Expert against healthy characters eating European pastries (12)
I believe the answer is:
profiteroles
'pastries' is the definition.
(profiterole is a type of pastry)
'expert against healthy characters eating european' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'expert' could be 'pro' (short for professional) and 'pro' is found in the answer.
'healthy' could be 'fit' (synonyms) and 'fit' is located in the answer.
'characters' could be 'roles' ('role' can be a synonym of 'character') and 'roles' is located in the answer.
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for profiteroles that I've seen before include "Eclair-like dessert" , "Small filled pastries" , "Eclairs as a sweet" .)