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. 
Oh yum Jen! These look absolutely delicious! What a great July 4th treat…..maybe split them and serve ’em up like a Strawberry Shortcake??? Yum.
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
Hi Jen, by any chance do you remember about how many strawberries you used for the recipe and also for filling? I have maybe 10-15 strawberries at home that need to be used asap and wondered if that was enough?
KV – Sorry I don’t. We had a big thing of strawberries in the fridge that Hubby had cut up for us to snack on. I would say it was less than a pint, but pretty close to a pint? Not really sure. Sorry I can’t be more help.
strawberries are my favorite fruit ever! in my opinion, they always should be enjoyed fresh no matter what. even in desserts! 😀 your cupcakes look great, by the wayaoh
I’ve heard that strawberry cake doesn’t end up being that sweet, but maybe the addition of fresh strawberries on top changes things. I’m a huge strawberry fan, so I’m anxious to try this.
Cupcake Activist – I could definitely see that the batter itself might not be that sweet. I thought they were great with the additional strawberries added in.
This looks divine. I made the Sky High strawberry cake with frozen berries and I thought it was really good, but I’d like to try again with fresh ones too! Your hubby has some very luck coworkers 🙂
Love this recipe.. infact all of your cupcake recipes. I made your Fauxtess cupcakes the other day and turned out wonderfully.. This is now on my wish list. :
http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
These look so simple and beautiful! I love strawberry cake and I especially love the way the fresh strawberries look inside 🙂
Sues
cant go wrong with strawberry…just made strawberry marscapone filled cupcakes myself! 🙂
http://cuppycakebakes.blogspot.com
I love how you frosted these cupcakes!! did you start from the inside and go out with a 1M tip?
Yes, soohyunee, to make the rosette, I started in the center and swirled around to the outside.
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