ABC - Pumpkin Ice Cream Profiteroles with Caramel Sauce

Wow, this is my 100th post!!! It's been a little over 2 years since I started this blog. Back in the day I averaged about 1 post a month. But then I joined a couple baking groups and that certainly changed things a little bit :o) I would like to thank all my visitors, especially those who take the time to leave a comment :o) as well as my fellow baking group members for making blogging fun. It's nice to know there are people out there who enjoy reading my posts :o)

Back to baking... from Flo Braker's book, Baking for all Occasions, that is. This month's Avid Baker's Challenge recipe was chosen by Monica of Sweet Bites. Monica and I "met" through the Heavenly Cake Bakers. She's a great cook and baker, so when she decided to join my baking group, I was really excited. Not only did she join, she also assisted in the recruiting efforts and helped this baking group grow. Thanks Monica! How could I *not* ask her to choose a recipe, as a small token of my appreciation?


Her pick for this month, Pumpkin Ice Cream Profiteroles with Caramel Sauce, couldn't have been more seasonal.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Profiterole with Cinnamon-Honey Caramel Sauce

If you're a Flo Braker fan, love to bake or both, feel free to join us in our monthly baking adventures. Just email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com. You can find the rules HERE.

Unlike most recipes for Cream Puffs, this recipe has you add a cookie topping on the unbaked Pâte à Choux. Flo's recipe start with making a sugar cookie dough. My only changes to the recipe was adding a pinch of salt and ground vanilla powder. This dough is rolled out to a thickness of 1/8" and then refrigerated. I put my dough circle in the freezer to speed things up. Then small circles of dough are cut out and placed on each cream puff right before baking.

Puffs without cookie topping

Puffs with cookie topping

The choux pastry for the cream puffs was like any other. Heat up liquid and butter, add flour, cool, add eggs. I like that Flo's recipe uses a small ice cream scoop for dispensing the cream puffs instead of a pastry bag. My ice cream scoop was a touch bigger than the one she recommended so I ended up with fewer cream puffs. I cut the recipe in half, and instead of 2 dozen cream puffs, I had 19.

To be honest, I was a little skeptical about the cookie topping, thinking that the weight of the dough would not allow the cream puffs, to... well... puff up in the oven. But then again, I trust Flo and so I went ahead and did it. Although they didn't puff up as high as I expect from a "traditional" cream puff, they certainly didn't become flat either. I love how the cookie dough topping turns golden brown and crackly in the oven.

After 30 min in the oven, they're puffy and crackly

... and light golden brown. Yum!

These cream puffs are then filled with a thin layer of caramel sauce and pumpkin ice cream. Filling them with ice cream is what turns them into "profiteroles". Flo suggests using store bought caramel sauce or making her Buttermilk Bourbon caramel sauce. I don't use alcohol and I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I used a different Caramel Sauce recipe. I like a Honey-Caramel Glaze recipe I used for Bee Stings which was for my other baking group, Sweet Melissa Sundays, so I used that recipe instead with a minor change.

Cinnamon-Honey Caramel Sauce

At first, I couldn't find pumpkin ice cream at my local grocery stores, so my friend and fellow ABC-er, Margot, recommended David Lebovitz's recipe for homemade pumpkin ice cream, which she tried before and liked. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make my own ice cream. When I went to the store today, guess what? I found a "limited edition" of pumpkin ice cream by Edy's. Yay!

Pumpkin ice cream. Yay!

Just add the top and enjoy!

These profiteroles are enjoyed straight from the freezer. Upon the first bite, you hear the crunch from the cookie topping, then you taste the wonderful buttery flavor from the cookie, followed by the spices in the pumpkin ice cream and the caramel glaze. The cinnamon addition in the glaze complimented the ice cream nicely.

Cinnamon-Honey Caramel Glaze
(adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

1/3 cup/2 3/8 oz brown sugar (I had leftover cinnamon/dark brown sugar so I used that)
3 tbsp/2 1/4 oz heavy cream
3 tbsp/2 1/4 oz clover honey
2 tbsp/1 oz cold salted butter
1/4 tsp lemon juice

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the (cinnamon) brown sugar, cream, honey and butter to a boil. Cook for 30 seconds more, then remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the lemon juice and let cool slightly.

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby liked these a lot. It went like this: "Oh, you made Ice Cream sandwiches". "No, they're called Profiteroles". "They look like ice cream cookies to me". :o) These "sandwiches" got a 9.5 out 10. YES!
• I made half the recipe but kept the cookie dough recipe the same, in case I'd like to make more profiteroles later, or cookies. Btw, I added ground vanilla bean powder and a pinch of salt to the cookie dough.
• Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll to see how others liked this recipe.