Eclairs – Daring Bakers | Beantown Baker

Monday, September 1, 2008

Eclairs – Daring Bakers

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to participate in a Daring Bakers Challenge. But I was excited to see this months challenge was eclairs. I’ve never made eclairs but really enjoyed eating them in the past. This month really flew by. I made these eclairs last weekend with plenty of time to write up my post. Then we had some family members in town and I just couldn’t find time to write this up until today. So I am a day late on posting, but better late than never!

I followed the recipe exactly for the dough and the chocolate glaze. For the pastry cream, I was worried that chocolate would make the eclair too chocolatey (is there such a thing? I say no, but hubby thinks there is).

I decided to do a raspberry pastry cream, but didn’t have raspberries on hand at the time I made it. Instead did vanilla pastry cream. For half of the pastry cream, I mixed in some mushed up raspberries after sending hubby to the store for me 🙂 The other half got the vanilla pastry cream.

I myself am not a huge fan of pastry cream. I much prefer whipped cream in the center of eclairs.

As I mentioned, I followed the recipe exactly for the dough. That includes the timing and the propping of the door with a wooden spoon. Based on what other Daring Bakers had said, I decided to cut slits into the eclairs immediately after baking and then letting them cool in the cooling oven. The ones that didn’t deflate were wonderfully hollow.

At first, I had the oven door entirely open but I did notice the eclairs were starting to deflate, so I closed the oven door and then propped it open to let them cool. The eclairs that were very close to the door did deflate while the others did not.

Thanks to our hosts (Tony Tahhan and Meeta) this month for choosing such a great recipe. I definitely enjoyed making the eclairs, although I doubt I’d make them again. It was a significant amount of work and hubby wasn’t crazy about them.

I’m not going to post the recipes here, click through to the hosts’ posts to see the recipe. The recipe I used for the pastry cream can be found here. As I mentioned, I didn’t have raspberries when I made it so I just left them out. Once it was completely cooled, I added 1 pint of smashed raspberries to 1/2 of the cream.

This chocolate glaze was amazing. I made 1/2 of the chocolate syrup recipe and it was perfect for the glaze. The leftover glaze was used on bread and then mixed with whipped cream for frosting.

Dessert, Other

5 comments »

17 Responses to “Fauxstess Cupcakes”

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Maryanna — April 9, 2009 at 3:16 pm

These are darling!
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Kerstin — April 9, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Adorable – I love the cupcake liners!
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Anali — April 9, 2009 at 5:57 pm

These look great! I’ve got to try them soon! ; )
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oneparticularkitchen — April 9, 2009 at 7:56 pm

How adorable! Oh The Yankee would just eat these up.
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Mermaid Sweets — April 9, 2009 at 8:20 pm

I have been wanting to try these too – nice post, I love the photos.
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Maria — April 9, 2009 at 8:52 pm

They look perfect! YUM!
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Jamie — April 10, 2009 at 1:12 am

Sooo freaking adorable! I have these liners, so I will be making these in the very near future!!! Well done!!!
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rickdog — April 10, 2009 at 8:54 pm

Find more Fauxstess Cupcakes in my recipe blog search:
HERE
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Sarah — April 10, 2009 at 11:41 pm

So cute and yum!
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Stephanie Wagner — April 11, 2009 at 12:03 am

Could these be any cuter?? I love the idea of home baking classic favorites like this!
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oneordinaryday — April 11, 2009 at 1:58 pm

This looks perfect! Yum!
Michelle
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/
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kitchenbelle — April 13, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Great job! Your cupcakes are perfect! They look just like Hostess except SO MUCH BETTER! Your ganache is so nice and shiny!
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Jigginjessica — April 16, 2009 at 3:07 pm

I love these cupcakes! They have been on my to try list forever and I think that maybe today might be the day I finally try them.

Also, I didn’t even realize you had less swirls, shows how well I know a hostess cupcake!
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bcallegra — April 20, 2009 at 1:56 am

I made them this weekend and am now officially addicted to the filling – it reminds me of marshmallow creme! Although my cupcakes (and pictures) pale in comparison to your version, I need to thank you once again for supplying me with a great recipe.
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Simply Inviting Weddings — November 29, 2010 at 11:34 pm

I searched all over for a recipe like this and didn’t want to use marshmallow creme for the filling! These are amazing- my family was fighting over them. Thanks for sharing!
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Seantellc — April 1, 2011 at 4:18 pm

so in your recipe you say to put the batter into the wells of a muffin tin coated with non-stick spray. Does that mean not use cupcake liners, or does that mean to spray the liners with non-stick spray?
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beantownbaker — April 1, 2011 at 6:33 pm

Sorry, I’ll fix the recipe. You don’t need to spray the cupcake liners.