Cocoa Pate á Choux

One of my childhood favorites is képviselőfánk, or Pate á Choux, filled with vanilla creme... Hmmmm....
But.. while I like to bring those memories back with the pastries, I also like to experiment and make the old new, maybe even better.
I saw a recipe in a Homes and Garden, with rose cream filled chocolate puffs. I tried to bake them, and it turned a complete disaster.. What did I do wrong, or was the recipe or instructions bad, I have no clue, but I put the idea of baking them aside for quite a while.
At least a month ago I asked my friend, and blog co-author Asian Mist :), if she had a good recipe to share, and of course she did :).
Tonight I made the cocoa pate a choux slightly modifying the recipe I had, and they turned out gorgeous!
Here they come...

Ingredients
250 ml, 1 cup water
115 g or 1 stick butter
150 g, 1 cup all purpose flour
1 good pinch of salt
5 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp sugar

Filling

cream of your choice, some to come in next posts

Decoration tips
powder sugar
wiggles of white chocolate 

Preheat the oven to 220C or 425 F.

In a medium pot bring the water and the butter to simmer over medium heat. Sift in the flour and salt, and with a wooden spatula stir quickly. The flour will absorb all the liquid, and the dough will detach from the side of the bowl. Give it some more minutes, about 2, stirring continuously, to cook through.

Let it cool a bit, or transfer the dough into a mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, cocoa, mix, and now start adding the eggs one by one, incorporating each of them properly before adding the next one.
By the end, when all 5 eggs are nicely mixed in, the dough should be smooth, creamy and shiny, and sticking to the wall of the bowl.

Now spoon the dough in shape of small balls on a tray covered with parchment paper with the help of a tea and a tablespoon.
The balls should be about the size of a walnut, roughly 25 g for medium size puffs. For larger puffs scoop larger balls...

Bake the in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes at 220 C / 425 F. Lower the heat to 175 C / 350 F and bake for about 20 more minutes.

They are ready if they feel dry and empty, like some table tennis balls, if you lift them.
Let them cool.
They can be made in advance and stored for days in a cold, dry storage, covered with kitchen wrap.
What you do next, it depends on your plans and filling you're gonna use, but at this point just enjoy the view of these lovely puffs :D.