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.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Awesome look mac and cheese! I love that Alton Brown!
Your site is great, just spent far too long snooping around your site, everything is beautiful!
I bet you don’t hear this too often, but I think I’m actually jealous of your lactose intolerance! The reason I don’t make mac n cheese (like, ever) is that I can eat way too much of it. If only I had a reason that would really force me to stop! (apparently my own willpower is not enough!)
I definitely rarely hear that one Cara! It does come in handy sometimes (like being around mac and cheese or cheesecake), but I definitely do miss ice cream…
Wow that mac n cheese looks heavenly! It is definitly one of my favorite foods of all time!
That is some beautiful mac and cheese!!
This is a favorite recipe of mine as well. Like you we like to add a variety of cheeses to the recipe.
This looks SO good! Can’t wait to try! Thanks! 🙂
This looks great! I love mac and cheese and doing it on the stove top makes it even easier 🙂
I have made this recipe a few times and it is great! I like that you used different cheeses. I need to try that next.
I’m a huge sucker for macaroni and cheese and am always looking for new recipes. Maybe I will try this out tonight. Thanks!
That looks delicious. I remember watching that episode on TV with “his nephew” who looked exactly like him, ha ha.
I’ve meaning to ask you this since you’re also a big fan of AB. In his book “I’m just here for MORE food”, there’s a choc fudge cake recipe. In it, there are instructions to combine cocoa powder with hot water. The amount of hot water says “tk”. Any idea what that could possibly mean??? It’s been bugging me quite some time!
Alton’s recipes are all solid. I haven’t mad eone that disappointed.
Homemade mac & cheese is the only way to go. Thanks for passing along the recipe. It’s much simpler than the one I normally make.
~ingrid
I made this recipe today…so good! I doubled it and I just hope it’s enough. This is so creamy and cheesy! Thank you for sharing.
My friend had that problem his entire life until he drank (pet) milk. That would be unpasteurized. Seems that the enzymes needed to digest the stuff comes from the original product.