Caramel-vanilla eclairs
Choux pastry, all sorts of eclairs and choux – my weakness. If there's an eclair and something else on the menu, I always prefer the eclair. And if I come across a new and interesting eclair recipe, I will definitely make it. I made these eclairs according to Christophe Adam's recipe from the gastronomic house Fauchon (the recipe is on Nina Tarasova's blog). They are absolutely beautiful and delicious – the light caramel cream is perfectly complemented by the sweet flavor of the fondant, and a thin layer of custard dough completes the composition.
I'll tell you right away that you'll need to either make your own fondant (you can see the process on Irina Chadeeva's blog) or buy ready-made professional fondant, which is what all pastry shops use (it's also called fondant). I used the second option to optimize my time.
Yes, one more important note: I used exactly half of the filling, so you can double the amount of dough for the amount of filling. Especially since the eclairs are so delicious that 8 pieces – that's nothing!
And I'm not sure how much filling is needed.
Composition (for 8 pieces):
choux pastry:
- flour - 45g .
- fleur de sel - 1 pinch (or regular salt)
- sugar - 2 pinches
- cream butter - 35g
- eggs - 95 gr. (about 2 pcs.)
- water - 80 gr.
- milk powder - 7g .
caramel-vanilla cremeux:
- fine sugar - 50 gr.
- cream 22-33% - 230 gr.
- milk - 150 gr.
- egg yolks 80 gr. (about 4 pcs.)
- seeds of 1 vanilla pod
- gelatin in sheets - 4 gr .
caramel-vanilla fudge:
- fondant (fondant) - 500 gr.
- light caramel - 5g (sugar caramel with cream) .
- 1 vanilla pod
Cooking caramel-vanilla eclairs:
Caramel-vanilla creme:
Soak the gelatin in cold water and let it swell.
Pour the milk, vanilla seeds and cream into a small saucepan. Heat almost to a boil and set aside, keeping it hot.
Allow to cool.
At the same time, separately in a thick-bottomed saucepan, put the sugar and melt it until it caramelizes.
At the same time, put the sugar in a small saucepan.
The duration of caramelization will determine the flavor of the filling. The French like to bring it to a dark caramel color, on the verge of burning, then the flavor is brighter, but also the filling can be slightly bitter. I prefer the golden mean – when the caramel turns a beautiful amber color.
Take the hot caramel off the heat, pour in the vanilla cream and milk in a thin stream and stir with a whisk. If the cream was hot enough, the caramel should not harden. Set aside 1 tbsp of this caramel for the fudge. Into the remaining caramel, stirring constantly with a whisk, thinly stream in the yolks and mix well. Cool the mixture to 85 degrees.
Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. Beat the mixture with a blender, being careful not to introduce air bubbles.
Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Pour the cream into a large container so that the mixture is evenly distributed, cover with cling film and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
Choux pastry:
Heat the oven to 240-260 degrees.
Heat the oven to 240-260 degrees.
In a thick-bottomed saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar, milk powder and fleur-de-sel and bring to a boil.
Boil the batter.
Pour in all the flour at once and stir vigorously so that the flour absorbs all the liquid. Keep the dough on the heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spatula for about 2 minutes - the dough should become smooth, well away from the bottom of the pan, and a thin crust should form on the bottom of the pan.
Take the dough off the heat, transfer it to a whisking bowl, and let it rest for a few minutes.
Prepare the eggs. It's best to break them in advance and beat them lightly so you can add them in small batches.
Prepare the eggs.
Whip the batter on medium speed with the mixer, adding the eggs occasionally, mixing very well each time until smooth.
Beat the batter on medium speed.
For small portions of dough like this, you can do without a mixer, just using a wooden spatula to mix by hand so that the eggs are well dispersed in the dough.
Transfer the dough into a pastry bag with a smooth and round nozzle 13-16 cm in diameter.
Lining a baking tray with permagent for baking. Shape the pastry into even strips 13 cm long by 2.5 cm wide.
Punch out the pastry into even strips.
Place the baking tray in the preheated oven and turn it off immediately. Keep the eclairs in the closed hot oven for about 15-20 minutes.
Then turn the oven back on to 180 degrees and bake them for another 25 minutes.
And then turn the oven back on to 180 degrees and bake for another 25 minutes.
A major mistake in making eclairs is not baking them and then they get soggy from the filling. Properly baked eclairs should be dry and easy to cut with a saw blade.
Let the eclairs cool completely.
You can fill the eclairs in two ways: by cutting them lengthwise and filling them with filling or by piping the filling with a special eclair nozzle (with a long spout).
Fill the eclairs with the filling.
Take out the caramel-vanilla filling, fill the eclairs and put them in the fridge for 2 hours.
Prepare the eclairs with the caramel-vanilla filling and put them in the fridge for 2 hours.
Heat the fudge (fondant) in a water bath - it should become pourable. Add the creamy caramel (which was set aside when making the basic caramel).
Add the creamy caramel (which was set aside when making the basic caramel).
Use the finished fondant immediately, as it sets very quickly.
Dip the finished eclairs in the fondant and place on a wire rack to set. Then place in the fridge.
Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Happy eating!
And enjoy!
