Eclairs, also known as profiteroles, paris-brest, and cream puffs are made with Choux Pastry which is very easy to make. If you follow my recipe, your choux pastry will never be a flop. Eclairs can be filled with sweet or savoury fillings, but today I have added the Amarula Cream liquor to the creme patisserie, and its deliciously subtle and smooth. I made a trio of eclairs using the ingredients we were given in this weeks PnP Food Bloggers Challenge – Sponsored by Amarula, with chocolate, almonds and pears.
Although choux pastry is easy to make, it does require care in measuring ingredients. Its better to weigh the dry ingredients on a scale rather than using a tablespoon or cup for measuring them.
Choux pastry is not like other types of pastries. The butter is put into a pot with water (and some recipes have milk), and when it has boiled, the flour is added all at once and beaten. It is very important to remember that you only beat the flour until the pastry is smooth (this only takes a few seconds). If you continue to beat at this stage the pastry will not rise.Once the eggs have been added you must beat the pastry thoroughly. A wooden spoon or spatula will do, or a food processor can be used. Once the pastries are baked, make a hole in the side of the pastry with a skewer or point of a knife to release any steam and this helps to keep it crisp.
If you dont want to use liquor add an extra 50ml milk to the creme patisserie to get the correct consistency. The eclairs could be filled with chocolate cream, or whipped cream. My favourite way of making them is just making round ones using a spoonful of mixture on the baking tray and once baked filling them with whipped cream, piling them into a pyramid and pouring warm melted dark chocolate with a dash of milk added to make pouring consistency. This is an easy, non fuss way of making them and they look spectacular as a pudding. And if by chance there are any left over in the middle of the night there is nothing better than a visit to the fridge for a cold, chocolatey choux pastry…..
- To Make Amarula Crème Patisserie
- (If you are making Creme Patisserie without the alcohol use 250ml milk and no Amarula)
- 200 full cream milk
- 25g sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 25g sugar
- pinch of salt
- 10g plain flour
- 10g cornflour
- 50ml Amarula liquor
- For the eclairs
- Makes 12 small eclairs
- 80ml milk
- 80ml water
- 70g butter
- pinch of salt
- 10g sugar
- 100g plain flour
- 2 eggs
- To assemble:
- Slice the eclairs in half and fill with the Amarula Cream.
- Decorate ⅓ or the eclairs with a chocolate glaze :
- In a double boiler combine 80g dark chocolate, 2 Tablespoons butter and allow to melt. Add a few sdrop of milk to get a thick pouring consistency.
- Decorate ⅓ of the eclairs with toasted almonds:
- Toast 50g almonds in a saucepan on medium heat. Watch and turn so that the almonds don’t catch or burn. With a little of the egg glaze mix coat your fingers and brush over the eclairs. Sprinkle with cooled almonds and dust with icing sugar.
- Decorate ⅓ of the eclairs with caramelized pears:
- In a pot add thinly sliced pears , ⅓cup sugar and ⅓cup water and allow to cook slowly and brown. Cool before adding inside the eclairs with the crème patissiere and decorate the top with more.
- If you would rather just make chocolate eclairs, triple the amount of chocolate
- To make the creme patissiere:
- Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the sugar .
- Put the egg yolks, sugar and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour and conflour and combine. Set aside
- Place the milk mixture onto high heat and just before it starts to boil, remove from the heat and add a third of the milk mixture to the egg mixture.
- Whisk quickly and then add this combined egg/milk mixture to the pan with the boiled milk.
- Keep whisking until the mixture has thickened and reached boiling point. Allow to thicken while whisking , this should take about 2 minutes.
- Take off the stove and add the Amarula at this stage and whisk to combine.
- Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, placed directly onto the crème so that it doesn’t form a skin. Allow to cool and then spoon into piping bag to fill the eclairs. You could also spoon the mixture onto the cut open eclairs.
- To make the eclairs:
- Preheat oven to 150ºC.
- Pour the milk and water into a pan, add the butter, salt and sugar.
- Place this over a high heat until the butter has melted.
- Bring to the boil and allow to boil for 3 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, mixing vigorously until you cant see any flour in the mixture.
- Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork.
- Add half the egg mixture to the pan and beat until the mixture is combined.
- Gradually add the other half egg mixture, a little at a time making sure the consistency is firm. The consistency of the mixture should stick to the spatula but fall off with a solid break.
- Place into piping bag and pipe out 12 small eclairs onto a greased baking tray.
- Brush top with an egg wash or water.
- Bake in a 150ºC oven for 55 minutes or until golden brown. Do not open the door during cooking time, as the eclairs will collapse.
- Cut small slit in the side of the eclairs once out the oven to allow any excess air to escape, this will help in drying out your éclair. Allow to cool
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