Daring Bakers: Chocolate Eclairs

Another month and another Daring Bakers challenge. This month's challenge is hosted by Meeta of What's For Lunch, Honey? and Tony of Tony Tahhnan. They chose chocolate éclairs from the fabulous cookbook Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé (written by Dorie Greenspan).

The origin of this delectable pastry is unclear. Larousse Gastronomique  references Catherine de' Medici's chef for the invention of pâte à choux and French chef Antonin Carême for the invention of the eclair in the 19th century. Other sources refute this as a myth, reporting recipes for filled choux pastry appearing much earlier and in many other countries. For me, an eclair is quintessentially French (the word means a flash of lightning, incidentally), whomever may have invented it, and I was thrilled to be making them.

The Pierre Hermé recipe consists of choux pastry filled with the most decadent crème pâtissière and then topped with a lovely bittersweet chocolate fondant. The rules of the challenge stated that if we could substitute one of the chocolate components (pastry cream or glaze) with whatever we liked. Because I'd never made this recipe before I wanted to taste it as intended and made it exactly as written. I topped half of the chocolate-filled eclairs with the chocolate fondant and then made a coffee fondant for the rest. 

A huge thanks to Tony and Meeta for such a wonderful challenge! 

Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé

(makes 20-24 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.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

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.

Assembling the éclairs:
• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) 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.

Notes:

1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough

½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) 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.

Notes:

1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream

2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) 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.

Notes:
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)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.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
 in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104  F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 g) water
½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) 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.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or  a double boiler before using.

2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Comments

[Tanya]

Your eclairs look beautiful! Well done!

[Cristine]

Your eclairs look great! The first pic makes me wish I used the chocolate pastry cream!

[Cynthia]

I would love to know how much coffee you added to the cream filling. The color is so rich and pretty. Nice.

[Foodie Froggy]

Wow ! they look like professional ones ! Absolutely awesome !

[Jack]

Sigh... I knew this would happen. It isn't easy getting to see your creations without also being able to eat 'em!

They look really great.

[Rosa]

What beautiful Eclairs! Perfect and ever so scrumptious looking!

Cheers,

Rosa

[Manggy]

Hey Dreamboat Annie, I haven't heard from you in a while! I hope you are well and have set up a webcam for Jack... Once he disposes of his olde adding machine and gets a *real* PC! My heart goes out to you.
I see you've become really confident with the fondant. It looks absolutely perfect, as do your eclairs!

[Aparna]

Those eclairs look wonderful, Ann.
I went with coffee and chocolate too, for some of mine.:)

[Aran]

wonderful!

[Deeba]

How nice to see you back Ann...& with a pretty good BANG!! How beautiful the eclairs are; love your ease with the fondant. Coffee is making me go wild...love them!! How is life with you? Love the angle of photography...Take care & keep smiling! xoxoxo

[Marija]

Ann, wonderful! The dough came out perfect!

[Beth]

Beautiful photos. Your eclairs look professional.

[RecipeGirl]

These look fabulous! I wish I had time to do this challenge this month... I so want to taste yours!

[kellypea]

Gorgeous. Period. Love the cut version! And thanks for the background. I love the whole history of food thing and didn't look into it for eclairs. The coffee in that fondant sounds delicious...

[Michelle Mcwhisky]

Gorgeous shots you have! The eclairs are prettily done up. :)

[Sophie]

Woman! Have you ever made something that's NOT beautiful?!

These eclairs looks absolutely gorgeous. Nice work.

[Angela]

Oh wow! That first picture is absolutely stunning. I wish I'd been as generous with my filling as you. That looks incredible!

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

Ooooh, coffee and chocolate sounds like a wonderful combination for an eclair! If I saw these in a bakery window, I'd be very tempted....

[RazorFamilyFarms.com]

I came over from Rosa'a Yummy Yums (Goodness do I ever love Rosa!) and wanted to see your version of the Bakers Challenge. You've done a wonderful job!

Blessings!
Lacy Razor

RazorFamilyFarms.com

[grace]

coffee fondant? good heavens, pour me a glass of that! :)

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Dang, coffee! What a natural! Your's are gorgeous!

[Bellini Valli]

Your filling would cure any chocoholic cravings I might have:D

[Cakelaw]

Oh my, these look good - the cross-sectional photos make me want to take a huge bite. I love the coffee fondant - it is very elegant looking.

[Speedbump Kitchen]

Coffee fondant, brilliant....I could have used some coffee after this challenge. Great job!

[rachel]

I used similar flavours too but my coffee cream wasn't so firm. beautiful eclair!