... and a dollar short is how I fell at the moment about this recipe. First of all I am actually a day late posting it, oopise. Secondly I am a little disappointed with the recipe. Ok I won't get ahead of myself here. I was very excited to make this months recipe, I had made profiterole puffs before and loved the results so I was excited to see just how wonderful this recipe would be. I mixed up the dough, baked it and tested one to see how they tasted. My first reaction was that they tasted like eggs, some kind of eggy bread perhaps. My second reaction came when I looked over at all my sunk little eclairs, they were almost completely flat. I put them in a plastic baggie and left them to deal with for the next morning. I think I'll go finish them now. In all fairness I did not give them a real chance, I did not even stuff or glaze them. Maybe my premature tasting lead me in the wrong direction. As a Daring Baker I feel that I need to at least try to complete the entire recipe before giving up. I think I'll go make a half batch of pastry cream and glaze and see what happens. I'll be back later with pictures and a true judgement of how these little eclairs were.....
Ok I am finally back. I know I know another whole day later, ::slapping myself on the hand:: bad Daring Baker. Anyway, I made my pastry cream, which was wonderful and I will post the recipe below, and I made my chocolate sauce and glaze. Why I had to make two different things to obtain one final glaze is beyond me but oh well,it is probably the same cooky reason why I had to put a spoon in my oven door halfway throughout baking, weiiiirrdd. All in all, my eclairs are all assembled and photographed and I am feeling a little better about this challenge and the fact that I completed it. I still do not particularly care for the pâte à choux recipe but the pastry cream and glaze did dull the egginess a tad and I was able to eat a few of these.
Thank you to this months hosts; Meeta of What’s for Lunch Honey? and Tony of Tony Tahhan. Please check out one of their blogs for the entire eclair recipe. I am only going to post the pastry cream recipe that I used in this post. As always don't forget to check out the Daring Baker Blogroll to see how all the other Daring Bakers fared with this recipe.
Creme Patissiere (Pastry Cream)
Source: Joy Of Baking
Makes about 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
Scant 3 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch
3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, Brandy, Kirsch)
Directions
1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor. This sugar can then be used in baking where you would like a vanilla-flavored sugar, e.g. pies, cakes, cookies.)
3. Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
4. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
5. For a light pastry cream, just before using, fold in the softly whipped cream with a wooden spoon.
Ok I am finally back. I know I know another whole day later, ::slapping myself on the hand:: bad Daring Baker. Anyway, I made my pastry cream, which was wonderful and I will post the recipe below, and I made my chocolate sauce and glaze. Why I had to make two different things to obtain one final glaze is beyond me but oh well,it is probably the same cooky reason why I had to put a spoon in my oven door halfway throughout baking, weiiiirrdd. All in all, my eclairs are all assembled and photographed and I am feeling a little better about this challenge and the fact that I completed it. I still do not particularly care for the pâte à choux recipe but the pastry cream and glaze did dull the egginess a tad and I was able to eat a few of these.
Thank you to this months hosts; Meeta of What’s for Lunch Honey? and Tony of Tony Tahhan. Please check out one of their blogs for the entire eclair recipe. I am only going to post the pastry cream recipe that I used in this post. As always don't forget to check out the Daring Baker Blogroll to see how all the other Daring Bakers fared with this recipe.
Creme Patissiere (Pastry Cream)
Source: Joy Of Baking
Makes about 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
Scant 3 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch
3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, Brandy, Kirsch)
Directions
1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor. This sugar can then be used in baking where you would like a vanilla-flavored sugar, e.g. pies, cakes, cookies.)
3. Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
4. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
5. For a light pastry cream, just before using, fold in the softly whipped cream with a wooden spoon.
12 comments:
I thought the dough was a bit eggy, too... but I can vouch for the fact that, once filled with the chocolate pastry cream, there's a much better balance. I recommend eclair trifle - all the fun flavor and disguises the less than pretty pieces! ;)
I baked mine for about 15 minutes longer and they didn't have the eggy taste and stayed puffed. It took me three batches to get that all figured out though.
They were a bit eggy. Mine also fell a bit. The good news is that the did taste much better after the glaze and the pastry cream went on.
At least you can take comfort in the fact that most people had some issues dealing with these.
I slightly modified the recipe from 5 whole eggs to 3 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, as suggested in Baking Illustrated. Though my eclairs deflated as well, they did taste very good and no one complained about egginess. Looking forward to the final results.
I wasn't impressed with the eclairs either - for what that's worth!
Am sorry that they deflated but the final poduct looks good and I bet they tasted good...mine deflated too the first time but then firmed...
Better late than never. I think all of ours were slightly eggy tasting--and I used one less egg. But they look beautiful! Cheers.
A lot of people complaint about the egginess... Sorry you didn't love them, but hey they still look gorgeous!
They certainly look beautiful, even if the flavor wasn't the greatest. I'm not much of a baker so even getting them to look good would have been an accomplishment for me! :P
nice job! if you bake them longer, they are a little less eggy - but also less so if you add less eggs ;) the dorie recipe we used a few months back was better, imo
yeah, now that it's been mentioned, they were a bit eggy, but again, with all the other flavors, that taste goes away... I like the idea culinography suggested about a trifle!
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