I came across choux paste and pastry cream and I thought that I could try making éclairs and cream puff. The science itself is so interesting that the liquid in it evaporate into steam causing a hollow center.
The recipe was halved as I didn’t want to eat so many éclairs or cream puffs and if it fails it wouldn’t be a waste.
I used John’s Recipe (Preppy Kitchen).
Pastry Cream
Make the pastry cream first as it needs to cool down. I left a cling film onto it after a few minutes at room temperature and left it in the freezer for an hour.
Choux Paste
I think I added too many eggs for the choux paste… Should have just stopped at 1 and a half instead of 1 and 3/4.
I piped some of it quite thick so it expanded a lot.
Surpringly after 16 minutes in the oven at 200C and it was browned and ready. I took it out and immediately used a chopstick to make holes at the bottom so that it will not deflate.
There wasn’t enough pastry cream so I only managed to pipe 4 cream puffs and 3 eclairs. Left the other three with ‘empty shell’.
Ganache
I shaved the cooking chocolate thinly using a knife. Then, heat heavy cream in microwave until hot. Put cooking chocolate into heavy cream and stir until it melts.
Dip eclairs and cream puff into the ganache.
How was it?
Fun experience. I liked seeing the choux paste expanding in the oven.
The pastry cream was too sweet for me but piglet liked it. So I ate the eclairs without the pastry cream.
