I’m back after an unintended break!! It has been raining like crazy here J. Cub started big boy school, then he got new specs and then he got sick. Whew!! When you are a Mom, there’s no saying how 24 hours pass you by!!
So back to today’s post, which is also my 200th Post!!!! And I love that it’s related to food!! The 11th challenge of the Baking Partners group, which I attempted at pretty much the 11thhour J. I almost cancelled this month, but then at the last minute, I decided to give it a try. And though the result wasn’t fantastic, it was better than average!
I don’t think I’ve ever actually had éclairs and reading this recipe brought back a lot of unpleasant macaron memories. Anyways, after doing some research, no one seemed to be complaining much about them, so I dived right in. I used the Joy of Baking video as a base, she explains everything in it quite clearly.
Note: After the macaron debacle, I didn’t want to waste too many ingredients, so I made just about 8 mini éclairs. You may, of course double the quantities. The main component is the choux pastry, which is then filled with pastry cream and then dipped in a chocolate glaze. Make the pastry cream in advance, preferably even a day ahead.
(This makes 8 mini éclairs)
Pastry Cream
What you’ll need:
150 ml milk
2 egg yolks
25 g granulated sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp corn flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
What you’re going to do:
1. Heat the milk and turn off the heat just before it begins to boil.
2. Beat sugar and egg yolks with an electric beater till thick.
3. Sift flour with corn flour and add to egg mixture & whisk till you get a smooth paste.
4. Add the hot milk, and keep whisking as you add to prevent the eggs from cooking.
5. Place the entire mixture in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking all the time.
6. When the mixture gets quite thick and smooth and not lumpy anymore, turn off the heat. Stir in the vanilla.
7. Put the cream in a bowl, and cover with cling film, making it touch the surface of the cream so that you prevent the formation of a 'skin'.
8. Cool to room temperature and then chill for at least 2 hours.
Choux Pastry
What you’ll need:
33 g flour
¼ tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
28 g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
60 ml water
1 large egg, lightly beaten
What you’re going to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 200° C and put the water and butter in a saucepan on low heat.
2. Once the butter is melted, turn up the heat and bring to a boil and then turn off the heat.
3. Mix flour, sugar and salt in another bowl. Add this to the butter mix and stir well.
4. Put the pan back on medium-low heat and stir constantly till it forms a smooth ball of dough and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
5. Put the dough in a heatproof bowl and beat with an electric hand beater on low for 2 minutes to let out the steam. Let it come to lukewarm. It looks a bit crumbly at this stage.
6. Add the beaten egg to the lukewarm dough, a little by little and beat till smooth. The consistency of the batter/dough goes like this: Curdled->Paste-like ->Forming a bird’s beak when beaters are lifted.
7. Put the dough in a pastry bag with a plain tip.
8. Prepare the baking sheet. On plain paper, draw 2” lines, separated by about 1.5”. Place a sheet of parchment on this, so that you can see the lines through the parchment.
9. Holding the pastry bag at an angle of 45°, pipe thick lines about 2” in length, and curve the tip upwards when you reach the end of the line.
10. Once all the éclairs have been piped, brush some beaten egg on the éclairs, simultaneously flattening the uneven parts.
11. Bake for 15 minutes at 200° Celsius and then reduce the oven temperature to 180° C. Continue to bake for a further 25 minutes till the pastry shells are light brown all over. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
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| I love how well they rose! |
Chocolate Glaze
What you’ll need:
28 g semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
30 ml cream (I used Amul fresh cream)
1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tbsp honey
What you’re going to do:
1. Heat cream till it almost starts to boil, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate. Stir till chocolate is completely melted.
2. Stir in vanilla and honey.
Assembling the Éclair:
1. Cut off the top part of the choux pastry.
2. Dip the top part into the glaze, let the excess drip and then leave to dry on a wire rack.
3. Fill in the bottom half with the pastry cream. Top with the dry top half.
My choux were really light, and browned. But I think I could do with a little more baking, since they were a bit difficult to get off the parchment. The pastry cream on its own was a bit sweet, but together with the pastry and the glaze, it was lovely!! So, although not perfect, I’d say they were pretty good! So glad I decided not to miss this Baking Partners challenge J.
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