Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Eclairs & Cream Puffs

A lot of time, im mesmerized by the luxurious and scrumptious look of those little french pastries line up on the cake dessert counter. Whether they are simple or complicated, they all look so fine and just beautiful. so inspiring!  I could imagine with a lot of helping hands in the pastry kitchen, its just a piece of cake for them to prepare all that..

As i was joining a little fun of making choux pastry, and so i used this opportunity to bake some little easy peasy eclairs and cream puffs with my so many inspiration from what i've seen.   I mean, im not professional but its inspiring me to bake on! Nothing fancy, just plain simple eclairs and cream puffs with little creativity playing with my left over ingredients from previous bake.....hahaha...

Its my 2nd time of baking choux pastry anyway, i find it simply easy.  Recipe by Laura in the Kitchen, however did little adjustment on baking temperature.






CHOUX PASTRY
INGREDIENTS
PASTRY CREAM FILLING:
2-1/4 cups of Whole Milk
1/3 cup of Corn Starch ( i used 1/4 cup )
1/4 cup of Granulated Sugar
4 Egg Yolks
1 tsp of Vanilla Paste
Pinch of Salt

*Add all ingredients in a large saucepan and with the heat turned off, whisk them all together to combine until cream thicken, transfer to a container cover with cling wrap (make sure the plastic wrap is touching the cream) and keep in the fridge completely.  Cream can keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator. 

DOUGH:
1 cup of Water
1 cup of All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup of Unsalted Butter
4 Eggs at Room Temperature

* Preheat oven to 218c. 
* Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
* Put the water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium low heat. Remove from heat. Add the flour all at once and stir well with a wooden spoon until the flour is completely mixed in.
*Turn the heat back on to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Scrape the dough into a large bowl.
*With a whisk or wooden spoon, beat in the eggs one at a time until all four eggs are well incorporated.
*Fill a disposable piping bag that has been fitted with a large round tip with some of the dough (you will have to do these in batches) and pipe out 6 inch logs a few inches apart on your prepared baking sheets.
* Brush the top of the eclairs with some water and bake them for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 (180c) and continue baking them for an additional 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. As soon as they come out of the oven, use a medium size piping tip and make a little hole at the end of each side so the steam can escape, allow to cool completely.





GANACHE:
4 ounces Semisweet Chocolate Chips ( I used 115g Semisweet Dark Chocolate )
1/4 cup of Heavy Cream ( i used non-dairy topping ) 

*Heat the cream in a small pan over medium heat until just below boiling point.
* Pour the heated cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for 1 minute then whisk until the chocolate has melted.
* When ready to assemble, using a piping bag fitted with a medium size round tip, fill each shell and either dip the tops in the melted chocolate or spoon the chocolate over the top.
* Allow them to set slightly before serving.

* To achieve other colorful ganache, simply use white chocolate with the same ganache ingredients above, mix with other paste/powder/flavouring coloring.




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