Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream

Start with the butter. Good butter, from cows that grazed on grass, with that faint golden color and the smell of something alive. Choux pastry is nothing more than butter, water, flour, and eggs. When the ingredients are honest, the technique almost takes care of itself.

I learned to make profiteroles in Paris, in a tiny kitchen where the afternoon light came through lace curtains. The woman who taught me used eggs from her cousin's farm and butter she bought at the market that morning. She said very little. She let me watch. The paste came together in seconds, the eggs disappeared one by one, and thirty minutes later we were eating puffs still warm from the oven, split open and filled with ice cream her daughter had churned that week.

This is not a complicated dessert. It only asks that you pay attention. The dough tells you when it is ready. The puffs tell you when they are done. Your job is to listen, and to find the best eggs and butter and chocolate you can. The rest is just faith and a hot oven.