Meeta and Tony – the hosts of this month Daring Baker Challenge – have chosen a recipe from famous Pierre Hermé – Chocolate Éclairs.
Unfortunately I can’t stand éclairs nor any other pastries made with cream puff dough. The last time I tasted éclairs is about 20 years ago. Hence I decided to make a small batch, could be I changed my taste in the meantime.
I prepared only 1/4 of the cream puff dough recipe without any problem.
Once in the oven the eclairs rise fantastic. As I made them mini I thought 15 minutes baking time should be ok. After 15 minutes they were still pale, so I baked them another 5 minutes. They were still quite pale, but I thought if the big ones need 20 minutes they are okay now. Big mistake they weren’t! When I opened the oven door they just sunk down. Underbaked and flat éclairs was the result. Two of them were okay, so I used them to fill, the other ones ended on the compost. :-(
It’s still quite hot here in Andalusia, so the chocolate filling wasn’t the right thing. I filled the eclair with vanilla ice cream topped it with the chocolate sauce and served it on a fruit salad.
The chocolate sauce is heavenly good with ice cream, so I have always a little stock of it in the fridge. ;-) I’m sure the chocolate pastry cream tastes great, too. I will make it when the weather turns a bit cooler. Eclairs however I will never make again. ;-)
Don’t forget to visit the blogs of my fellow Daring Bakers.
November 2007 Challenge – Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge – Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge – Lemon Meringue Pie
February 2008 Challenge – French Bread
March 2008 Challenge – Perfect Party Cake
April 2008 Challenge – Cheesecake Pops
May 2008 Challenge – Opéra Cake
June 2008 Challenge – Danish Braid
July 2008 Challenge – Filbert Gateau
More entries and recipes in English.
Very well done! Your Eclairs look beautiful and really scrumptious!
Cheers,
Rosa
Sieht wirklich lecker aus! :-)
Auf der Spielwiese wird Gebäck aus Brandteig übrigens geliebt. Ist halt Geschmacksache.
Your eclair picture looks heavenly.:)
I don’t like very sweet or creamy fillings or food, but icecream as a filling is brilliant. Really great idea for a summer day.
But in true daring baker spirit, even though you knew you hated cream puff dough you did it anyways! The chocolate filling was the best part of this recipe anyways. Well done!
A very beautiful chocolate eclair!
Wonderful!! To not like choux and to go for it regardless, to have failure and save what you could….to take a bit of flour, some water and butter and turn it into That spectacular…Now that’s a daring Baker!!!!!!! Kudos!!!!
P.S. What’s for dessert tonight, as I am on my way!!!!
Mine collapsed too the first time…it worked the following time…
Served it on fruit salad…neat!!!
I would also prefer eclairs with ice cream rather than chcolate, your look great:-)
X M
Da wurde aber mehr als 1x umgerührt, bitte, wie ich sehe.
the fruit salad on the bottom looks so refreshing :) I bet the vanilla ice cream must have been delicious sandwiched between the choux dough!
Thanks for baking with us!
Looks great! I really like how the puff looks on the fruit.
Eclairs may not be to your taste, but you managed to create a very cute and pretty one! Hopefully the next challenge will be more to your tastes :)
I think I would have liked ice cream rather than pastry cream too, great idea. Your minis are very cute.
Wow! You’re such a good sort for making these, even though you don’t like them. And they came out lovely!
Wonderful looking eclairs Zorra – icecream and chocolate sauce sounds delightful for summer. Do try the chocolate pastry cream when it is cooler – it is devine!!
lovely~
great photos
I love your Picture!! Your eclairs look fantastic!
Great job! The pictures look wonderful and the eclairs look delicious!
What a good DB-er you are to make something you know you dislike!
What a great idea for adding vanilla ice cream as a filling, especially when you have such hot weather. Your eclair looks yummy and the pictures are beautiful =D
Zorra, I’ll have a few of those ice cream filled eclairs, thanks! :)
mmmmhhhhhhhhhh !!!! gorgeous little things ;)
What a lovely way to serve!
My, my what beautiful eclairs. I love the way you serve the eclair on a bed of fruits… way to make it „healthy“ :P
They look wonderful, what a great challenge this was :)