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. 
How awesome that you were on Leno! Are we allowed to ask what you were on for? I love your list and am raising two hands to vote for the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake. I made it last fall (http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2008/10/11/brownie-mosaic-cheesecake/) and it is simply to die for. You won’t be sorry!!
Um yeah, totally meant Letterman. ::slaps forehead:: I’m sleepy 😉
What a cool blog event! I wish I had known about it before today, so I could participate. Is it a monthly thing? If so, I’m definitely in next time!
Michelle – I was the co-captain of a Rube Goldberg team (think of the game mouse trap but on a HUGE scale) in college. In 2003, Purdue won the national competition and they got us on the Letterman show. I was the “spokesperson” for the team and we had our machine on stage. It was an awesome experience. I’ve been trying to find pictures, but that was pre-digital camera for me so I can’t find any…
Annie – I believe it is a monthly event. I think she started it in May…
Thanks for the link to my site! I hope you try out the Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles if you are a goat cheese fan. They were so delish.
yay for the best bookmarks ever! we have similar taste i guess bc i got some great ideas from this post and i’ve done some on your list. two quick notes on these bookmarks:
1) do the bagels at smitten kitchen. the cinna. raisin rock and it’s so rewarding to spend that much time and yield awesome results. i’m a new baker and it wasn’t very hard to do. definitely add the maple syrup or molasses to the water when you boil the bagels. dole makes plump raisins and they rock.
2) billy’s cupcakes will be your answer to vanilla cupcakes forever! i had issues with overflow so i’d reduce the baking powder from 3t (=1T) to 2.5 tsp.
Thanks for the tips Sweetie
OMG thanks for the shout-out!!! 🙂 where the HECK have i been!?? i’ve seen your facebook status updates and i never realized they were from YOUR blog!!! they are awesome! i’m SO proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! talk soon!!! love, WALKER
ps: i have some pics, i’ll get them scanned. 🙂