Coco Kitchen Weekend Bakes: Bacon & Goats’ Cheese Profiteroles

Crisp, buttery pastry, salty bacon, tart goats’ cheese and sticky onion jam. Forget what you thought you knew about profiteroles.

This isn’t a recipe, it’s a revelation. When I was younger, I always viewed profiteroles as the grown up’s version of the chocolate éclair. Small and dainty, I didn’t understand why anyone would want a bitesize version of what I considered to be patisserie perfection. But then I grew up and, on becoming the master of my own kitchen, realised that I can make my profiteroles as big as I want, eat as many as I want, and fill them with whatever weird and wonderful combinations that come to mind. That’s when I got what all the fuss was about.

Makes 30 profiteroles

Ingredients:

Choux pastry:

150g plain flour

100g unsalted butter

1tsp granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

Filling:

200g soft goat’s cheese

100g double cream

Black pepper, to season

Topping:

6tbsp red onion chutney

2 rashers smoked streaky bacon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C(fan)/gas mark 6. Line a tray with baking paper in preparation.
2. Start the choux pastry by combining the butter and water in a pan and bringing to a rapid boil. Sieve together the flour, sugar and salt in a separate bowl.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, add the dry ingredients and stir briskly with a wooden spoon. You want to keep stirring until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Leave to cool slightly.
4. Whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl. Pour the beaten eggs into the dough mixture, stirring continuously until it comes together. Use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop to drop large balls of dough onto the baking paper.
5. Bake the profiterole shells for 30-35 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack, poking a hole in the base of each shell to release any steam.
6. Whip the double cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the goat’s cheese, add some black pepper, and try a little of the mixture to gauge the seasoning. Keep adding and tasting until the balance of pepper to cheese is just right for your palate.
7. Scoop the cheese filling into a piping bag fitted with a long, thin nozzle. Insert the nozzle into the holes you made in the profiteroles whilst they were cooling, dispensing a generous amount of filling in each shell.
8. Lightly grill the bacon until the fat is glisteningly crisp. When the bacon is cool, snip it into small pieces using a pair of kitchen scissors. Spread a layer of chutney over each profiterole and sprinkle with bacon confetti whilst resisting the urge to gobble up the entire batch yourself.