Baking Partners,
Food
My 200th Post: Recipe for the Week – Chocolate Éclairs (Baking Partners Challenge #11)
3:12:00 pm
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 11th
hour 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.
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. Now isn’t that a great way to celebrate
200 posts?? :-D
26 comments
looks fabulous, fab... i'm missing the rains terribly... :(
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rafeeda!! Yeah, the past two days, it's been raining non stop and I don't feel like doing anything other than curling up with some masala chai and a good book!
DeleteBeautiful and delicious chocolate eclairs Fabida.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Swathi!!
DeletePerfectly made,pics are so good..love it,happy baking!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Suja!! Happy Baking to you too :-)
Delete200 posts! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteAnd the eclairs look amazing. So impressed with your cooking talents!
Thank you, Ameena!! My cooking talents are nothing compared to other food bloggers, though I'm proud to say they're steadily improving :-)
DeleteEclairs look good Fab .
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteYummy, crunchy and delicious chocolate eclairs :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, they sure were yum!!
DeleteWow eclair shad come out so perfectly. A perfect recipe to celebrate ur 200th post... Wishing u all the best... When u find time do visit mine
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Akila! I'll be sure to check out your space :-)
Deletewow ! your eclair shells look fabulous and you piped out the dough so well.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tanusree! I'm a complete novice at piping, I'm glad these turned out like they did :-)
DeleteFollowing u happily
ReplyDeleteThank you, Akila!! You've made me very happy too :-)
DeleteI love eclairs. I always bought them but thanx for sharing. Now I can give it a try myself.
ReplyDeletexo sabbi
You certainly can!! It doesn't need too many ingredients and doesn't take that long, especially if you make the filling beforehand.
DeleteWhat a fantastic creation! I love that first pic with the almost glittery sparkly chocolate on top of the melt-in-your-mouth pastry!! Congratulations on your 200th post, well done Fab!
ReplyDeleteLove
K
klassystylefiles.blogspot.com.au
I know, I like that pic too, though the sparkle effect was completely unintended!! Thank you for your lovely comments, Kalyani :-)
DeleteCongratulations on your 200th :) Shiny chocolate eclairs! They look amazing and must have tasted great too :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ramya!! They did taste great and were finished in a matter of minutes!
DeleteThanks for sharing this wonderful recipe with us... My kids would love it..
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Monika!! I think this would be a great idea for a kids party :-)
Delete