I judge a pastry shop by the quality of its eclairs. Supermarket bakeries and other chains tend to fill their eclairs with the same sort of stuff that they put in filled doughnuts--either some sort of pastry "creme" or processed vanilla pudding. I've also had eclairs that were filled with a rather glue-y sort of custard.
When my family lived in Tunis, long ago, the local patisserie had very good eclairs, although strangely enough, I don't remember what the filling was like. I remember that I usually chose an eclair over the other pastries, and I remember that they had two kinds--one was chocolate on top and one was some other flavor. I'm not sure I ever knew what flavor it was. Memory suggests either maple or mocha, and since maple doesn't really seem likely, I'm going with mocha. I do remember that there were lovely rosettes of something like stiff, flavored whipped cream on top.
Now I'm lucky enough to live near a co-op with a good bakery (see The Hows and Whys of My Mini-baguettes). Their eclairs aren't nearly as elegant as those I had in Tunis. They are rather irregular in shape and smeared in chocolate (ganache, I think.) But they are generously filled with a heavenly vanilla pastry cream that goes wonderfully with the ganache on top. With eclairs like that less than ten minutes away, why make my own?
The answer is--to get a gluten-free eclair that the whole family can enjoy.
The recipe I used is from the Faithfully Gluten-free website. The same pate choux recipe is used for cream puffs and eclairs. I made the cream puffs last week and filled them with whipped cream. They turned out pretty well, though I took them out a bit early because they were golden and maybe they could have used a bit longer in the oven. They re-crisped well the next day (the unfilled ones) after ten minutes in the oven, as per instructions.
The recipe calls for white rice flour and sweet rice flour. Whole Foods usually has white rice flour. The sweet white rice flour can be hard to find. I ordered sweet rice flour over the internet for a different recipe, but I think I've seen it in a store since then. Xanthan gum is available now in a lot of stores, usually in the baking area.
The procedure for the gluten-free pate choux is almost exactly like that for regular pate choux. The water and butter (sometimes also sugar and salt) are brought to a boil and the flour mixture is stirred in. Be prepared--you are stirring it till it resembles playdough, which means it takes arm strength to stir. Since I am still having trouble with my right shoulder (frozen, though no longer aching), my husband did the stirring.
This recipe didn't get quite as playdough-like as the regular flour version, and there seemed to be quite a lot of liquid butter oozing out onto the bottom of the pot. I wonder whether the recipe would work with slightly less butter? Or is it just that rice flour doesn't hold onto butter as well as regular flour? (I have read something to that effect.)
Once you reach playdough (or something thick and well-combined), the stuff goes in the standing mixer for yet more beating. First a bit just to cool it off slightly, then with the eggs, one at a time. The recipe notes that "the dough will look like it breaks apart, but keep mixing it until it comes back together again."
And so it does. I like recipes that tell you what to look for.
On my last trip to Michael's, I got a 6B piping tip and some 16" disposable piping bags. I was think about cookies more than eclairs, and possibly I should have gotten an even larger tip. Again, I had to get my husband's help as the dough was stiff to pipe. I would have gotten a round tip, but they didn't have one in that size, so I ended up with interestingly ridged eclairs.
The ridges were less pronounced after baking.
Again, I think I took them out a bit early. I also did not pierce them and cool them in the oven. It didn't seem like it made much difference with the cream puffs, where I cooled some in the oven and some on the rack, but maybe I should try that again.
For filling, I made Dangerously Easy Microwave Vanilla Custard. I may not have cooked it quite long enough, as it was a bit liquid even after I speed-cooled some of it. Or it may be that my recipe, while fine for bowls of custard, needs a more thickener in order to be used as a filling. It tasted good, anyway.
Since it was getting late and we wanted to actually eat the eclairs that day, we just smeared Nutella on top rather than mess around with chocolate ganache or some other interesting topping. I should have taken the photo before biting into mine.
Messy, but good.
Till next post.
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