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 »

18 Responses to “Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes”

#
1

Colleen — July 16, 2009 at 4:22 pm

These look amazing! I love that you added even more peanut butter flavor too!
#
2

Amy Kingman — July 16, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Mmmmmm! These look incredible!! AH! My weakness!!!!
#
3

Memória — July 16, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Oh wow!! This looks soo good. I would make the cupcakes with the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate cake recipe and then use the other recipes you provided. Thanks!!!!
#
4

Jen — July 16, 2009 at 5:04 pm

You could definitely use any chocolate cupcake recipe that you want!
#
5

Stephanie Wagner — July 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm

These look awesome! I bet they’re really rich!
#
6

oneordinaryday — July 16, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Holy. Cow.
These look sooo darn good!
#
7

Jill — July 17, 2009 at 3:51 am

I saw your picture on Tastespotting and had to see more! Your cupcakes look delicious!
#
8

Kerstin — July 17, 2009 at 3:54 am

Wow, these look beyond incredible! I’m completely impressed 🙂
#
9

Jennifer — July 17, 2009 at 10:32 am

peanut butter cups…one of my favorites!! What an awesome cupcake!!!
#
10

Laura — July 17, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Oh. My. God. I think my DH is packing his bags to leave me as we speak!

These look soooo good. I bet it’s all you can do to eat one they are so rich!
#
11

Erin — July 18, 2009 at 11:28 pm

These look delicious! Chocolate and peanut butter is the most fabulous combination!
#
12

Scott W. — July 23, 2009 at 12:35 am

Alright, so you’ve gotta make some cupcakes when we are in Pennsylvania. These would work. Yummy!!!
#
13

Jen — July 23, 2009 at 12:38 am

haha no prob Scott. Just let me know what you’re in the mood for. These were delicious…
#
14

Ingrid — July 26, 2009 at 1:13 am

The only time I like chocolate or PB is when they’re together so these are looking pretty good to me!
~ingrid

Btw, your salmon and the “sauce” looked really good too!
~ingrid
#
15

Mermaid Sweets — July 27, 2009 at 5:09 am

Thanks so much for the link back, your cuppies look amazing.
#
16

comfycook — February 24, 2010 at 2:12 pm

I just discovered these and can’t wait to make them. Love chocolate and peanut butter.
#
17

LauraC — May 4, 2010 at 8:13 pm

I just made your vegan chocolate cupcakes over the weekend for some vegan friends and they were a huge hit. I had bookmarked this cupcake recipe for mother’s day because I LOVE peanut butter cups.

Anyway I wanted to let you know the woman from Confetti Cakes was on Rachel Ray and they posted the official recipe on the Rachel Ray website. Not sure if you want to link it?

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/chocolate-cake/
#
18

Jan — February 23, 2012 at 7:29 am

THank you for this post! I tried the cupcakes out here: http://www.themediamaid.com/2012/cupcake-celebrations/

and loved it!