Sunday, August 31, 2008

DB's Dare to d-eclair


that Pierre Hermé is their Sugardaddy by making his recipe for double chocolate éclairs their own. Meeta hosted this month's challenge, Toni acted as her side-kick and together they had us all set to make pate a choux, a -chocolate- pastry cream and a -chocolate- glaze.

I knew right from the start that this was a recipe that would score points in my family of chocolate lovers, helped by the fact that this is a familiar treat in Holland/Europe. Familiar in bakeries all over Holland by the name of "Soesjes" (tiny bite-sized cream puffs), their bigger brothers called "Moorkoppen".


and of course the city I live in is famous for their "Sjoklade bóllen"; really really big cream puffs, filled with whipped cream and topped with a very dark thick layer of shiny chocolate glaze.

The latter a meal in itself as Sue and Tanna discovered one Sunday summer morning last year.

So...

Was I scared? No.
Did I take necessary precautions? No.
Took time out of a busy schedule to prepare for this challenge? No.
Did I focus? Ummm, No not exactly.

I made choux pastry, and thought the dough didn't look like what I was used to. Less shiny, less elastic, but the consistency seemed allright so ahead with it. Baked according to the directions and yes they all puffed. A bit wrinkled on top, maybe they could have done with some more heat, or a longer oventime I don't know. I found them to be somewhat softer and moister than I was used to. Still, the inside was nice and dry, and showed an intricate web of holes and pastry.
Next was the pastry cream. We were allowed flavour variations, but had to keep at least one chocolate element; either the pastry cream or the glaze. I decided to go for a chocolate pastry cream. I aimed for a "Banana éclair", filling of chocolate pastry cream and fresh banana, topped with a vanilla glaze and some more banana slices....

While cooking dinner for five.
While having an after-school-talk to one kid in the kitchen.
While directing the others to set the table.
While welcoming the husband into the house.
While loading the washer.
Stirring pastry cream...

which needs some attention. I didn't cook the pastry cream long enough, I should have given it somewhat more time to get a firmer custard that I could pipe. I had to spoon it in, quickly added the banana, closed the eclair (quick, before the chocolate escaped!), piped some whipped cream on top and decorated with some more banana slices. We each had one after dinner, together with a small bowl of chocolate pastry cream pudding. My men didn't mind at all! Had to be quick to snap some blurry pictures. We had the rest of the pastry cream (which actually firmed up relatively nice during the stay in the fridge) as a dessert the next day.

Verdict: Think I won't use the cream puff recipe again, the pastry cream on the other hand was very very good! Nice challenge!

27 comments:

  1. Like the banana addition. Yummy!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my yes your city make these plenty good there my friend!
    Runny pastry cream . . . looks just about perfect to me. None left, right? Ha, then it was plenty good.
    Remember when you once asked for a banana recipe? Shouldn't this be filed under healthy fruit desserts? I mean - chocolate and banana!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. HA-HA, Karen I "de-clair" great BBB minds think alike (or we both have the same twisted sick sense of humour perhaps?!)

    Apparently you didn't disappoint if there was no pastry cream left over, non?

    And to have multi-tasked as well...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I absolutely love the bananas! I never would have thought to add the bananas inside or on top. What a great way to get my children to eat fruit - hide it in an eclair!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, those big puffs look wonderful. Kudos to you for finishing despite the "while" list.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like the banana addition- sounds really good. My choc pastry cream was almost too firm- I'd have rather had the pudding. :)
    xxoo

    ReplyDelete
  7. You did a great job at this! One of my favorite things, is bannanas, and chocolate! Mmmmm, I will try that for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Absolutely yummy...everyones having a great time eating them! Love the choice of filling!! Lovely!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. the banana is brilliant..they look great to me...
    and isn;t ALL cooking done while doing all those other things?

    ReplyDelete
  10. that last picture looks great, with the cream dripping out of the side. nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  11. ah, moorkoppen, that brings back memories. My mother always baked them on our birthdays, we loved it. Not covered with real chocolate, but chocolate paste out of a jar and always topped with a piece of pineapple. I still love them (but only with real chocolate on the outside please ;))

    ReplyDelete
  12. yes - european it was! i too found the choux not all that hot and had my trouble with it. but i am not giving up. i really want to make this again. the pastry cream well it's a regular in my kitchen and i was glad so many liked it. thanks for giving these a do and i love the addition of banana here!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks everyone! I'm a bit overwhelmed with schedules these days (hence whiny brrrr) but so glad I'm back on track with DB's!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Should've added some bananas when I made this. Pretty cool idea. I do agree that the pastry cream recipe is definitely a keeper.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Absolutely delicious looking. Loved the touch of banana.:)

    ReplyDelete
  16. It was a very European dessert(thanks Pierre!) I think your eclairs look awesome. love the banana!

    ReplyDelete
  17. They definitely needed more time in the oven than the recipe stated!

    It scored big points with the chocolate lovers in my house too.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow! It's like you and Tanna share part of the same brain! They turned out wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mmmmm...looks good! I'm wishing that I had used this pastry cream.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I like the bananas! These really were delicious, though I agree with you, I think I'll try a different choux recipe next time. Great job on the challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Chocolate and banana is a nice pairing!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well I think your puffs look great. But I must admit that I thought about looking at my Betty Crocker cookbook to check on it's recipe for choux paste. I really like the banana idea.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Maar waren de éclairs een 'match' voor de Bossche Bollen?

    ReplyDelete
  24. You're definitely a better multitasker than I am. Chocolate and bananas, hard to go wrong with that!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yummy bananas! At least you didn't burn your pasry cream like my friends and I did! haha :) Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Those sure are some lucky men you live with!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! I really appreciate and enjoy reading all your comments! If you have any questions feel free to email me.