Coconut Cream Puffs with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Cream puffs, peeps, that’s what we’re talking about here. Aka profiteroles — although those tend to be filled with ice cream, and these babies are filled with coconut pastry cream and served with warm dark chocolate ganache — or without: they’re actually spectacular either way. And, yes, you can thank me now.I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t inspired to make these because I’ve always been jonesing to try my hand at pate a choux (cream puffs, eclaires, gougeres: they’re all made from a french pastry called pate a choux). To the contrary. Although I have fond childhood memories of eating profiteroles on lunch dates with my dad in a fancy (to my ten year-old mind) restaurant near his office, I was a bit intimidated by the idea of making my own. But guess what? Making pate a choux dough? Nothing, and I mean nothing, could be easier.

And where did I learn that? The lovely and super talented Samantha Seneviratne posted a video of eclaires-in-the-making that looked effortless and I was sold. Cream puff internet and cookbook research ensued. I quickly concluded that there isn’t a heck of a lot of difference between one pate a choux recipe and another.  

Needless to say, my own recipe came together in a snap. The coconut pastry cream, I just have to say, was a stroke of genius, provided you love coconut, which i hope you do. And although the ganache provides the perfect color contrast to the lightly browned puffs, and white coconut cream — not to mention the fact that it’s delish — the puffs truly are scrumptious straight-up filled with cream. So, put your cream puff fears behind you (or at least aside temporarily) and go forth and conquer pate a choux. Pretty sure you’ll be beyond pleased with the results.
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