Biscuit style of Vanilla Eclairs | Pastry treat

Back to our boat with less comfortable but we love this adventure life style.

I have more information of my baking from Grande Prairie. I made this pastry ‘Laduree Vanilla Éclairs’ with inspiration by Kitchen Wench / Laduree Vanilla Éclairs /The original recipe from Laduree Sucre. This is an attractive biscuit Éclair, I have made a few times and it always catches the eyes on the table. When using light pastry cream it is another charm of this recipe…less fat and not too sweet. The presentation today I changed to use Choux Pastry recipe from Chef Gordon Ramsay because it has more of a guarantee to rise properly and become fully puffed up. (Also a thin biscuit will add more weight on top of Choux pastry).

I special carefully to make thin biscuit to cover the size of each oblong choux pastry. After put in the oven I like to keep watching these Éclairs rising and adjust the temperature if needed until they fully puffed.

P.S. : Use piping bag (or tube) to pipe lightened pastry cream before serve. Dust icing sugar to make the eclairs more prettier just like a light snow fall. (I miss it out for photo)

Room temperature does effect while rolling biscuit. Make sure the room is not too warm or hot.

We hope you like as we do and have a lovely springs!

Biscuit Style ~ Vanilla Éclairs

Recipe courtesy ~ Laduree Sucre, Paris ~

Biscuit Topping

100 grams Unsalted butter, very cold

125 grams Cake flour

125 grams fine granulated sugar (caster sugar)

1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract

Lightened pastry cream {Lightened Crème Pâtissière}

1 Vanilla bean (Last minute, I couldn’t find a vanilla bean in a pantry so I replace it with 1 Tbsp of Pure Vanilla extract )

400 ml Whole Milk (This presentation use 2% milk)

4 egg yolks

80 grams sugar (This presentation use fine granulated sugar)

30 grams Cornstarch

25 grams Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

125 grams Fresh cream (is the same of heavy cream or double cream)

Choux Pastry

Recipe courtesy ~ Chef Gordon Ramsay ~ Related video ~ Profiteroles

125 ml milk
200 ml water
150 g plain flour (I use 100 grams all purpose flour and 50 grams of cake flour)
1 tsp golden caster sugar (This presentation use fine granulated sugar)
½ tsp salt
100 g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

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Prepare Biscuit topping

1. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces, then mix together with the flour, sugar and vanilla till well combined. 2. Bring the mixture together into a ball by hand and chill in refrigerate for an hour. 3. After one hour, take the biscuit topping out of the fridge and lightly knead to soften, then place between two sheets of non-stick baking paper or plastic wrap and roll flat to about 1-2mm thick. Cut into rectangles about 4cm x 12cm, to make sure that it completely covers the eclairs and hangs off the sides.prepare for Choux Pastry

(Keep biscuits that already cuts in a refrigerator until ready to use)

**While biscuit is chilling we can make Choux Pastry***

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Making Choux Pastry | baking

1. Preheat the oven to 392 Farenheit (200 celcius). Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Place the milk, cold water, salt, sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once the butter has melted, bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop beating and tip onto a plate to cool. 2. Return the mixture to the pan, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. (Alternatively, transfer the mix to an electric mixer and gradually add the eggs while the mixer is running on a low setting). Until the dough is smooth and glossy. 3. Fill a large piping bag with a 1″ / 2.5cm round tip and pipe out long ‘sausages’ about 10cm long onto a tray lined with baking paper. Make sure to leave about 10cm between each pastry to leave room for them to spread. 4. Bring biscuit topping out from a refrigerator. 5. Place each rectangle of ‘biscuit’ topping on top of each eclair, then bake for 10 minutes, then lower a temperature to 350 Farenheit and allow to bake for until they are golden on top and fully puffed up. Set aside to cool before filling.

(Below slides show : making Choux pastry)

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Making The Lightened crèam Pâtissière {Lightened pastry cream}

1. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, then add the corn starch and whisk till mixture becomes pale yellow and thickened. 2. Set aside and scrape the vanilla into the milk and bring to a simmer. 3. Slowly pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while constantly beating. 4. Pour back into the saucepan and bring to a boil while whisking, making sure to scrape down the sides. 5. Leave the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes so that it’s no longer boiling, then briskly whisk in the butter till the mixture is smooth and glossy. 6. Scrape the mixture into a non-reactive bowl and keep tightly covered with plastic wrap till ready to use. Once you’re ready to fill the eclairs, beat the cream to firm peaks then carefully mix together the cream and the pastry cream with a spatula. 7. Fill a piping bag with the mixture then pipe each eclair with the pastry cream in three places and dust with icing sugar before serving! You can actually store the unfilled pastries for up to a week in an airtight container, but after filling them up it’s best to store them in the fridge for no more than 2-3 days at most otherwise the filling will seep into the pastry and begin to make it soggy.