Eclairs

Today I finally made eclairs. This has been on my to-do list ever since I first saw the recipe in my Baking Illustrated book. The process was a bit involved but the resulting treat was well worth it.

The pastry cream I made yesterday afternoon. Instead of vanilla extract, I substituted a vanilla bean which I think lends a much fuller flavor. I absolutely love pastry cream. I snuck many dollops of this into my mouth before it made it into the fridge to cool.


This afternoon, I made the puff pastry. The batter itself was quite sticky but since you use a pastry bag, it's pretty well contained.


The baking instructions were very specific. Bake at 425, then reduce to 375. When done, poke a slit to release steam then put it back in the turned off oven to dry off. Unfortunately, I think I took these out a bit early and probably was not careful enough when I plopped then on the table for picture taking (I probably should have waited to take pics until after they had dried off). About half of them deflated since taking the above pic, the other half thankfully remained nice and puffy. My second mistake was with the chocolate ganache. In my impatience, I went ahead and dipped the eclairs while the ganache was a bit warm. Next time, I will wait until it's cool to retain optimal crispness and ensure a nice set chocolate layer.


The important thing about these eclairs is not to assemble them until you're ready to eat, otherwise they got soggy. The recipe recommended cutting the top third off and spooning the cream in rather than trying to pipe it in. Overall, this was quite delicious. In the future, I would try baking rounded puffs (less chance of deflating?) and piping the cream directly in (a la beard papa). I'd also consider leaving out the ganache as it made the pastry much messier than necessary.

I'm too lazy to type out the recipe so contact me if you want it. Definitely worth the trouble!