Hands up if you want my BEST EVER gluten free profiteroles recipe? Oh, you only want my ‘mediocre gf profiteroles recipe’? Ok then…

Just kidding! The ‘mediocre’ version was probably the first or second time I ever made these! But after several billion attempts to refine them, I’m finally proud to present my best ever (and not at all mediocre) gluten free profiteroles recipe! *cue Greatest Showman style theatrics*

Oh and unbelievably, this is SUPER easy to make dairy free. Yes, even the cream in the middle. Read on to find out how!

Ok, so now I feel I have to justify saying why they’re my ‘best ever’ gluten free profiteroles…

Choux pastry is something I’ve been perfecting (read: messing up constantly ?) on and off for years, but there’s always been something that’s bugged me about the results.

They’d either be really pale, not crisp enough on the outside or too sloppy when piping which meant weird-shaped/flat profiteroles. They all tasted amazing of course, but yeah, those would probably be my mediocre ones ?

But now, I think I’ve really nailed it, hence my bigging up of the recipe. I’m quite a painfully modest person, so if I write ‘best ever’, you can trust that I mean it!!

So what’s the secret? Well… just a lot of tinkering with ingredients and amounts to be honest! These days, baking and recipe creation for me is a little bit like a science experience back at school… without the goggles and Bunsen burners of course!

So that sorted out the consistency so it’s nice and pipeable (damn you squiggly spellcheck line telling me that’s not a word – it so is a word!!) and the colour of the choux buns too.

But how did I get that lovely crisp exterior? Well, it’s simple! After baking, I poked a hole in the base of each one to allow all the steam and moisture to escape.

Then, I popped them back in the oven again (with the door open) for one quick warm up to try and dry them out as much as possible. Voila! The BEST gluten free choux buns I’ve ever had. And it’s so easy to make them dairy free too.

How on Earth could this ever be dairy free though?! Well, it’s actually pretty simple.

For starters, the choux pastry only contains a little milk and butter, which is easily substituted for dairy free milk and Stork baking block (aka hard margarine). You can also use lactose free milk to make this low FODMAP as butter is incredibly low in lactose too.

And I thought that the cream filling would be an impossible task to make dairy free… I imagined that double cream would be the only option. And since there’s very little in the way of dairy free (and lactose free) alternatives to that, I thought Mark would *nevereverever* be able to eat this.

But actually, proper French creme patissiere (there goes the spellcheck squiggly line again) only has milk and butter once again as its dairy-containing ingredients… which are very easily substituted too! So yep… with some very basic, no-brainer swaps, this can ALL be dairy free, no problems.

So I’ve actually provided you with a couple of different fillings to choose from. Aren’t you lucky?! You’ve got the choice of filling one or filling two…

Filling one is the easiest to make and more tricky to make dairy free – it simply involves whipping double cream and a little icing sugar. However, I have noticed recently some dairy free double cream options coming on the market which is exciting! Also of course, coconut cream whips up really well.

(double cream is what I used in the photos FYI because I wanted to pipe the filling to hopefully look nice and fancy)

Filling two is the real deal though: French creme pat. It’s probably my fave out of the two flavour and texture wise – it tastes more like custard than cream. However, it takes a bit longer to make and you can’t pipe it like I did in the photos, it’s more of just a filling.

On the plus side with filling two though, it’s insanely easy to make it dairy free! I’ll leave the choice of filling up to you.

Ok, so here’s your shopping list to make my gluten free profiteroles recipe…

Ingredients for my gluten free profiteroles recipe

For the choux pastry

75ml water
75ml milk (I use lactose free whole milk but you . can use regular whole milk or a dairy free alternative would work fine)
50g butter, cut into pieces (or dairy free alternative)
75g gluten free self raising flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs

For the cream filling (Filling Option 1)

300ml double cream (dairy free or lactose free alternative if necessary)
3 tbsp icing sugar

– OR –

For Creme Patissiere (Filling Option 2)

3 egg yolks
30g corn flour
480ml milk (I use lactose free whole milk but you can use regular whole milk or a dairy free alternative would work fine)
120g caster sugar
30g butter (or dairy free alternative)
2tsp vanilla

For the topping

100g dark chocolate
extra decorations – I used Tesco gold and bronze crunch sprinkles

Aaaand here’s a few frequently asked questions and tips on how to make my gluten free profiteroles recipe without a hitch…

Can I make this recipe gluten free?

It is gluten free!

(but nobody would ever know this recipe was when tasting it – trust me!)

Can I make your gluten free profiteroles recipe dairy free?

Of course you can – and this recipe is actually really simple to make dairy free.

For the choux pastry, all you’ve got to do is sub butter for hard margarine (I use Stork baking block), use dairy free milk instead of regular milk and dairy free chocolate instead of regular chocolate.

When it comes to the filling, simply go for filling option 2 and again, use hard margarine instead of butter and dairy free milk once again.

That is seriously so incredibly easy to make dairy free and you’d never know it was dairy free either. Mark was in heaven when he ate these!

Can I make your gluten free profiteroles vegan?

Whilst it’s super-easy to make this recipe dairy free, because of the eggs in the choux and filling, it’s not so easy to make this vegan at all.

(sorry, I always try my best to make sure as many of my recipes can be made vegan, but this one was really tough)

Usually, I’d recommend you some egg replacement options here, but this recipe relies a little too much on real eggs to work. I’ve tried egg-replacers but not had much luck.

I’ll get working on a gf AND vegan choux pastry recipe and get back to you one day I hope!

Is your gluten free profiteroles recipe nut free?

Yep, this is a nut-free recipe as far as ingredients go, BUT make sure you check the ingredients label on ALL the products you use to bake this cake just to be safe.

Even if the products don’t contain nuts, they may have a ‘may contain nuts’ warning due to being produced in a factory that handles nuts.

You can never be too careful so always read the labels on everything first!

Is your gluten free profiteroles recipe low FODMAP?

If you use lactose free milk, then it certainly is! Butter is incredibly low in lactose, so you should be ok with that too.

Go for filling two and use lactose free milk too btw.

Otherwise, you’re good to go and for once, there’s no scary, high FODMAP ingredients required!

Can I make your gluten free choux pastry in a food processor or standing mixer?

Of course you can – though I don’t use either, you definitely can. I use an electric whisk to gradually add my beaten eggs to the choux pastry mix.

(here’s a link to the electric whisk I use)

But if you use a food processor or standing mixer, just make sure you use them at the lowest possible setting.

Can I make your gluten free profiteroles without any kind of electric mixer/appliance at all?

You can of course, bake this without any assistance from any appliance – just a good ol’ fashioned wooden spoon will do.

Just make sure you give it a lot of welly, otherwise your mixture won’t be consistent and it will likely affect the rise of your choux buns.

It’ll take you a lot longer, but it is possible!

Do I need any special equipment to bake your gluten free profiteroles recipe?

Certainly not! As I mentioned, a food processor, standing mixer or electric whisk will cut down on prep time, but they’re not mandatory.

You’ll need some piping bags and an open nozzle – I use the 1A nozzle in this set.

Otherwise, you’re good to go.

Can I make this recipe without using piping bags and nozzles?

Technically yes, but I wouldn’t recommend it! If you’re in a pinch and you have no piping bags or nozzles, you can always put your choux pastry dough into a medium plastic sandwich bag.

Then, just snip off one of the corners using a pair of scissors so that you have a hole approximately 1cm big. It’s not ideal, but it’ll definitely do!

Try to make sure each choux pastry blob is the same size as it might be a little harder without a nozzle and proper piping bag.

And if you don’t even have a sandwich bag, spend A LOT more time spooning out nice even blobs onto a baking tray and making sure they’re all the same size. If you don’t care about how they look too much, you’ll definitely still produce something edible and tasty!

Can I make this recipe without xanthan gum?

You’ll see xanthan gum in a lot of my recipes as it’s an essential ingredient in gluten free baking. So I definitely wouldn’t recommend removing xanthan gum from any of my recipes if you can really avoid doing so!

But what if you didn’t have any to hand? Or you needed to remove xanthan gum because of an intolerance to it?

Well, this is one of those recipes where it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you didn’t include it. Why? Because there’s actually a little xanthan gum in gluten free self-raising flour to start with, which will help if you don’t have any.

Some people have asked if they can use psyllium husk powder instead of xanthan gum, and this wouldn’t be a bad recipe to give it a try either.

But yeah – if you have it and can use tolerate it, then definitely use it!

Can I make this recipe using other gluten free flours like buckwheat flour or coconut flour?

There’s a big difference between ‘gluten free flour’ and a *singular* type gluten free flour. When I say ‘gluten free flour’, I mean a BLEND of gluten free flours, not just one singular flour.

Most gluten free flour you buy in the supermarket typically contains a blend of rice flour, potato flour, maize flour, tapioca flour AND buckwheat flour. That’s a lot of different flours!

In gluten free self-raising flour, there’s usually even a little baking powder and xanthan gum in it too.

So to replace it with just one specific type of flour… that’s not going to cut it at all. Definitely go for a gluten free flour blend.

Do I need weighing scales to make your gluten free profiteroles?

In short… yes, yes and yes! And I wouldn’t advise attempting any my recipes without them. One of the worst things you can do in any baking recipe is alter the quantities by mistake or on purpose.

(unless you know what you’re doing of course)

Why? Well, you’re sort of just gambling with the recipe and praying that it turns out ok, don’t you think? And I’ve generally already done the hard work there for you, so you don’t have to do the guesswork with measurements!

A lot of work went into fine tuning ratios and quantities so I wouldn’t mess around with them unless you really know your stuff. The measurements in this recipe are particularly important, or you won’t be able to pipe it successfully.

I’d recommending using digital cooking scales like these so you know you’re getting an accurate measurement and replicating my recipe as accurately as poss.

Can I bake your gluten free profiteroles without sugar?

I can understand the need to reduce sugar in our foods, but this recipe definitely isn’t one of the bad guys. Why not? Well, actually there is so little sugar involved in this recipe in the first place!

I mean… there’s 1 teaspoon of sugar in ALL of the choux pastry. That’s for like 12 choux buns as well!

Then, in the fillings, there’s only a little more sugar there too. And dark chocolate is probably the lowest sugar chocolate too!

If you really needed to, you could technically lose the sugar in the choux pastry – it’s such a small amount after all. But trust me, it does make all the difference so leave it in if you can!

How should I fill my gluten free choux pastry buns?

It’s up to you! I’ve opted to just cut them in half and pipe the filling in using the the 1M nozzle in this set.

I personally prefer how they look because you can see all the filling without having to bite into it AND it’s just easier/quicker. You can of course, just spoon the filling in too.

But adding the filling this way can mean that the filling splodges out everywhere when you bite into them! It can be a little be messier to eat.

So if you instead want to directly pipe your filling into the choux bun (without cutting them in half) you’ll need one of these long piping nozzles. Just pop it into a piping bag, stab the nozzle into each choux bun and fill ’em up!

How long can I keep your gluten free choux buns for?

Without being filled, I’ve kept them for 2-3 days in an air-tight container with no problems – they don’t need to be kept in the fridge. Obviously, the sooner you eat them, the better.

If you need to keep them any longer than that, I’d highly recommend freezing them (see advice below for doing that).

The longer you keep them, the more they’ll lose their crisp exterior so to be honest, they are best enjoyed fresh. If they do go a bit soft, you can always reheat them in the oven at 200c for 5 minutes to crisp them up again.

If you’ve already put your creamy filling inside, I wouldn’t keep them for longer than 24-48 hours in the fridge – they will definitely lose their crisp shell if you do so however.

But all that being said, it’s best to fill your choux buns and immediately eat them to experience them at their best instead of storing them.

How far in advance can I fill my choux pastry buns?

If you really have no choice, I wouldn’t recommend filling them anymore than an hour or so before eating.

The longer the filling is in the choux pastry, the less crisp they’ll be on the outside and they can risk getting soggy.

So for best results, fill at the very last minute and serve immediately!

Can I freeze the profiteroles when they’re filled?

Of course! Once filled and topped with chocolate, I’ve frozen them for up to 2 months. The best way to freeze them, is spread them out on a baking tray, then once fully-frozen, you can then transfer them to an airtight container and place back in the freezer.

When you want to eat them, simply allow to defrost in the fridge for 2-3 hours or an hour outside of the fridge. They’ll lose their crisp exterior by freezing them filled, but of course, they’ll taste just as good!

Can I freeze my profiteroles when they’re unfilled?

You can of course freeze your choux buns without filling for around 2 months too – they should then only take 1-2 hours to defrost in the fridge or 30 minutes out of the fridge.

Once defrosted, consider reheating the unfilled choux buns in the oven for a few minutes to try and bring back their crisp exterior!

How can I tell when my gluten free choux buns are done?

They should have risen nicely and turned a lovely, even golden colour all over – not browned and not pale!

You really want to see that nice golden colour as it’ll mean that each bun has formed a crisp shell that won’t deflate as they cool.

Definitely don’t open the oven to check on them because it can make them deflate if they’re not quite done.

What sprinkles did you use to top your gluten free profiteroles?

I used a mixture of gold crunch sprinkles and bronze crunch sprinkles from Tesco.

They’re gluten free and dairy free too, but not all sprinkles are so be careful. Always triple check the ingredients just to be safe!

Troubleshooting

My gluten free choux pastry buns didn’t rise very much – they were quite flat!

First of all, when you pipe your choux pastry dough onto the baking tray, the dough should hold its shape. That’s a good sign!

If the dough doesn’t hold it’s piped shape and is noticeably spreading, then your choux pastry won’t rise particularly well either.

If that happens, that means the dough was too wet – so either you didn’t measure out enough flour, or you may have measured out too much in the way of wet ingredients. Using digital scales is the best way to ensure you have accurate measurements!

Don’t be tempted to add more flour to try and correct a wet mixture – it’s a sure-fire way to get a lumpy mixture that still won’t rise very well.

My gluten free choux pastry buns rose up really nicely, but massively deflated when I took them out of the oven! What went wrong?

Removing the choux pastry from the oven early is definitely the main cause of why your choux buns can deflate as they cool.

If they didn’t have long enough time in the oven to form a nice, crisp exterior, they won’t hold their structure as they cool down.

Make sure you look for that nice golden colour before you take them out of the oven!

My gluten free choux pastry buns weren’t very crisp on the outside – they were a bit soggy even before I filled them…

Oh and make sure you always remember to poke each choux bun with a skewer or cocktail stick once it comes out of the oven to let the steam inside escape.

This will allow all of the moisture to escape from inside the choux pastry buns. Finally, popping them back into the warm oven (whilst it’s off) with the door open will just dry them out a touch further, ensuring you have a really nice, crisp shell.

If you need to use the oven for something else and you can’t pop them back in to dry, then leave them somewhere warm where there’s no cold drafts.

My gluten free choux pastry buns came out dry, dark and crumbly… what happened?

First of all, over-baking your choux pastry is a sure-fire way of over-baking them so that they come out more brown than golden. So keep an eye on them 5-10 minutes before their cook-time is over, but whatever you do, don’t open the oven door until you’re sure they’re done!

Remember, you want them to be nice and golden – pale isn’t good either.

If you have more of a dry, crumbly texture then it’s likely that you either had too much flour or not enough eggs. I always use large eggs, so make sure you do for this recipe too – proportions really matter!

Also, once you’ve poked your choux buns with pastry and allow them to cool in the warm oven… don’t forget about them! They can easily get too dry and over-done in a warm oven too.

My gluten free choux pastry buns have risen, but not very consistently. Some look a bit mis-shapen?

This can happen when you pipe your choux pastry dough onto a baking sheet. Make sure you smooth over any pointy bits created when you finished piping each individual choux pastry blob.

If you did this, it can just be a matter of making sure that you better mix your choux pastry dough to eliminate any flour lumps – sifting your flour first can always help with this too.

It’s not the end of the world, as I sometimes get a few mis-shapen ones myself – they still taste good to me!

Some of my gluten free choux pastry buns were more over-done whilst others were still pale and underbaked. What happened?

Sounds like some of your choux pastry blobs were bigger or smaller than others, resulting in them all cooking at different rates.

Bigger blobs will need longer to cook, whilst smaller blobs will just overcook before the big ones are done. When you’re piping your choux pastry dough out onto the baking tray, try your best to make sure they’re all an identical size!

That way, everything will cook at the same rate and all be nice and go perfectly golden at the same time.

Can I print your gluten free profiteroles recipe?

Of course! Just hit the print button located on the recipe below ?? (otherwise you might end up printing this entire post which would probably make your printer go into early retirement)