If you’ve never made profiteroles before, don’t worry — the technique is easy to add to your repertoire. They’re made with pâte à choux (aka choux pastry), a twice-cooked dough that can be used to make everything from cream puffs to cheesy gougères, and sounds more complicated than it is. Basically, it’s just a combination of butter, water (and/or milk) and flour that’s mixed and warmed over the stovetop, then combined with eggs to form a spoonable, pipeable paste that puffs up when baked. Choux (pronounced “shoo”) means “cabbage” in French. It’s said to have gotten the name due to the cloudlike shapes the pastry forms when baked (though it’s much more indulgent than the vegetable).

Expert tip: When adding eggs to the choux, you’ll know it’s ready to pipe when the dough begins to fall from your spoon or spatula in a flat “V” shape.

Though choux pastry is delicious on its own, it’s a building block for many other delightful sweet and savory treats, including éclairs, French crullers, churros, beignets, croquembouche and more. As simple as it is, we love the classic, ice cream-filled dessert drizzled with chocolate sauce. Just remember, because they’re filled with ice cream, they have to cool completely before assembly and should be served and eaten immediately.

Notes: No piping bag? No worries. Starting in one corner, fill a large, resealable plastic bag with choux pastry, then cut off the tip to “pipe” it out. Also, we like to pre-scoop the ice cream and return it to the freezer for easy assembly and to keep the ice cream as cold as possible right before serving.