Eclairs have been very daunting to make, but these turned out perfect; the shells are as crispy as can be, the cream super silky, both with great flavour and the crunchy caramelised nuts in the middle makes them that little bit extra, with great contrast of textures.
Eclairs can easily be soggy, but this is why in the recipe, the baking has a little bit more steps, but it will get you that crisp and golden eclair you want. These eclairs puffed up really nicely in the oven and didn't deflate once out.
The best way to make these is to make the creams one day in advance, leave them to set in the fridge overnight and then the next day make the shells, decorate the tops, fill them and then assemble. You will need several piping bags for this recipe, but it's quite essential to get a beautiful eclair.
Eclairs look really hard, but if you bake them perfectly and follow this recipe, you will be completely fine, it's just a little time consuming but so fun to make.
Ingredients
Craquelin:
35 g soft butter
40 g demerara sugar
45 g plain flour
Pâte à choux:
160 ml water
80 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
110 g butter
120 g plain flour
3-4 eggs, I used 3 1/2
Crème patissière:
3 egg yolks
10 g caster sugar
10 g flour
15 g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
300 ml milk
2 sheets of gelatin, soaked
60 g butter, cubed
Chocolate cream:
75 g dark chocolate, melted
35 g caster sugar
1/2 of the creme patissiere
125 g of mascarpone, whisked
Vanilla cream:
50 g white chocolate
1 large teaspoon of vanilla extract or bean paste
1/2 of the creme patissiere
125 g of mascarpone, whisked
Caramelised nuts:
20 ml water
60 g caster sugar
30 g hazelnuts
30 g blanched almonds
To assemble:
25 g of melted dark chocolate
icing sugar
Recipe
For the creams:
Place your sugar in a bowl with your egg yolks and whisk for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is pale and forms a ribbon.
Then sift in your flour and cornflour and whisk until combined.
Place your milk and vanilla seeds (if you are making a vanilla flavoured-pastry cream) or instant coffee granules (if you are making a coffee-flavoured pastry cream) into your prepared saucepan and place on the hob on low heat.
Once the milk is at a simmer and is nearly boiling, pour half of it into the egg yolk mixture and whisk thoroughly until combined.
Pour your mixture back into the saucepan where the other half of milk is and place back onto the hob. Whisk very quickly without stopping until the mixture thickens, this usually takes 30 seconds, but could take longer, depending on the heat of the saucepan.
Once the mixture is thick, keep stirring for a further 2 minutes on the heat and then take off the heat. Add in your butter and soaked gelatin and whisk until combined and the butter is melted.
Divide the mixture into 2 bowls. In the first, mix in the melted white chocolate, vanilla and whisked mascarpone and then cover with cling film and place in the fridge to set.
In the other, mix in the melted dark chocolate, caster sugar and whisked mascarpone and cover with cling film and leave to set in the fridge.
For the pâte à choux:
Preheat your oven to 250°C and place in your nuts on a baking tray for 10-15 minutes whilst it's heating up until they're golden in colour.
Place the water + milk + butter + sugar + salt in a saucepan on low heat and leave until the butter is melted.
With a spatula or wooden spoon, add in the flour and mix thoroughly until a dough forms, work the dough in the saucepan for around 2 minutes, to cook gently the flour (this step is really important to get well-risen choux). You want to cook it until the dough starts sticking to the bottom of the saucepan in a really thin layer (in french, this is called a "pellicule").
Take off the heat and at this point, I like to place the mixture into my stand-mixer fitted with the spatula attachment or the paddle but you can, of course, do this by hand. Anyway, add-in, little by little your eggs, mixing really well in between each one to get a shiny smooth and silky mixture. It should fall quite quickly but hold it's shaped, it shouldn't be too thick and doughy and dense.
Place into a piping bag fitted with the star nozzle of your choice and pipe onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment in thick strips of about 10 cm.
Reduce the temperature of the oven to 180°C. Bake for 25 minutes, then open the oven door for 5 seconds to let the steam out and then bake for 25 minutes at 150°C and then turn off completely the oven but leave the eclairs in for a further 15 minutes, to make sure they don't go soggy and are extra crispy! Make sure to not open the oven while they are cooking or else they shall deflate and be flat. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Caramelised nuts:
Place the water and sugar in a saucepan on low heat and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and has gone a light amber color. If your sugar crystalises, just keep on a low heat and it will go back to normal.
Add in the roasted nuts and mix until coated, then pour the mixture onto a piece of grease-proof parchment to cool.
Once cooled, cut into small bits.
To Assemble:
Slice with a bread knife the tops of the eclairs off and place on a separate tray, in the same order as the bottoms, to not get confused when assembling.
Dust the tops with icing sugar. Melt the dark chocolate and then place in a piping bag, cut off the end to make a tiny hole for the chocolate to come out of. Drizzle one end of the tops with the chocolate and garnish with a few bits of the caramelised nuts, or only roasted nuts.
To stick some bits of caramelised nuts on, just stick them onto the top with a little melted dark chocolate.
Place your vanilla and dark chocolate creams in ing separate piping bags fitted with the nozzle of your choice and pipe little mounds of cream in the bottoms of the eclairs, alternating the cream.
Place on top of the cream some bits of caramelized nuts and then place on top the decorated tops of the eclairs.
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