Airy eclairs: a recipe for making a choux pastry. Video
Eclair is an elegant French dessert, a long tube of airy choux pastry stuffed with pastry custard and covered with icing. Sometimes whipped cream, protein or butter cream are placed in the eclair.
How to make eclair dough
For a light airy choux pastry you will need: – 100 g unsalted butter; – 1 glass of water; – ¼ teaspoon of salt; – 1 cup wheat flour; – 4 chicken eggs.
Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cut the butter into cubes and place in boiling water. Stir and wait until the butter is completely melted. Salt. Sift the flour, and then pour it into boiling oil water in a thin stream, stirring it vigorously with a wooden spoon all the time. Continue stirring until the dough starts to turn white and loose from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat. Take a mixer, beat the dough, adding chicken eggs one at a time. Add each next egg only when the previous one is completely mixed with the dough.
This amount of dough is enough for 8 tubes for eclairs
The classic filling for eclairs is custard, also called confectionery or patisier cream. It contains the following ingredients: – 1 ¼ cup of milk, 3,5% fat; – 3 egg yolks; – ¼ cups of granulated sugar; – 2 tablespoons of wheat flour; – 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of cornstarch; – 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.
In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the milk until steam rises above it. You don’t need to bring the milk to a boil. While the milk is heating, beat the egg yolks with sugar, flour and cornstarch until the mixture is white and completely smooth. Pour half of the hot milk into the egg mass while whisking. Add the finished mixture to a saucepan to the second part of hot milk, continue whisking the cream with a whisk, when it thickens, remove from heat and add vanilla essence. Stir, refrigerate and cover with cling film. Put the cream in the refrigerator.
In addition to dough and custard, you will need frosting for chocolate eclairs. To make it, use 100 g dark chocolate and ¼ cup 20% cream. Preheat oven to 190 ° C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Using a piping bag with a regular nozzle, squeeze 8 long tubes 10-12 centimeters long onto the paper. Bake the eclairs for about 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160 ° C and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove the straws and place on a wire rack to cool.
While the eclairs are baking, go for the icing. Chop or grate the chocolate and place in an ovenproof bowl. Heat the cream, but do not bring it to a boil, pour it into a bowl and stir. Leave for 15 minutes at room temperature, stirring occasionally. Fill a pastry bag with custard and put a medium round long tip on it. The way to fill the cakes is simple: pierce the tubes with a nozzle and squeeze out the cream. Using a silicone brush, coat the filled eclairs with the chocolate icing and place on a serving platter.