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. 
This look absolutely FABULOUS! 🙂 I love oreo’s… They could quite possibly be my favorite snack food.! I’m defientely adding this recipe to my collection of cakes to bake! Thanks for sharing.
Megan♥
http://urbakinmecrazyy.blogspot.com/
that is one of the MOST impressive cakes I’ve ever seen! You always amaze me with your creativity! very inspirational.
OMG – I want!!! 😀
hi is it ok to use regular coffee?like maxwell?how many teaspoon of maxwell should i use?thanks
This looks AMAZING! What did you use to hold the Oreos in place on the top? Is that Oreo filling?
Love this cake – made it for my hubby’s 30th! Just a quick question as I had a little trouble with the Oreo filling. It was a bit thin. I think the problem might be the type of cream I used as we don’t have heavy cream in Australia (at least it’s not called heavy cream) so does anyone know what type of cream I should use? Thanks heaps 🙂
This cake turned out amazing! I omitted the coffee from the frosting and it was perfect without but im sure it would have been prefect with. It was a process to make it but well worth it! Just as good if not better than a bakery cake!
beantownbaker — December 24th, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
Yes, it’s definitely a lot of work, but worth the effort! Glad you enjoyed it.
Found you on Carole’s Chatter Food on Friday link-up. This cake looks like perfection!! I definitely need to try it soon:)
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:33 pm
Thanks and welcome! You should definitely make this cake if you like Oreos at all.
OMG, I love oreo so much!!! I will try to make this cake someday! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
beantownbaker — July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:13 pm
It definitely takes a little bit of extra effort, but it’s so worth it!
What size pkg of Oreos? I just came home with one that only has 3 rows, ugh? It’s 14.3 oz. is that the same size? Thanks!!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:09 pm
Did that work for you? I will have to check next time I am at the store. I just get the standard size with 3 rows.
Just wanted you to know that after all these years I keep coming back to this recipe
!! My 17 year old requested it for his birthday, he was 4 the first time I made it for his birthday.