Choux Dough - Eclairs

I chose to do choux pastry as one of my challenges because like a million things are made with it, and it always seemed pretty scary to me. It totally isn’t scary at all. It’s actually super easy. Since I made these, I have made like three other pastry creams for other recipes, and I have used this same choux pastry recipe to fry up into churros for my sister’s baby shower.

I also used this particular challenge as a gender reveal for my sister’s newest nugget, Fiona!

*You do need to prepare the pastry cream a few hours or a night ahead, so keep that in mind when you're planning.  

Here is the recipe I used: https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/homemade-boston-cream-eclair/

For the pastry cream:

1 c whole milk

2/3 c heavy whipping cream

½ c granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

4 large egg yolks

½ c flour

4 tbsp unsalted butter, cold

1 vanilla bean *I didn’t use a vanilla bean, I used extract. I just put in the extract at the end, off of the heat so that it wouldn’t burn.

1. In a medium heat-proof mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, salt, and sugar until completely combined and a bit frothy.

2. Add flour and set aside while heating milk.
3. Heat milk, heavy cream, butter, and vanilla bean (or don’t put in vanilla now if it’s extract) on the stove until simmering. Take off the heat when mixture starts to simmer *you don’t want it to boil.
4. Slowly add milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Whisk well. *Be gentle- you don’t want to cook the eggs, so baby steps here, folks.
5. Return the mixture to the pan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken within a few minutes. Take off heat once it’s thick. *You’ll know when it’s thick. It like all of a sudden is like stirring wet concrete. *Also, I added food coloring to mine because, like I said, I was doing a gender reveal, but this is not necessary.
6. Cool to room temperature and transfer into a bowl with a lid to be refrigerated. It needs to cool at least four hours or overnight.

For the choux pastry:

1 c water

½ c unsalted butter

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¼ c flour

4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and line sheet trays with parchment paper. 

2. In a small sauce pan, over medium heat, add butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and water. Bring to a simmer and stir in flour with a wooden spoon until all combined and coming off the sides of the pot easily. *Again, I didn’t add the vanilla extract until later because I was afraid of it having a burnt taste.

3. Transfer into a stand mixer with paddle attachment and start adding eggs one at a time, making sure that each egg is incorporated before adding the next. *I kept mixing until the outside of my mixing bowl was cool enough to touch. 

4. Transfer batter to piping bag with a big round tip. Pipe onto parchment paper. *You can do whatever you want here with the shape. I did some round and some an éclair shape. You want to make sure that you pipe them big enough because you want to fill them later. 

5. Bake for 25-28 minutes until golden brown. Cool before filling. *Mine did not take this long, so just keep an eye on them- it’ll depend on how big you make them. 

For the ganache:

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate

½ c heavy cream  

1. Chop chocolate and add to a small heat-proof mixing bowl. *Or you can just buy chocolate chips.

2. Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. 

3. Pour hot cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth. *I put a little plastic wrap over the bowl for a few minutes to let the chocolate get steamy before I mixed it. Doesn’t necessarily save time, but saves working time because you aren't sitting there mixing it forever.

Assembly:

1. Fill a piping bag, fitted with a long, narrow tip, with the pastry cream. Gently insert the tip into the bottom of the prepared choux pastry. Try not to overfill, but try not to underfill. No one wants an empty éclair. *The small round ones were easier to fill. For the éclair shaped ones, I tried just doing two holes (one on each side) and filling. I also tried putting two or three holes in the bottom of the dough and filling. Neither was super easy, but all got the job done. If you’re having a hard time puncturing a hole, you can always stick a small knife in first to get it started. 

2. Dunk each filled éclair in the ganache. *You can also drizzle over top, but I dunked because more chocolate, more better. 

Rating (Scale 1 - 5)

Difficulty: 2

Amount of Time: 2

Awesomeness: 4