Confectionery art requires patience, attention and skills that come with experience. But this does not mean that the novice chef can not please the guests and household with delicious cakes. Some types of desserts are considered classic, and mastering the skills of pastry mastery should start with them. These delicacies include eclairs, also known as profiteroles, shu buns and choux pastries. The difference is mainly in the form of filling and the type of filling. Both shu and profiteroles are all varieties of choux pastry, which in France are called eclairs. They are usually baked in the form of oblong tubes or round buns, which in the process of cooking rise and become hollow inside. Using a confectionery syringe or other method, they are filled with sweet cream, less often with a savory filling, which has the consistency of pate. At the next stage of cooking, the cakes are coated with icing and after it is set, they are served at the table. It is difficult to find a person who does not know the taste of choux pastry: they are sold in almost all pastry shops and in most grocery stores. But the most delicious and appetizing are eclairs made at home.
Cooking Features
Eclairs are classic cakes that any pastry chef can cook. However, novice housewives are afraid to make custard cakes at home, believing that this culinary experiment was initially doomed to failure. If you know the details of the technological process and do not deviate from the recommendations accompanying the selected recipe, you will be able to make tasty and beautiful eclairs from the first time, even if the experience of cooking such dishes is extremely small.
- Choux dough is prepared in a water bath. If you warm it up on the stove, even at a slow fire, the result may not meet the expectations: the eggs will roll up, the products will be spoiled.
- It is recommended to cool all ingredients necessary for making custard dough before use. This is primarily about eggs and water.
- For making choux pastry, butter is required. It is impossible to replace it with margarine or spread: it will negatively affect the taste of finished products.
- During cooking, choux dough is constantly whipped. You can do this with a whisk, but using a mixer is considered the best option.
- When preparing the choux pastry, enter all the products gradually, in parts and always in the exact order specified in the recipe.
- Sweet eclairs make cream, sugar is not added to the dough or put in a minimum amount (5-10 g per 0, 5 kg of dough). Additionally, salt is almost always added to the dough - literally a pinch.
- Choux pastry should be moderately thick. From too dense it will be difficult to form the buns of the desired shape. Batter will not rise during baking.
- Spread the dough on a pan, covered with parchment, using a culinary bag or pastry syringe with strips about 6-10 cm long. Between them it is necessary to leave a significant distance, as during baking the buns greatly increase in volume.
- Baking temperature matters. First, the cakes are put in a strongly heated oven (up to 200-220 degrees), then the temperature is immediately reduced to 140-160 degrees. Baking time is 15-20 minutes. Watching cakes at this time is possible only through the oven door, without opening it.
- Eclairs can be baked in a slow cooker. To do this, use the program "Baking", the timer is set to 30 minutes. The maximum number of eclairs that can be cooked in a slow cooker at the same time is 2 pieces, which is why the housewives rarely resort to using this technique when preparing custard cakes.
By changing the cream and icing, you can make eclairs with completely different tastes. Moreover, the dough for these cakes is made on the same recipe using the same scheme.
Classic eclairs with custard
Composition:
- chicken egg - 6 pcs .;
- butter - 140 g;
- water - 0, 27 l;
- granulated sugar - 0, 2 kg;
- icing sugar - 60 g;
- lemon juice - 20 ml;
- wheat flour - 0, 3 kg;
- salt - a pinch;
- vanillin - a pinch;
- milk - 0, 5 l.
Method of preparation:
- Wash two eggs with soap, break, dividing into yolks and proteins. Protein temporarily clean in the fridge.
- 150-180 ml of milk, combine with yolks, add sugar to them, grind to obtain a homogeneous composition. Add a glass (150 g) of flour and vanilla, stir until smooth.
- Heat the remaining milk to a boil, but do not boil it.
- Pour the hot milk into the prepared mixture while simultaneously beating it with a mixer.
- Put the mixture on a slow fire and, while stirring, bring to a boil.
- Remove the cream pan from the heat, add a piece of butter weighing 40 grams, stir and leave to cool.
- In the water bath (at the very least - at minimum heat), melt the remaining butter.
- Add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt, pour in 250 ml of water. Stir slightly while stirring. The mass should be homogeneous.
- In small portions (half a spoon) enter the flour, each time stirring the mixture until homogeneous. It is important to prevent the formation of lumps.
- Beating the dough with a mixer or a whisk, one by one, enter the remaining eggs.
- Knead the dough so that it becomes completely smooth, remove from heat.
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees, cover the baking sheet with parchment.
- Place the dough in a pastry bag and squeeze it onto the parchment with strips of 6-7 cm in length. It is recommended to use a star-shaped nozzle. Do not forget to leave the distance between the strips of dough, as during baking cakes will greatly increase in size.
- Place a baking tray with future eclairs in the oven, turning the temperature down to 150 degrees.
- Bake cakes for 15-20 minutes. Remove them from the oven, cool a little. The cream should cool off by this time too.
- Put the cream in the culinary bag and fill it with eclairs.
- Beat whites, add icing sugar. Beat another 5 minutes, add lemon juice.
- Cover the cakes with a protein-sugar mass, put them in the fridge.
It remains to wait for the cakes to cool. This recipe for choux pastry is considered a classic in our country; in France, eclairs are made with a slightly different cream.
French eclairs with Charlotte cream
Composition:
- choux pastry - 0, 5-0, 75 kg;
- butter - 0, 35 kg;
- sugar - 0, 25 kg;
- vanilla sugar - 10 g;
- milk - 0, 2 l;
- chicken egg - 1 pc .;
- cognac - 20 ml;
- bitter or milk chocolate - 100 g.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare the choux pastry, focusing on the proportions and instructions given in the previous recipe.
- On the parchment markup, place the paper on the baking tray with the markup down.
- Place the dough in a bag, cut off the corner from it (the length of the slice should be 1, 5-2 cm). Put the dough on a baking sheet. It should fit 10 eclairs, while spending half the test.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven preheated to 200 degrees, reduce the temperature to 160-180 degrees, bake cakes for 15-20 minutes. Remove the eclairs from the parchment, put the remaining dough into strips, return the pan to the oven, bake the eclairs for 25-30 minutes (as the temperature in the oven has become lower than when baking the first batch of cakes).
- Pound the egg with vanilla sugar and sugar, add milk, whisk.
- Heat over a low heat or water bath, stirring until the cream begins to completely envelop the scapula. Leave to cool to room temperature. At the same time, remove the oil from the refrigerator so that it softens.
- Whisk butter in the amount of 300 g with a mixer, pour in brandy. Stir with a mixer.
- Connect the oil with the previously prepared mass, whisk until a homogeneous cream.
- Combine the remaining butter with chopped chocolate. Melt it, stirring, in a water bath.
- Start the cakes with cooked cream, pour chocolate icing, put in the fridge for a while.
This recipe of eclairs can also be called a classic, with “Charlotte” cream they were made and made as often as with custard.
Eclairs with butter cream
Composition:
- choux pastry - 0.5 kg;
- cream with fat content of 33% - 0, 2 l;
- icing sugar - 50-80 g;
- fruit puree (optional) - 40-80 g.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare 20-30 small round or oblong eclairs from choux pastry.
- Whip cream, add powdered sugar in portions, continuing to whip cream.
- If desired, in small spoons, while continuing to whip the cream, enter the fruit puree.
- Start the eclairs with cooked cream, put in the fridge for a while.
Custard cakes with a creamy filling are made lighter than with traditional custard or butter cream, but they cannot be called dietary ones either.
Eclairs with curd cream
Composition:
- choux pastry for eclairs - 0.5 kg;
- cottage cheese - 0, 4 kg;
- sour cream - 0, 2 l;
- sugar - 0, 2 kg;
- vanilla sugar - 5-10 g.
Method of preparation:
- Bake eclairs from the dough, preferably round.
- Mix cottage cheese with sour cream, beat with a mixer.
- Add both types of sugar, whisk.
- Cut the eclairs, using a small spoon or culinary bag, fill them with curd cream.
Serve cakes chilled. This dessert is not only tasty, but also useful.
Eclairs are familiar to each of us since childhood, in Soviet times they were called custard cakes, as they are made from custard dough, filled with custard or butter cream. Today eclairs sell with other types of fillers. All variants of this cake can be prepared at home.
See also the recipe from the photo of eclairs with condensed milk.
