Éclairs consist of 3 elements :-
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Pâte à Choux, also known as Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough
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Pastry Cream
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Chocolate glaze
You can find the recipe here – Tony Tahhan & MeetaK.
The good hosts’ motto…CULINARY LIBERTY FOR ALL!!! How cool is that!
Putting my thoughts into words…not quite the daily rant, but close to it!
Cool & dry is very far from hot & humid, so the conflict of thought continues. Should I, should I not. France & for that matter Pierre Herme must be really cooler as compared to India & me in my sweltering hot kitchen. Poles apart shall we say? Same story, next challenge. Will summer ever end? It’s nearing the end of the month & no sign of eclairs yet. I love eclairs &, incidentally, they are my Mom’s favourite dessert, next to cream rolls…oooooooooh, talk about healthy living! Ran it past DH, thinking he’ll dissuade me just this once…was I dreaming. The first thing he asked was…”What’s the challenge? Eclairs?…Go for it!” (Never trust a sweet tooth!!)
Hmmm…..so here I am, with batch number 2 in the oven. Batch number 1 safely sitting in an airconditioned room, enjoying a few hours of cool & dry air, while I sit in the hot kitchen, looking at ‘chubby fingers’! Now that brings me to story number 2.
Who decides how chubby chubby is? One persons chubby is another persons skinny…hmmm…when I read chubby, all I could think of was my son!! LOL…then I looked at the poor emaciated fingers I had piped out…nah, not chubby enough yet & added more pressure to the piping bag. By the time they were done, I had fewer puffs & quite chubby! What a word ain’t it? And now while I type, the blessed things are deflating even as I rush from the hot kitchen to cooler climes. I think that’s daring enough!! Thoughts whizzing through my head…strangely enough…”Cream Puffs in Venice”!! O boy…
The pastry is very simple; I’ve made profiteroles many moons ago, during our summer vacations, while we were still in school. Seriously, can’t remember being so eggophobic then…but 5 eggs is a bit much for me. But a DB’s gotta do what a DB’s gotta do…the choux pastry was simple enough. I painted 1 batch with a milk wash & scoured a fork lightly over the top. Said so in my Le Cordon Blue Cooks Bible…maybe it’ll help hold the topping….whatever! Now I have peace for a few hours & then will ponder about the filling & topping. Got to make lunch too! The pastry cream is out of question for me because has 4 egg yolks. How can I ever make it if I can’t get myself to eat it? So the inside will be whipped Chantilly cream…me thinks. The top shall have a chocolate glaze & time is now of the essence again.
PHOOOEEEE…whipped cream whipped, but didn’t hold volume for more than 10 minutes in this sweltering heat. Collapsed before I could screech ‘Jack Sparrow’…the glaze was tedious but delicious. Made half the quantity of glaze to cut calories (not just mine, but the familys’ as well). Even though I didn’t end up with fantastic looking eclairs with layers of luscious cream within, I did a pretty decent job. They looked pretty underfed/underfilled but pretty nevertheless.
The best part of course came on eating these wonderfully daring creations. WOOHOO…absolutely delicious to the last bite!! Haven’t had eclairs as good as these before. The 5 eggs in the dough had me worried for nothing; not even a faint smell of egg. Was fantastic. I topped the chocolate glaze with slivered pistachios, roasted slivered almonds (they tasted the best) & sprinkles.
I made a couple of profiteroles just to experiment & lined the insides with a spoonful of glaze, followed with whipped cream, then a round slice of mango. Sifted sugar over the top. Very refreshing & very nice. There was just one problem…they got over far too soon!! This recipe is firmly bookmarked to be made again in the winter. Thank you Tony & Meeta…I am so glad I took up the challenge! It was just awesome & very satisfying!!
Another happy ending to another daring month. Be sure to check out what the other DBs have been up this month…many more yummy eclairs HERE!
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