[Vanilla eclairs and choux buns]

eclair-vanille.jpg

Saying that I hate to fail would be an understatement. An ever stronger one when it comes to the cooking realm.

A couple of months ago, as I decided to make a pièce montée for my sister’s birthday, I could only notice how flat – and weirdly shaped – the choux were.

It was what I can now call a disaster.

However, encouraged by my father, I tried again. With much better results this time. The choux puffed up nicely and hold their shape. Even out from the oven!
Sure the icing is somewhat grainy, but well, it’s pink; and that totally saves it all.

Eclairs à la vanille
Adapted from Nigella Lawson and Christophe Felder.

Nigella’s recipe for choux puffs is pretty close from Pierre Hermé’s, except for a little extra butter. Here I’ve used Pierre’s method for baking the choux, which I think is the best around.

The crème pâtissière comes from Christophe Felder; and most definitely is my go-to recipe. So smooth and silky.
To fill the choux, you can either slice them open and pipe the crème into the halves, then top with the remaining pieces; or pierce each choux using a pointy knife and pipe the crème directly into them.

Eclairs à la vanille

makes 12 éclairs

for the pâte à choux
125g water
125g milk
5g salt
2 pinches of caster sugar
125g butter
4 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line two baking sheets with parchement paper or better still silicon baking mat.
Put the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter in a large sauce pan and heat until the butter is melted and the water has just begun to boil. Take the pan off the heat and add all the flour in one go.
Beat with a wooden spoon and put the pan back to the heat for 2-3 minutes; you should get a smooth ball. Turn off the heat.
Now beat in the eggs, one at a time. The dough should be stiff enough to hold its shape.

Pipe 10cm long tubes leaving a space of 5cm between each tube.
Turn down the oven to 180°C. And bake for 15 minutes. Then, to let the steam out, maintain your oven’s door open with a wooden spoon and bake for a further 8 minutes.
Remove to a cooling rack.

for the crème pâtissière
500g milk
20g butter
2 vanilla pods
100g caster sugar
40g cornflour
40g flour
4 egg yolks

In a large pan, put the milk, butter, vanilla seeds, split vanilla pods and half of the sugar. Bring to the boil.
In a large bowl, sieve the flours and beat in the egg yolks. Add the sugar and whisk until smooth.
Remove the vanilla pods from the pan and pour a laddle of milk over the eggy mixture. Whisk well and put back into the pan.
On a medium heat, bring this mixture to the boil while stirring constantly.
When thick, remove from the heat and put the creme patissiere into a bowl. Allow to cool and keep in the frigde until ready.

Now you can fill the eclairs with the creme patissiere and top them with a simple icing made of icing sugar and water.

Posted by fanny who loves basics, bites of sweetness, favourites, pierre hermé, recipe inside, vanilla