ABC: Pumpkin Ice Cream Profiteroles

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, which means it’s time for another Avid Baker’s Challenge and another intriguing recipe from Baking for All Occasions. This month the recipe of choice was Pumpkin Ice Cream Profiteroles with Caramel Sauce, aka the recipe that convinced me to join the ABC group! I have a long list of baked goods I want to try making at some point and profiteroles had been on that list far too long. They seem so fancy-schmancy, definitely restaurant caliber. I was happy to learn that they really aren’t so fussy. I did have trouble telling if the Pâte à choux (the dough) was mixed enough and was worried the profiteroles did not have enough height, but they were nice and airy after they were baked and, especially once they were filled, they were plenty tall. The profiteroles were supposed to have a cookie on top, but I skipped that part of the recipe.



I did make my own ice cream to fill them with, though. I had made pumpkin ice cream before, from this recipe on David Lebovitz’s site. He had adapted the recipe from The Craft of Baking, and I happened to be making something else from that book the same morning, so I made the ice cream directly from the book this time. In comparing the recipes, David adds a bit of liquor to the custard, which I did the first time I made the pumpkin ice cream, and I decidedly prefer it without. The butterscotch sauce recipe Flo recommends to go with the profiteroles contains bourbon, which is enough alcohol in one dessert. I made an entire batch of butterscotch sauce, which is fantastic, but I am not sure what I’m going to do with it all – you really don’t need a lot for the profiteroles.



I didn’t have a special occasion to make these for (I decided that I should have people over for dinner more often so I will be motivated to clean and so I have good reasons to make desserts like this), but I one of the great things about this recipe is that it stores very well. We aren’t great about saving and eating baked goods from the freezer, but the profiteroles keep beautifully, and you just have to take them and the ice cream out a little bit before you want to assemble them. This recipe rated a 9 for Deliciousness and a 4 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.25. The ABC group now has its very own blog so our lovely administrator, Hanaa, no longer has to run it from her site, so go check out how the other bakers liked this dessert.