Sweet, Sweet Pastry Construction!

I am so excited and thrilled to write this post because I am extremely proud of myself and the sweets that came out of my kitchen (and are already gone I might add) yesterday! For Christmas my dear friend Meagan and her adorable family gave me a fabulous cookbook (among other amazing gifts like my new Hunter boots I cant ever take off!) called The Big Book of Baking. Its one of the best baking cookbooks I own. It has recipes for all difficulty levels.

Yesterday I was feeling adventurous. I wanted to spend the day baking something that I had never made before and would challenge me. Flipping through the book I stumbled across a recipe for Eclair's. Sweet, flaky, Custard filled Eclair's are something that I can rarely walk past in a bakery and not purchase. I read over the recipe several times that morning make sure I had every ingredient I needed and was in full understanding of how to put this recipe together.

I started of by cutting up my butter and placing it into a saucepan with a small amount of water, stirring constantly until it formed a buttery mixture.  This was the base for my dough.

Next was to sift my flour, which as you know from previous posts is not my most favorite thing. I still have not purchased a sifter!

After the butter was melted and the flour was sifted with no lumps, I added it to my butter mixture beating it together until the batter came way from the sides of the pan and formed a ball.

After it was a nice firm ball I allowed it to cool slightly before transferring it into the Kitchenaid and whisking in the eggs and vanilla.

Once my eggs and vanilla were added I started to spoon the batter into a pastry bag. I did not have the correct size tip, so I ended up not using a tip at all and just cutting the end of the pastry bag a little bit bigger.

I piped out 8 of these little babies onto my greased and lightly water down cookie sheet! No, they are not perfect but I sure was excited to get them in the oven to see how they would come out! They were in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. I watched them very closely so they would not burn or fall in.

Just look at them!!!! They are not the most perfect looking pastry in the world, but the fact that they even came out at all amazed me! I immediately cut slits into the sides of each of them to let the steam out and get some air into the insides. I set them on a wire rack to cool.

In the mean time I started on my custard, another nerve racking task. I started by whisking together the eggs and the sugar until it formed a nice thick base. I then added my cornstarch and whisked it together. While my egg mixture was being mixed I brought the milk to a slow boil. Once it was just about to boil I added it to my egg mixture mixing together over low heat. I stirred it constantly until it was starting to thicken.

After the custard was nice and think I took it off the heat and placed a piece of parchment paper over the top of the pan and allowed it to cool completely.
While the custard and pastries were cooling I started on my chocolate frosting.

The frosting was very easy, over medium heat I mixed the confectioners sugar, cocoa powder and butter until it was nice and creamy and delicious.

Once everything had cooled I cut each pastry in half and started to pipe in the custard. I did this with a pastry bag as well that way it went in nice and neat. I placed the tops on them and frosted only a little bit with chocolate. I did not want the chocolate to be overpowering.

I have to say they were absolutely fabulous! They were literally gone within 24 hours of coming out of the oven! The pastry was buttery, crisp and perfectly flaky. The custard was so sweet, light and fluffy. They were deeeelish! The next time I make them I hope to get the construction of the pastries down to be a little fancier and Eclair looking, but for my first time this will do!

Eclairs

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, divided into 4 and 2 tablespoons
• 2/3 cups water
• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided into 1 and 1/2 teaspooons
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup milk, plus 2 tablespoons
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Instructions

1. Begin to make the pastry by melting 4 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Add water and bring to a boil.
3. Remove from heat and the add flour, whisking furiously until the dough leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball.
4. Cool slightly, then whisk in two of the eggs and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.
5. Place the dough in a pastry bag or plastic baggie with the corner cut to form a hole.
6. Pipe the dough onto a greased cookie sheet misted with water.
7. Bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown in color, approximately 30 minutes.
8. While the pastry bakes, make the pastry cream. Whisk together the remaining two eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch in a medium bowl and set aside.
9. Place one cup of the milk in a saucepan over low to medium heat and bring to a simmer.
10. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture in bowl and whisk until combined.
11. Return the combined mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick.
12. When the pastry cream thickens, remove from heat, cover and allow to cool.
13. To make the icing, beat the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, confectioners’ sugar, and cocoa powder together on medium speed.
14. Increase speed to high and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk until combined.
15. Remove the pastry from the oven, and cut a small slit in the slide of the pastries to allow the steam to escape.
16. To assemble, cut the pastries lengthwise like a hotdog bun.
17. Spoon the cream along the length of the pastries and lightly press to close the cut sides together.
18. Spread the chocolate icing along the tops of the pastries.

(Recipe adapted from The Big Book of Baking)