Tuesday, April 20

"E-Claires" and Cream Puffs!

I'm not to sure where, when, or why, but not to long ago P and I stumbled across an eclair to which my husband of course said, "why don't you make one of those?" Well, I'm not one to take on a challenge (actually I really am) or anything so I put it out of my mind ...never to return. No, actually, I had put eclairs in my dessert "must do" list and it purposely creeped up to the top just so I could accomplish it... Eclairs and Cream Puffs are very similar, not too hard, and sort of a light dessert! I think they are probably prettier than they actually taste, there's not much sugar, and its probably 80% air!! The only problem I ran across is, I usually make a weeks worth of dessert for P in the evenings. You have to fill these puppies right before you eat them...now a pastry bag of whipping cream is sitting in my fridge for fill time!

Eclairs or Cream Puffs (really depends on how much and which direction your pastry bag takes you)

For the Choux (Puff):
1/2 cup butter
1 cup boiling water
1 cup pre-sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 unbeaten eggs

For the filling:
1 cup whipping cream

1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp vanilla

For the topping:
1 cup chopped chocolate

1 tbsp corn syrup
1/3 cup whipping cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Combine butter and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Add flour and salt all at once and stir with spoon vigorously (vigorously!) until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. At that point, remove from heat and cool slightly.
3. Add eggs one at a time and stir until smooth after adding each egg.
4. Pipe mixture onto a greased baking sheet, or parchment paper, each one spaced at least 2″ apart . Bake 30-40 mins or until light and dry. Allow to cool completely.
5. Cut the cream puffs in half horizontally, and remove any excess soft dough left in the middle. It should be hollow so that the filling can be added. It is best to stuff and top the cream puffs right before serving.
6. For the filling, beat together whipping cream, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla on high until stiff peaks. Fill the cream puffs and close like a sandwich. Other variations would be to stuff with other flavours like chocolate.
7. For the chocolate ganache, melt together chocolate, corn syrup and whipping cream over medium-low heat. Top over stuffed cream puffs.

Makes 20ish large cream puffs, but may need to double or triple the filling to fill them all at once.

I'd like to dedicate this post to Claire Swanson...I hope one day she makes "E-Claires" for her momma!

4 comments:

  1. Yummy. It looks like too much work. I'll just keep buying them or have someone else make them for me. LOL.

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  2. Totally impressed that you made your own eclairs-more impressed that you now have a pastry bag of whipping cream for P in the evening. Awesome!

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  3. These are low calorie, right? They look just delicious :)

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  4. Wow! These look awesome! I'm totally impressed!

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