paper, or using a nonstick silicone liner.
2. Make pâte au choux. Melt the butter into the water and add the salt. Then dump in all the flour and stir briskly with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball.
3. Add eggs. Transfer to stand mixer and cool slightly. Turn your mixer on medium speed and add the eggs one a time, waiting to add the next egg until the previous one has fully incorporated
4. Pipe dough. Scoop the mixture into a large piping bag. Pipe the dough into two inch mounds on the sheets, leaving space between mounds.
5. Bake. Place in the oven and bake, rotating trays halfway through, until the pastries are golden brown and feel solid.
6. Allow to cool. Cool, then cut each one through horizontally about 2/3 of the way.
7. Make filling. In the bowl of a stand mixture, whip the cream and powdered sugar together until it looks like a thick whipped cream. Add the cocoa, then slowly add the Bailey’s.
8. Fill profiteroles. Transfer to a piping bag and fill the profiteroles with the cream.
9. Make ganache. Add the cream and sugar to a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. In a separate bowl, add the chocolate chips and butter. Pour the cream into the bowl, then stir until the mixture is smooth and no lumps remain.
10. Add ganache to profiteroles. Spoon the ganache over the filled profiteroles.

Tips and Tricks

I have changed the recipe a little from my original post- I no longer recommend making these with my Bailey’s cream. The whipped cream+ Bailey’s Irish cream was just too finicky to recommend to everyone.

In order to work, you have to freeze your bowl, have VERY cold, VERY fresh heavy whipping cream, and whip it to VERY stiff peaks. It’s actually an easier filling to make, but unless you do it right, you’ll end up with a soupy filling that doesn’t stand up prettily.

I suspect it has something to do with the addition of the Irish cream.

In lieu of the whipped cream filling, I ended up making more of an Irish cream/mousse filling. I used the filling from my eclairs as a base recipe, then whipped a cup of cream to lighten it up. It worked great!

Storage and Freezing

This is not a dessert that will sit out well at room temperature for a while (more than 1-2 hours), the filling will melt slightly because of the Bailey’s. Still good, just not as fluffy. Best to store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (which you would have to do long-term anyway because of the cream).

More Easy Dessert Recipes

• Chocolate Eclairs
• Frangelico Bailey’s Coffee
• Dinner Party Delights: Gougères
• Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey’s Frosting

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Bailey’s Cream Puffs

These Irish Cream Profiteroles are full of a Bailey's pastry cream and topped with an easy chocolate glaze. Perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: irish cream profiteroles

Servings: 0

Author: Jacqueline

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 stick butter
• pinch salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup cream
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 1/4 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
• 2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cream
• 2 T butter

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425F.
• In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter into the water and add the salt.
• When the butter has melted, dump in all the flour and stir briskly with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball.
• Transfer to stand mixer and cool slightly. Turn your mixer on medium speed and add the eggs one a time, waiting to add the next egg until the previous one has fully incorporated
• Scoop the mixture into a large piping bag. Prepare two cookie sheets by either spraying with nonstick spray, lining with parchment paper, or using a nonstick silicone liner. Pipe the dough into two inch mounds on the sheets, leaving 3 inches between mounds. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating trays halfway through, until the pastries are golden brown and feel solid when you touch them. Cool, then cut each one through horizontally about 2/3 of the way.
• In the bowl of a stand mixture. whip the cream and powdered sugar together until it looks like a thick whipped cream. Add the cocoa and, while the mixer is running, slowly add the Bailey’s.
• Transfer to a piping bag and fill the profiteroles with the cream.
• For the ganache- add the cream and sugar to a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. In a separate bowl, add the chocolate chips and butter. Pour the cream into the bowl with the chocolate chips, allow to stand for about 30 seconds, then stir until the mixture is smooth and no lumps remain. Microwave an 30 seconds, if needed, if the chocolate will not fully melt. Spoon the ganache over the filled profiteroles.

Tried this recipe?Mention @gogogogourmet or tag #gogogogourmet!

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