Ina Garten's Go-To Dessert When Visiting Paris For The Olympics

It seems like everyone right now has run off to Paris to enjoy the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, and among them is TV personality and cookbook author Ina Garten. The Barefoot Contessa has been working on some content in collaboration with the "Today" show and has taken to social media to showcase her favorite foods in Paris.

One dessert that made an appearance on Garten's Instagram is a bowl of profiteroles, being slowly drenched in a rich, velvety chocolate sauce, which the chef referred to as the "only dessert to order in Paris." Now, that's a tough call in the land of French pastry, but it's not exactly one to be argued with. Profiteroles, a classic French bistro dessert, are made up of choux pastry puffs, which are cut in half and typically filled with ice cream, then topped with liquid chocolate. They are in the same family as éclairs, choux au craquelin, chouquettes, divorcés (the pastry, not the marital status), gâteau St. Honoré, religieuses, and the croquembouche, all of which are made using a base of pâte à choux.

Ina Garten has carried the torch for profiteroles for more than two decades. Her 2004 book, "Barefoot in Paris," contained a recipe for profiteroles. In 2014, she referred to profiteroles as "the ultimate Valentine's Day dessert" in a Facebook post. Part of her love for this simple pastry is the ease with which it can be made at home. Though, admittedly, a bad batch of profiteroles might be rock hard and crunchy, instead of like biting into a cloud. Once you've mastered the choux, one of the foundations of French pastry, all you need to do is add in ice cream, chocolate sauce, and perhaps some thick whipped cream.

Profiteroles are also endlessly customizable. You can add fresh fruit, swap the chocolate sauce out for salted caramel, or experiment with different flavors of ice cream. Consider chocolate hazelnut profiteroles, for instance, or take some inspiration from the flavors of a mean, green matcha-chocolate éclair.

The basis of profiteroles is choux – made from butter, milk, flour, sugar, and eggs – which produces light and fluffy puffs that melt in the mouth. Though often confused with puff pastry, choux is its own beast. This style of baking is thought to have been brought to France by way of Italy when Catherine de Medici brought her Italian cooks with her after marrying the French King Henry II in the 16th century. De Medici's head chef, Pantanelli, is often credited with the invention of pâte à choux. Choux, which also means cabbages in French, was so named because these puffs come out of the oven looking like little ruffled cabbages.

But profiteroles are thought to have been popularized as a dessert much later, in the 18th century, by Antoine Carême, who is considered by many to have been the first celebrity chef. So it's no wonder that today's celebrity chefs are still drawn to this delicious dessert, a hallmark of hundreds of years of evolution in French pâtisserie.