Chocolate Covered Coffee Petite Éclairs - Project Food Blog #2

My French Fantasy - Chocolate Covered Coffee Petite Éclairs

As I spent over 6 hours in the kitchen preparing and cleaning up after my French fantasy, Éclair making, I came to a realization. The French do it better...... Period. How is it that something so small and seemingly innocuous could be such a labor intensive, sweat inducing, curse worthy sweet to make? Why?...... Because it is French.

Do you know what éclair means? It means, flash of lightening. They sure lived up to their name when I served them last evening at a party. As soon as they were on the table.... they were gone, in a flash!

Even though this round of the competition supposedly is "bypassing the French and Italian Standards", there is nothing standard about these. Bypass the French...Sacré bleu! I have never ventured into French pastry making, so for me... this is totally new ground. I have made sesame ladoos from India, chicken mole from Mexico and homemade mochi from Japan, but I have always held French Pastry Making at an arms length. It just always seemed too difficult..until now.

I decided to embrace French Pastry making, specifically petite éclairs. Why? Because the French do it better, that's why. Their precision, attention to detail, design and beauty is second to none. I shy away from lengthy recipes that seem "complicated and confusing". I tend to lose my focus quite easily, so taking on a 3 step French pastry recipe demanded all of my attention. I like to be tested, to see if I can accomplish what I previously thought was impossible. And tested I was as I set out to create these delicious, bite sized, French pasty treats. My little femme fatales.... irresistible to all!

For the first part of the recipe, I made Choux Paste or as the French call it...pate a choux. This really turned out to be a divine little pastry dough that I am looking forward to using again. The recipe is quite simple... but if never done before... make sure you read the directions a few times before making the dough. I learned that is feels so much better to be able to anticipate the next step in a recipe, rather than scrambling in the moment and potentially botching your recipe.                            

Choux Paste - Sheila Linderman - The New French Baker

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1 and 3/4 stick of unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS sugar

2 cups minus 2 TBS all purpose flour, sifted or strained after weighing.....get your sifter out..don't be lazy

12 large eggs (I only ended up using 10)

1) Place milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in pan and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat, yet leave pot on stove.

2)Pour all of the flour into the liquid and mix with wooden spoon. Tun heat back on to medium and, stirring constantly until the dough is smooth, and pulls away from the side of the pot.

3)Pour dough into large mixing bowl fitted with the paddle. Mix on low speed, adding 1 egg at a time. Be sure to scrape the bowl in-between additions.

4) Before adding the last 2 eggs, check the consistency of the dough. It should give a bit and pull away just a bit from the paddle when you turn it off. If mixture is still stiff, add another egg.

5) If not using right away, place dough into container and cover dough surface with plastic wrap so a crust does not form.

Baking the éclairs - Simple, straightforward.... or so I thought (see photos below)

1) Oven at 400. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place a bit of the dough paste under the corners of parchment to keep it in place.

2) Get our your pastry bag and a 3/8 inch tip. Fill pastry bag with dough. Pipe 3" inches long, 1 inch apart.

3)Take wet pastry brush and brush the tops of the dough before going into the oven.

4)Into the oven for 13 minutes...at 13 minutes, prop oven open with a wooden spoon (to let steam escape) and continue to cook with door propped oven for another 9 minutes. This timing may vary. This is what worked for me. You prop the door open when the eclairs have fully expanded or "puffed" up.

5)They should be ready to come out of the oven at this time. Cool on racks.

Attempt #1 = eclairs gone wrong....(did not follow directions) Do as I say.... not as I do!

Attempt #2 = eclairs gone right...(did follow directions)

Chocolate Coffee Pastry Cream

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk

1 cup plus 2 TBS organic sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

8 large egg yolks

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

7 TBS unsalted butter, softened

1 TBS espresso powder

1 TBS hot water

6 oz, semi-sweet chocolate (chopped into small pieces)

1)Bring the milk, half the sugar and the vanilla bean to a boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan.

2)In separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is a nice pale yellow. Sift the corn starch and flour over the eggs, whisking in until there are no lumps.

3)When milk begins to boil, pour 2 cups of liquid into the egg mixture to temper the eggs. Change the heat to low. Add egg mixture back into the milk mixture, again whisking like mad until the mixture begins to simmer.

4)Pour custard into a large bowl, pull out vanilla bean, add vanilla extract and butter. Whisk again.

5)Add 1 TBS hot water to 1 TBS espresso powder, dissolve and whisk into cream. Whisk chocolate into cream and stir until chocolate is melted. Cool to room temp, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling the Pastry Shells- The fun part! - I really felt French when I whipped out the pastry bag!

1)Take a sharp piping tip, or use the one you used for piping the pate a choux, and poke 2 little holes in the side of the pastry shells or on the bottom. Leave about 1 inch between the holes.
2)Fill pastry bag with your pastry cream and insert the tip into the holes. Fill with cream until you feel the little Éclair shell start to give a bit. If you over-fill the éclairs, you risk the chance of breaking through the pastry shell, and then being forced to eat one of your éclairs early... darn.

bittersweet chocolate waiting to be melted into submission

The last step in this wonderful process was glazing the petite eclairs. I used a delicious chocolate glaze that was a bit tedious because you had to clarify your butter first. Luckily, I have made clarified butter several times, so it was not too much of a setback. It was all worth it as the chocolate set beautifully with a wonderful smooth shine. By the time I was to this point in the recipe, there was no going back, only the sense of accomplishment waiting around the corner.... a lovely eclair, waiting to be eaten!

Chocolate Glaze - Sheila Linderman - The New French Baker

Ingredients

1.5 sticks unsalted butter

10 oz. high quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 TBS light corn syrup

1)Clarify butter, keep warm. -

2)Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set in simmering water. Stir chocolate until just about melted. Take off heat and continue stirring.  Do not let chocolate get too hot.... it should just be barely warm to the touch.

3)Pour in butter and corn syrup, whisk until smooth. Place in container and get ready to dip those eclairs! 

The delight of this wonderful dessert was the pleasure I had in eating one after so much time and trial and error in the kitchen. Zut alors I proclaimed as I sunk my teeth through the delicate pastry shell into the creamy middle! Do you recall the photo above of the éclairs "gone wrong"? Well I did not want to waste the dough and I had just enough chocolate glaze left, so I dipped them in the chocolate and made "Petite Sticks". They were wonderfully delicious. They too disappeared quickly from the party last evening.

"petite chocolate sticks".... proof that you can find good in every bad situation!

I stretched myself again. Without change, there is no growth. I tried new things, read lengthy recipes, followed the directions (most of the time) and made something I thought one only finds in the window of patisseries around France! Voila! I can do it at home! 

Thank you all who voted me into the next round of Project Food Blog!  I appreciate all the support from my friends and family who love me even with out contests and tasty treats....Do what you love, love what you do and most of all......Eat. Good. Food.♥♥♥ Megan

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