Cookbook Challenge 10 – Vive La France

Vive la France! The next cookbook is an ode to French cuisine and ingredients. As I mentioned in the first post, one of my favourite cookbooks is a French one, so many of the classics are well known to me. This is why it wasn’t too easy for me to find something I hadn’t tried before with the additional challenge to add vanilla. All the savoury dishes were out, but I had my eyes on something special anyway. I’ve always loved eclairs and so does Mick. My problem with eclairs was always that I was a bit too picky about the filling and icing. So making them myself seemed like a great idea. Even though they have the reputation of being a tough thing to make, choux pastry and all.

Eclair

2 Egg yolks
100g icing (I made a lemon-sugar icing but you can also use chocolate icing)

Choux Pastry

60g Butter
125g Flour
4 Eggs
250ml Water

Crème Pâtissier

1 Egg
2 Egg yolks
125g Sugar
40g Flour
500ml Milk
40g Butter
1 Vanilla

It’s best to start  with the crème pâtissier, so it can cool down and be firm when you fill it into the eclairs. For the crème, put the eggs, the egg yolks and the sugar into a bowl and mix it until it gets foamy. Sieve the flour in and mix it through properly.

Pour the milk and butter into a large pot and add the vanilla. Bring it to the boil. Turn the temperature down and slowly add the egg-flour mix whilst constantly stirring for about 10 minutes. The mass will thicken and get the consistency of vanilla pudding. Sprinkle sugar over the top so the milk won’t get a skin. Then take itoff the heat and put the whole pot in the fridge to cool it down.

For the choux pastry, bring the water with the butter to a boil. Pour all the flour in at once and stir it thoroughly until the dough separates from the pot. Take the pot from the stove to add the eggs. Add only one egg yolk at a time and mix it in completely before adding the next. This requires a bit of strength and can get quite exhausting after a while. The dough now needs to rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C.

For the icing I mixed the juice of a lemon with icing sugar until it gets thick and put it to the side. Put the choux pastry dough into an icing bag with a round nozzle and dress them onto a tray covered with baking paper. I left about two finger width between them, and admittedly, they looked a bit weird at first. Whilst baking they smooth out but it’s important to leave them in one piece and not be tempted to add more dough to an already dressed eclair if it’s smaller than the others.

Coat the dough with mixed egg yolk and put it into the oven for about 20 minutes. Open the oven door for a bit and bake for another 10 minutes.

Cut the eclairs carefully in half with a bread knife so they don’t tear. Put the crème pâtissier in an icing bag and fill one half of the eclair. Coat the other half with the icing and let it dry. Then assemble the two halves of the eclair and serve it. If you have crème left over you can freeze it and use it to fill macarons for example.

Eclairs are always awesome, but when you fill and coat it with exactly what you want, they are just fantastic. The mixing of the dough was more physical work than I had expected, but it wasn’t a problem. I also learned a lot of dressing the eclairs – I am sure with every time I make them they will look more even. But that’s really just details in the looks and I’m sure they’ll look better and better each time I’ll make them. Which I’m sure I will. I am already thinking a bit about what to put in them next – thinking fresh berries.