It pastry class on Wednesday we made Eclairs! Also known as pate a choux. Along with cream puffs and what our french teacher called "nuns" I have no idea why. We filled the eclairs with chocolate mousse but our recipe ended up like chocolate pudding...result was very messy. Also we used fondant for the topping. Now time for the honesty, in European cakes means you have already at least taken Baking and Pastry classes. The class has made pastry cream a million times before you reach this class, yet for some reason everyone always burns thier pastry cream to where they have little chunks of cooked eggs in there. Let me tell you a secret...STRAIN IT! Even if the teach says dont strain it (which has happened), its all about your instincts. Do you want chunks of that in your mouth? No! So do what you think is best. I know some rules are the chef is always right but if you can fix it why not do it? Also another secret to Pate a choux...mix it until THREADS if you make it all the time you know what I mean. Theres a science of water to egg ratio and if there are not enough eggs added and you pipe it and bake it, it turns out a deformed poof ball. Looks unattractive and doesnt keep its shape. Buttercream was also used on the Nuns, buttercream is basically a meringue with cubes of butter added. But oh yes! There is a secret to that too, if you add the butter too soon the whole thing gets soupy and liquidy. Why? because when you add the hot liquid to beaten egg whites the hot liquid needs to cool way down before you add the butter. The butter will melt otherwise, seems like that would make sense right? Well if your product does end up soupy theres an easy fix. Stick it in the fridge so the butter will harden again. Before using, whip it again.
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| Nuns (Cream puffs filled w/pastry cream) |
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| Eclairs (Pate a choux) |
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