The puffs may be embellished or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of powdered sugar.

[6] In the 17th century, profiteroles were small hollow bread rolls filled with a mixture of sweetbreads, truffles, artichoke bottoms, mushrooms, pieces of partridge, pheasant, or various poultry, accompanied by garnish.

[7][8] François Massialot in Le Cuisinier royal et bourgeois[9] (1698) gives several recipes for profiterole soup, with fillings of minced ham and poultry on a stew of mushrooms, asparagus, artichoke bottoms, rooster crests, sweetbreads, and truffles.

Jules Gouffé in his Livre de cuisine[12] (1870) explains that a profiterole is a small choux pastry.

Gustave Garlin in Le Cuisinier moderne[13] (1887) mentions profiteroles filled with cream and glazed with chocolate or coffee, worked to be smooth and shiny.

A widely-repeated legend claims that choux pastry, the key ingredient of profiteroles, was invented by the head chef to the court of Catherine de' Medici.