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 “The Power of Pink Challenge!”

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Katie — October 1, 2008 at 12:53 pm

OH MY GOSH JEN! This is SOOOOO perfect!!! I am making pink items for my fundraising giveaways! I’m so entering this. And if you want some free baked goods, feel free to check out my blog and email me about it! 🙂 🙂
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CB — October 1, 2008 at 1:11 pm

I think this is an awesome dedication to your mom and aunts. You know I’ll totally do something. I look forward to all the pinkness this month. 🙂
/Clara
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Kayla — October 1, 2008 at 1:32 pm

This is a great idea and an awesome tribute to the great women in your life. I’m totally going to do this one!
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Jen — October 1, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Thanks everyone – I can’t wait to see all the pink yumminess that will be coming this way. It’s going to be fun. And Katie – I’m emailing you right this second.
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Megan — October 1, 2008 at 4:19 pm

I had the girls photgraphed just last week! I hope to participate!!!
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Jen — October 1, 2008 at 7:35 pm

Good for you Megan! Hope you can participate.
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Yasmeen — October 9, 2008 at 9:53 pm

Thanks Jen for raising the awareness
I can’t imagine the suffering your mom and aunts had to go thro fighting the disease. Hats off for there courage and optimism.
I’ll sure try to send a recipe in pink.
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Jen — October 10, 2008 at 3:04 am

Thanks Yasmeen. Looking forward to the entry!
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raaji — October 10, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Hi Jen,
My firt time here….Came through yasmeen’s blog….This challenge is something that every women should be aware of and be a part of it……Good luck dear……
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superslush — October 10, 2008 at 7:12 pm

still trying to decide what i want to bake, but im gunna bake something!
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Sunshinemom — October 13, 2008 at 6:32 am

Kudos to your mom for such optimism! Since I do not use artificial food colouring you are really really challenging my skills!! Let me see whether I can come up with something:)
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Jen — October 14, 2008 at 2:59 am

Welcome to my blog Raaji!

Slush – I’m sure anything you make will be delish.

sunshinemom – there are some natural ingredients that are pink in color – goos luck finding something that you can make. I’m entering a salmon dish once I get it written up…
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Kitchen Flavours — October 14, 2008 at 11:41 am

I just you my entry. Please check out.
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Nazarina A — October 17, 2008 at 1:59 am

Even through all her pain, your Mom still had the humor to make others laugh. That just says a lot about her!!! Unselfish and a beautiful soul. Bless her heart!!
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Ivy — October 18, 2008 at 5:23 pm

Count me in. Just found a perfect recipe I made back in summer 😉
Thanks for raising awareness and no woman must suffer mastectomy if they know what to do.
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Bharti — October 27, 2008 at 2:41 am

Hi Jen
First time here. I would’ve been stumped otherwise but i just made something pink a few days ago. Will blog it soon and send it your way. I like how you are trying to raise awareness about this..every little bit helps, good for you.
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Carrie — October 27, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Thank you for the wonderful event! I made some yummy pink whoopie pies!!