Welcome to the Smith Sisters 3rd Daring Bakers Challenge! Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Hermé: Chocolate Éclairs. Click here for the entire Daring Bakers Blogroll.
Note to self: If you choose to do your Daring Bakers Challenge the first week it comes out, make sure to blog about it right away. My memory is lacking, so I shall try to the pictures do the talking.
The beginning. See, that was easy! Ok. I remember being excited about this recipe because I already had everything I needed to make eclairs, so I did them right away.
The first step was making the Pâte à Choux (cream puff dough.) LOTS OF EGGS. And I love the part in the recipe where it clearly states I should be using *a stand mixer* to finish this recipe “ or if you still have the energy, continue by hand.”
Cream Puff Dough
• ½ cup whole milk
• ½ cup water
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.
3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.
So now, I’m supposed to take this luscious dough and pipe it from a bag. My bag was limp and pathetic and made rows that were too thin, so I tried to double up. Won’t do this next time.
Chocolate Éclairs
• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm
1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.
Yep! They came out and SMELLED SO GOOD. And tasted really good too, although I thought they were a little *eggy* which to me was a good thing. I imagined putting sausage and cheese and egg on these little puffs of goodness another day…
They did go a little flat in cooling, but I think this was more because of the thin layers I made rather than the jumping up and down in my kitchen over the success of making my first Pâte à Choux. 
Now this is where it became a little much for me. And I should have known. HOLY CHOCOLATE. So much chocolate. TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE. I’m not the hugest fan of chocolate and I think the next 27 steps were chocolate overload for me.
Again, lots of eggs. Long process. But OH MY GOD WAS IT WORTH IT. Very tasty. My pastry creme turned out perfect. And I somehow had a lot left over…
Chocolate Pastry Cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.
4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.
Last step, chocolate glaze…
Chocolate Glaze
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 3½ oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature1) In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Sauce
• 4½ oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup sugar1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
And now, assembly!
Assembling the éclairs:
• Chocolate glaze
• Chocolate pastry cream1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.
WALLA!!! A ridiculously rich chocolate confection. Far too much so for my liking, but the Mark seemed to eat the rest of them without a problem.
I will certainly use again with modifications. Both the Pâte à Choux and the Chocolate Pastry Cream were amazingly delicious.
