Pink Craquelin, pronounced (kra ke lin), is like a biscuit topping for your profiteroles, giving you a crispy outside versus a chocolate-covered one. You can add flavours or colour to this to make it look and taste better. I’m using pink colouring to give me the S’more look. 

Prep time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Makes 35 profiteroles

INGREDIENTS

For the Craquelin:

125 g butter 

125 g brown sugar 

125 g flour 

1 cap pink colouring 

1 cap strawberry essence

Pink glitter, optional

For the Profiterole:

625 ml (2 ½ cups) water 

65 g butter 

Pinch of salt 

500 ml (2 cups) flour 

4 eggs 

For the Filling: 

4 egg whites 

250 ml (1 cup) castor sugar 

200 g Lindt chocolate 

METHOD

For the Craquelin:

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add in the flour. Add in the food colouring and essence and mix well. Combine and set in the freezer for one hour. Roll out nice and thin, then cut into the desired shape of your profiteroles. Make sure it’s slightly bigger than your profiteroles.

For the Profiterole:

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Boil the water with the butter and salt. Lower the heat and whisk in all the flour. You want to cook the dough gently for about 1-2 minutes while stirring.

Transfer it to a mixing bowl and add eggs one by one. Every batch is different based on humidity and egg size, so you have to finesse the consistency of your batch right here. Some people give tips about beating your eggs separately and adding it in bit by bit. I say keep a tablespoon of flour handy in case your mixture is too wet.

Once you have a shiny, smooth and thick dough that has the consistency to be piped, pipe it on a greased baking tray in rounds or rectangles. Pop on your cut Craquelin and place in the oven. Immediately lower the oven temperature to 180°C for 20 minutes or until cooked.

For the Filling: 

In a mixing bowl, add egg whites and beat till light and fluffy. Slowly add in the castor sugar and beat till the egg whites triple in volume and has stiff peaks. 

In a bowl melt your chocolate and slowly whip the chocolate into your meringue. Fill into a piping bag. 

Use a sharp knife to make small incisions at the bottom of your profiteroles. Fill with your chocolate meringue by putting your pipping bag into the incision and squeezing. 

Thank you to Chef Ammaarah Peterson for this recipe