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| Finished Éclairs |
Today myself and Katie thought we'd make something that we've read a lot about and seen a lot of, but never actually attempted ourselves before; crème légère, which is essentially crème pâtissière, or custard (the thing we'd never made from scratch before) and whipped cream. It was a pleasant surprise how easy the crème pâtissière was to make, and how delicious it was with the extra cream folded through too! The éclairs recipe is adapted from a BBC GoodFood post, and was also surprisingly quick and simple to make, the effort is definitely worth it!
Chocolate Éclairs with Crème Légère
Makes approx. 16 éclairs
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| Egg yolk mix before adding milk |
Ingredients:
Éclairs:
140g plain flour
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
125ml milk
125ml water
100g butter
4 eggs
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| Adding flour to choux mix |
Crème Légère:
300ml milk
50g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1.5tsp vanilla extract
4tsp plain flour
4tsp cornflour
300ml double cream
100g milk chocolate for coating
200oC oven/180oC fan oven
Method:
Chilling dough
1. Start by making the crème pâtissière filling; first heat the milk until almost boiling in a saucepan. Meanwhile, mix together the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla in a bowl, then stir in the flours, a couple of tsp at a time, to a smooth paste.
2. Once the milk is almost boiling, gradually whisk it into the egg yolk mix, pour everything back into the saucepan and cook over a high heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 mins until thick; keep stirring it vigorously with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Pour into a bowl, lay a sheet of cling film directly on the crème pâtissière surface, then cool and chill until you’re ready to fill the éclairs.
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| Smooth dough with eggs |
4. Put the milk, water and butter into a medium saucepan and gently heat so the butter melts but the liquid doesn’t boil. Once the butter has completely melted, increase the heat until the liquid comes to a fast rolling boil.
5. Immediately turn off the heat, tip in the flour, sugar and salt and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until you a have a smooth dough that comes away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the pan and leave to cool until it's almost room temperature - to speed this up you can spread it over a large dinner plate and place in the freezer for one minute.
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| Piping dough |
6. Once the dough mix has cooled, scrape it back into your pan. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then gradually beat them into the dough mix, approx a quarter at a time. Using your wooden spoon, beat after each addition until you have a smooth, shiny mixture.
7. Line a baking tray, or two, with baking paper and draw on 16/18 10cm long lines, at least 5cm apart. Turn the paper over so the lines are on the underside of the paper, or they'll transfer onto the bottom of the éclairs.
8. Fill a piping bag with the dough (use a 1/2cm nozzle), and pipe along the guidelines. Smooth any points on the éclairs down with a wet finger.
9. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for 20/25 minutes, or until crisp and golden.
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| Eclairs after baking |
10. Once baked, make a small slit in the base of each eclair with a sharp knife, turn upside down and bake for another 5 minutes to dry out the pastry cases. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.
11. Whilst they're cooling, you can make the crème légère; whisk the double cream until thick and it stands in strong peaks. Fold the cream into your cooled crème pâtissière.
12. Once the éclairs are cool, spoon the crème légère into a piping bag (this time with a long, thin nozzle), and gently fill each éclair with a generous helping of the crème légère - they'll feel heavy when they're full.
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| Creme Legere before piping |
13. Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave in a shallow bowl and then dip each of the filled eclairs into the chocolate, so they have an even coating. Set on a plate and leave the chocolate to set - it's best to keep them in the fridge.
These won't keep for very long once they're filled, approx. 1 day before they go soggy, but they're so delicious and moreish they won't be around for long! There's lots of alternative toppings you can put on them too, such as sprinkling with flaked almonds or chopped hazelnuts - they're a great starting point for lots of experimentation.
Happy Baking,
The Baking Ginger xx
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| Finished éclairs! |
This is just something I saw this week and fell completely in love with! Enjoy!
