Name: Profiterole
Place of birth: France, but let’s pay tribute to our Italian friends!
Parents: Penterelli, Popelini, Avice, Careme
Mademoiselle Profiterole…. Dont be surprised, but the word «profiterole» in french is feminine gender. Well, it’s quite logical: it is tender, sweet like a … woman.
About the word’s origins…
At the time of Francois Rablais (XVIIth century), the word «profiterole» meant a small sum given to servants to reward them. In the french annals they mention a «profiterole soup», in this case, profiteroles were small bread balls baked «in ashes» people put in their soupe.
When and how did profiteroles (pastry) appear?
There is a legend that says that it was created by an Italian pastry cook named Penterelli, in order to please his queen Catherine de Medicis. (The queen took cooks and pastry cooks with her from native Florence, self before all, as they say). Later, Popelinni, a compatriote of Penterelli cooked a pastry called «popelin» by using the dough dried on the fire.
Finally, In the XVIII th century a frenchman, Jean Avice, a pastry cook of Talleyrand improved the Popelinni’s dough and transformed it into what we call today a choux pastry.
Another frenchman Antonin Careme, accomplished the profiterole by filling it with some cream.
The question of who poured chocolate sauce on the profiterole is still a mystery 🙂
Well, as you can see, after all, the glory went to French pastry cooks !
Nowdays, profiteroles can be salted or sweetened by filling them with cream or ice cream….
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