Raspberries & Cream Profiteroles – Cream puffs are topped with a crispy brown sugar topping and filled with a raspberry and vanilla whipped cream
Hold on to your hats because berry season is here! Berries are one of my favorite ingredients to bake with and they are at their peak flavor during the summer. I have so many recipes with berries but yet, I keep coming up with more each year.
To kick off the season, I am making these Raspberries & Cream Profiteroles. They are covered in a pink craquelin that not only gives the profiteroles and gorgeous hue but also a crispy, brown sugar bite.
Before we dive into the recipe, here they are in all their glory!
What are profiteroles?
Profiteroles are the formal name for cream puffs. They are eggy pastry puffs that are filled with a sweet filling, such as whipped cream, pastry cream, custard, etc. They are made with choux dough, which is mostly butter, water, flour, and eggs.
These profiteroles are topped with craquelin, which is a brown sugar dough that gets baked on the profiterole and turns crispy and cracked. It’s a great way to add texture to the puffs, which can been a little soft when filled with the cream.
Steps to making these profiteroles
These profiteroles are made in three main steps:
- Making the craquelin
- Making the choux dough and baking the profiteroles
- Filling the profiteroles with raspberry whipped cream
Making the craquelin
The craquelin is a simple brown sugar dough made from brown sugar, softened butter, and flour. I added a little red gel food coloring to turn it red-pink, similar to a raspberry. The dough is rolled out and then chilled so it firms back up. Then, disks are cut out of the dough, which will be placed on the rounds of choux dough before they get baked into profiteroles.
Making the choux
The process of making choux is quite simple but you cannot lose focus or the dough could turn out wrong. First, you heat the water with butter, a little sugar, and salt. When all the butter is melted and the water slightly boiling, the flour is added and mixed quickly. The dough is cooked for a couple minutes and then removed from heat.
Finally, the eggs are added one at a time and beaten into the dough. This is a labor intensive process because the eggs don’t want to mix into the wet dough. But keep working at it! They’ll finally give in and combine into the dough.
Once the dough is ready, it gets piped into 1 1/2 inch rounds onto a baking sheet. Then, each round is topped with a disk of the pink craquelin we made earlier. They’re baked for 30 minutes and then removed from the oven to cool.
Filling the profiteroles
Once the profiteroles have cooled, the raspberry whipped cream is made. To do this, we first puree the raspberries with a little sugar. Then, we make the whipped cream by whipping in a stand mixer. It’s whipped extra thick because it will get thinned out a little by the raspberry puree.
The puree is then slightly folded into the whipped cream but not all the way. This gives the cream a swirled effect instead of it being totally pink.
The profiteroles are cut in half and then the whipped cream is then pipped into the center of the cut profiteroles and then sandwiched back together.
Tips & Tricks
- The dough is made by adding eggs to a hot dough one at a time. Make sure to stir each egg vigorously into the dough to keep it from scrambling in the hot dough.
- To ensure the cream puffs don’t shrink after baking, you must poke a hole in the top to help the steam to escape.
- Gel food coloring is different from food coloring drops you find at the grocery stop. It’s more concentrated and won’t mess with the consistency of the dough since it’s not so liquified.
- You must whip the heavy cream until super thick so that it doesn’t fall when the raspberry puree is added.
Raspberries & Cream Profiteroles
Ingredients
For the pink craquelin:
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 stick butter unsalted, softened
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅙ teaspoons red gel food coloring
For the puffs:
- 1/2 cup butter unsalted, cut into pats
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 4 large eggs
For the raspberry whipped cream:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 6 tablespoons granulated sugar divided
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 ounces fresh raspberries
Instructions
To make the pink craquelin:
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, add brown sugar and butter and beat together until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, and food coloring gel and mix until the food coloring gel is blended well.
- Using your hands, remove from bowl and form into a ball of dough. Place on a piece of parchment and the cover with another sheet of parchment. Using a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle about 12×14 inches and ⅛ inch thin. Freeze for 5 minutes.
- Remove from freezer. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and place on a baking sheet. Using a round cutter, cut out 24 rounds out of the dough. Place rounds on prepared baking sheet. If needed, roll out the scraps and cut out the needed remaining rounds. Chill until needed.
To make the puffs and assemble:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat butter, sugar, salt, and water together over medium-high heat until it boils. Immediately add all of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir over heat until a firm forms on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and transfer dough to a medium bowl to cool down for 3 minutes.
- Once slightly cooled, add 1 egg to dough and stir vigorously until combined into dough. Repeat with rest of eggs, one at a time.
- Transfer mixture to a large pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip. Pipe 1 1/2 inch rounds onto prepared baking sheets (about the size of a macaron). Make sure to space out about 2 inches apart. Top each dollop of dough with a round of craquelin dough, setting it in the center.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes and then rotate to bake for another 15 minutes. The dough should be puffed and the craquelin will have melted and cracked over the top. Remove from oven. Using a sharp knife cut a small slit in the top or sides of the profiteroles to allow the steam to escape. Let them cool completely.
To make the raspberry whipped cream:
- Blend raspberries and 2 tablespoons using a blender. Set aside. Add cold whipping cream to bowl of a stand mixer, along with remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Blend on medium-high until the cream is super stiff.
- Add raspberry puree to whipped cream and gently fold together but not all the way (you want it to be swirled, not combined). Spoon whipped cream into large pastry bag with a star tip.
- Cut each profiterole in half. Pipe the whipped cream onto the inside of the bottom half of the cut profiterole. Top with the top half of the profiterole. Repeat with the rest of the profiteroles and whipped cream. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve immediately or within 12 hours.
Notes
Pin for later:
More recipes you’ll love:
White Chocolate Cream Puffs
Strawberry White Chocolate Eclairs
Lemon Raspberry Parfaits
I love eating profiteroles and raspberries are my favorite berry, so I know these are going to become my new favorite.
These were delicious! I loved the flavor the brown sugar topping added, and that raspberry filling was perfect for summer.
These parfaits look absolutely delicious. Would love to try and make them. I like lemon too.
YUM! These look so delicious, like the perfect summer treat!
I’ve never seen profiteroles like these they look amazing
This was my first time making profiteroles and they were SO good!
These are beautiful – and I feel like I can taste them through the pictures! This recipe seems really easy to follow and I can’t wait to try these!
I have always been too intimidated to make profiteroles from scratch at home but your recipe has inspired me to give it a try! These look so light and delicious!
These raspberry cream profiteroles are so beautiful! What a perfect dessert to make during summer!
These are so gorgeous and thank you for the step by step on the craquelin because it’s been ages since I made it. The flavor was perfect with raspberries and now I’m thinking of trying it with blackberries too!
These profiteroles look and sound amazing! I can’t wait to make them!