Gourmand Raspberry Eclairs

Choux Paste

• 120 grams cake flour
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 10 grams granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 80 grams butter
• 4 eggs

directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

• Sift the flour onto a piece of parchment paper.

• In a saucepan combine the milk,water,sugar, salt and butter. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and and dump the flour into the saucepan. Stir until well combined. Place saucepan back onto heat set on low. Beat mixture with wooden spoon for 2 minutes . The flour will begin to coat the bottom of the pan.

• Dump the mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Add the eggs and pulse until the mixture is well combined and thickened.

• Place the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a plain 1/2-inch tip. Pipe into 12 eclair shapes. Other shapes can be done as well.

• In this picture, I sprinkled toasted chopped almond over the top of the piped dough before baking.

• Bake for about 10 minutes or until the dough has puffed. Place a wooden spoon in the door of the oven , just to hold the door ajar very slightly. This is to let the steam out. Continue to bake puffs until they are golden , about 30 more minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

  Pastry Cream

  1 vanilla bean

  1 2/3 cup whole milk

  4 egg yolks

  1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

  1/4 cup cornstarch

  2 tablespoons butter

  With a sharp knife split the vanilla bean lengthwise. Using the back of the knife carefully scrape the seeds from the bean and place into a saucepan. Toss the scraped bean into the saucepan as well. Add the milk to the sauce pan, over medium heat bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer. Turn off heat and cover tightly for 15 minutes to steep. Covering the milk and vanilla mixture is of great importance to the outcome of the pastry cream. If not covered, the finished pastry cream can be dry and not the wonderful supple cream it should be.

  In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow. Add the cornstarch to the whisked egg yolks and whisk until well combined. Once the milk has steeped the 15 minutes. Uncover and remove the vanilla bean. Pour about a third of the milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk until combined. This is called tempering the eggs. Tempering warms the egg mixture to that of the milk , not shocking it. Without tempering you would end up with scrambled egg instead of a smooth pastry cream. Pour the tempered mixture into the saucepan of remaining milk. Whisking constantly over medium heat, cook until mixture just begins to boil and has thickened. Remove from heat and allow to sit for about 10 minutes and stir in butter until combined.

  Place the pastry cream in a bowl and cover top with plastic wrap. Allow to cool. Refrigerate if not using right away,once cooled.

  Lightened Pastry Cream

  1/2 cup heavy cream

  Once cooled,beat pastry cream until smooth.  In a separate bowl , beat the heavy cream until stiff. Fold into the pastry cream. Place lightened pastry cream into a piping bag fitted with a plain tip.

  Chantilly Cream (Sweetened Whipped Cream)

  2 1/2 cups heavy cream

  1/3 cup powdered sugar

  Beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff. Place in a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

  Fresh Raspberries

  Powdered sugar for dusting

  Assembly

  Cut the top off of the baked eclair. Pipe some pastry cream into the bottom half of eclair. Place fresh raspberries on top of the pastry cream. Pipe the Chantilly cream over the raspberries. Top with the other half of the baked eclair. Dust with powdered sugar.