French Friday with Dorie: Eclairs

ECLAIRS WITH CHOCOLATE PUDDING AND DRIZZLED GANACHE

I’ve looked forward to baking eclairs with my FfwD friends.  I am excited to see what you have done.  One of our favorite desserts is eclairs or cream puffs.   We make them just for fun, for parties, wedding receptions, office treats, and as an easy Sunday afternoon snack. 

 

AFTER BOILING MILK, WATER, SALT, AND BUTTER TOGETHER AND ADDING THE FLOUR AND STIRRING VIGOROUSLY, PLOP THE DOUGH INTO THE MIXER AND BEAT IT FOR A MINUTE OR TWO, ALLOWING IT TO COOL JUST A BIT BEFORE ADDING THE EGGS

ADD EGGS ONE AT A TIME, BEATING WELL AFTER EACH ADDITION

At our house they truly are quick and easy because I always have a couple of pudding flavors in my fridge...like chocolate, vanilla, malt, caramel, lemon curd, etc.  My grandkiddies like puddings and so do I.  When I get milk in the 2 gallon pack at Costco or Sam’s Club, one + of the gallons always gets turned into pudding and custards (we are not milk drinkers; milk is an ingredient like sugar in our baking).

TO SPACE MY ECLAIRS EVENLY I FOLDED PARCHMENT PAPER INTO 12 SECTIONS.  I DOUBLED THE RECIPE AND ALSO PIPED OUT CREAM PUFF SHAPES...JUST FOR FUN

So, I cheated on Dorie’s eclairs.  I already had lemon curd, as well as  chocolate pudding and vanilla custard from a day ago...the chocolate pudding is a similar recipe as Dorie’s chocolate pastry cream...just not quite as thick as Dorie’s photo shows (I had used ½ cocoa powder and ½ bittersweet chocolate for the chocolate, and 2 T rather than 3 of cornstarch; using all bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and a little more cornstarch would have thickened my pudding to resemble the photo) .  And I had ganache in the fridge that only needed a little warming (Stephy-Wephy arrived just as I was putting the eclairs together and she wanted to drizzle chocolate over the eclair tops...sounded good to me!  I like Dorie’s photo with a more solid glaze topping the eclairs, but if Stephy is happy, so am I).  

ECLAIRS JUST OUT OF THE OVEN

PUFFS JUST OUT OF THE OVEN

I also had strawberries so I played with the dough, making puffs as well as the eclair shapes and filled the puffs with vanilla pudding and strawberries.  Since I doubled the recipe I have a few shells put away in the fridge that we will crisp up in a hot oven tomorrow for about 5 minutes and then fill them with lemon curd and whipped cream.  (Yesterday we made lemon meringue pies with whipped cream added to the curd,  and my Frolicking Night Owl daughter also used some of the curd to brush on top of her blueberry cupcakes before adding whipped cream and more blueberries...yum!)

CREAM PUFF WITH VANILLA CUSTARD AND STRAWBERRIES

I did not like the way this recipe, that includes milk as an ingredient, baked.  I usually use all water as the liquid, making a crispier shell.  I tried baking these eclairs and puffs in a hot 425^ oven which was turned down to 350^ after 10 minutes.  And then I baked them 10 minutes more, and then cracked open the oven door and baked them  at least 5 more minutes.  These shells were still not as dry as I like.  Next time, I will go back to all water as the liquid instead of ½ milk and ½ water and I will continue to bake these puffs with a hotter oven than Dorie suggests.  After slicing the eclairs in half I removed some of the soft interior before filling, giving more space for the puddings.    

Making the eclairs was lots of fun and eating them was pure pleasure.  Next time I make my chocolate pudding, I’ll make it thicker like Dorie’s photo, and that will give me a good excuse to make eclairs again.