Chocolate Eclairs - GBBO Bakealong

I’ve been trying to bake along with Great British Bake Off this year and wasn’t particularly looking forward to pastry week as I don’t make particularly good pastry - I’m rubbish at kneading I think! Until I saw that the bakers were making choux pastry and specifically eclairs. Given I have an eclair pan and a book called Secrets of Eclairs - both from the pre-parenting days when I had a lot more time to bake - I had no excuse not to join in!

Eclair pans are not exactly a necessary piece of baking equipment but they do help keep your piping straight and a uniform size and the tin I used is quite heavy with curved edges which keep it stable.

As for the recipe book, it’s a small volume but has some detailed explanations of the equipment and techniques you need to make eclairs, plus recipes for different flavoured pastries and fillings.

I was quite limited by what I had in the house - if I want to bake in the same week as the GBBO episode then I need to either decide before I’ve seen the show what I am going to make (so not really a bake along) or make do with what I have got in the house - I’m trying to avoid extra trips to the shops due to Covid!

That left me with plain eclairs with a chocolate filling and white icing on top - nice and traditional.

Making choux pastry is actually quite straightforward and quick but the tricky bit comes with deciding how much egg to add. The recipe I used said you needed up to two eggs, and to beat them together and add gradually until you get the right consistency. I felt I needed to use all the egg, so wasn’t sure if that was right and I should have used less, but it turned out well!

I did end up having to make two batches and in true GBBO style, bin the first lot and start again. Bizarrely for such a detailed recipe book with extensive explanations of each step, the basic recipe for choux pastry at the front of the book omits any cooking time! So I went by the time in one of the flavoured recipes later in the book and the eclairs came out very overbaked so I started again and reduced the cooking time significantly.

I made simple icing from icing sugar and water which looked ok at first but once it had set it was almost transparent and I think I should have made it much thicker or done a few layers. I would have preferred to make the traditional chocolate icing but didn’t have the ingredients as this was a last minute bake! The texture of the choux was quite good and they did taste nice, though they were a lot smaller than shop-bought eclairs. This was the size guided by my eclair pan so I can only assume that shop-bought eclairs use some sort of industrial equipment and bake in a size that can't really be replicated at home. If that's not the case and you are a whizz with eclairs, let me know in the comments below!

Mandarin Eclairs

I don't have the patience for fiddly recipes and am always looking for shortcuts, so perhaps this recipe wasn't a great idea! As well as making the eclairs, I had to make a mandarin compote and a creme patissiere - in the end I did the first two parts but skipped the creme patissiere and filled my eclairs with double cream instead. 

The recipe is from the book Secrets of Eclairs, by Marianne Magnier Moreno, but I adapted it to make it quicker.

I used the basic method to make the choux pastry. To make 8, you need:

80ml milk

80ml water

70g butter, diced

large pinch of salt

10g sugar

100g plain flour

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 150C. Place the water and milk in a saucepan and add the butter, salt and sugar then stir over a high heat until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add the flour and quickly but gently mix in, and the mixture will come together.

  

For the next part, place the saucepan back on the hob and turn up the heat. Stir until the mixture forms a dough that doesn't stick to the pan or to the spatula. Beat in the eggs a little at a time until the mixture sticks to the spatula then falls off - rather than doesn't stick to the spatula at all, or sticks and then stays on.

It gave me the opportunity to try out the eclair pan I got for my birthday; the indentations help you to get your eclairs just the right size and shape and all uniform.

I decided this meant I could cut corners and spoon the choux pastry mixture in rather than pipe it - which turned out not to be the case! You really do need to pipe the eclairs to get a smooth finish. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven.

To make the mandarin compote, you need:

2 mandarins

65g sugar

2g pectin (which you can buy from the supermarket)

Peel the mandarins and divide into segments, then cut each segment in half. Place 80g of the mandarin segments in a saucepan with the sugar and pectin and stir. Cook over a high heat, mashing the mandarins with a fork and removing the skins. Simmer for about ten minutes until thickened and allow to cool.

To serve, rather than make creme patissiere or chantilly cream as the recipe suggested, I whipped some double cream and mixed in the fruit compote, and used that to fill the eclairs. One of these days I will get round to following an eclair recipe properly!

The theme for this month's Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabberUK, is French. Eclairs aren't exactly cake but they are French!

Mini Apple and Chocolate Eclairs

I've had my eye on a little book called "Secrets of Eclairs" for some time so when I saw the theme for this month's Classic French was eclairs, I decided it was a good excuse to treat myself to the book. The book explains in several steps how to make eclairs and then gives recipes for different fillings and toppings. I really liked the sound of the caramelized apple eclairs and had some stewed apple in the freezer I wanted to use up.

To make 6-8 eclairs, depending on size, you need:

80ml milk

80ml water

70g butter, diced

large pinch of salt

10g sugar

100g plain flour

2 eggs

Put the milk, water and butter in a saucepan then add the salt and sugar and stir until melted. Bring to the boil then remove from the heat. As soon as you take it off the heat, add the flour and stir well.

The mixture will very quickly form a dough. Gradually add the eggs and stir in.

Put a wide round nozzle onto a piping bag and pipe out the dough onto a greased and lined baking sheet. These were actually quite small when they were cooked so next time I would pipe two rows to make one eclair.

The recipe said they would take nearly an hour to cook, but they were done - almost well done - after about 20 minutes, probably because my eclairs were quite small. While they did go brown on the outside they were still lovely and fluffy on the inside.

I split open the eclairs and filled with stewed apple which I had defrosted from the freezer and warmed through.

And finished them with cream - from a spray can! It's definitely the easiest way to get cream into eclairs.

I also made some more traditional eclairs, filled with cream with melted chocolate on the top.

These were lovely and easier to make than I was expecting. I will definitely be making something else from my eclairs recipe book soon!

I'm sending this to Classic French, hosted by Maison Cupcake and created by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes.

I'm also sharing this with Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked, as their theme this month is fruit.

The theme for Calendar Cakes this month is also fruit, so I'm sending my apple eclairs to Laura of Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel of DollyBakes for their challenge.

Finally I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge, as the challenge this month is to use up leftovers from the freezer, and my stewed apple has been in there a while! The event is hosted this month by Elizabeth's Kitchen and was created by Kate at Turquoise Lemons.