Care for an Eclair?

Howdy readers,

It's been a hot minute since I've written anything and it's not for lack of baking. I've just been super lazy which I'm sure you can relate to. So a couple of weeks ago was my best friend's dad's birthday and I asked her what he liked and turns out he's a big pastry guy! This was very exciting for me because I rarely get a chance to work on my pastry skills and I decided I was gonna make him eclairs. I feel a lot of people are intimidated by eclairs but they're honestly not hard they just take forever because there are so many steps. I'll also be posting two other things in quick succession so if eclairs aren't your thing, worry not, we'll find something for you to bake. But if you do decide to make these, I promise everyone at the zoom party you're going to will be very jealous they can't have one.

Love from my flour covered self,

TMADJJ

P.S. get a whole shit tonne of eggs

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Creme Patissiere

Ingredients:

7 egg yolks

75 g caster sugar

25 g plain flour (optional)

4 tsp cornstarch

500 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Recipe:

Okay so if you know how to make creme pat, you're basically doing that. Here are the steps if you're new to this and don't know what on earth I mean by that. You're going to have two bowls out for this, but the second you won't need until later. Start with whisking the yolks and granulated sugar together until they become lighter in colour and then add your flour and cornstarch. Technically you don't need the flour, but it does help the custard stiffen and stay stiff so I would use it. If you don't want to use the flour, just add it a smidge more cornstarch and you're golden ponyboy. READ THIS NEXT PART IN ITS ENTIRETY BEFORE CONTINUING BECAUSE YOU GOTTA GO FAST In a small saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla to just boiling and pour the hot mixture into the eggy bowl whisk while you pour, bring it all together and pour it back into the pot. Replace it on the burner and whisk continuously until it thickens and almost makes a labec (basically it holds its shape on a ladle). Take it off the heat and transfer it to a clean bowl fairly quickly because you don't want the eggs to scramble in the heat. Place clingfilm over the top and have it touching the custard so it doesn't form a skin. Leave it to cool at room temperature and then stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours to set completely.

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Eclairs

Ingredients:

100 g butter

125 g plain flour

4 eggs

1 pinch of salt

Recipe:

Start by preheating the oven to 390 Farenheit. In a sauce pan, bring the butter with 250 mL of water and a pinch of salt to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and incorporate your flour. Return to the heat and cook out the flour until the dough in the pot is cohesive and pulls easily away from the sides of the pot. It should all be kinda travellling together. Add in the eggs one by one mixing well between each one, it should look like glossy play doh. Transfer this all to a pastry bag without a tip and pipe it onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Make the lines roughly 5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Bake for 15 ish minutes until golden brown and allow them to cool completely (an hour ish) before piping in the custard mixture. Melt some semisweet chocolate chips and dip the tops of the eclairs into it and serve :) keep them refrigerated after making them though.