Creamy Vanilla Chocolate Éclairs! - Mar. 24, 2021

With the extra whipping cream from the Crème Brûlée featured the other night, I was asked to create something wonderful! Looking on YouTube, I found a recipe I really liked that used just about the right amount of whipping cream we had left: an Éclair recipe!

I didn't tell anyone what I was baking, so it was a surprise waiting to be unfolded for everyone at home! I documented my baking process as I went along, so now all of you can see what I did!

You can find the recipe I followed, from Nino's Home, at this link. Please check it out!: https://youtu.be/RlJ54TKrErs

The first steps were to prepare the vanilla cream filling. First, I separated three egg yolks and added the corn starch and sugar, whisking it together. Then, in a pot, I added the milk and some of the whipping cream and boiled it just the right amount, before adding the egg mixture to it. I then heated it again, until the mixture thickened, and added the vanilla extract! The entire mixture was then transferred into a bag for piping later!

Adding the milk and whipped cream mixture to the egg mixture

Boiling the combined mixture

This whole process smelled so good! The milk and whipped cream mixture had a distinct creamy smell wafting through the air as it was heated, and once I added the vanilla, that fragrance filled the area for just a brief moment. Sometimes, certain parts of the process are rewarding on their own!

I put the bag of cream into the fridge to cool for a couple hours, and got started with the next step: making the pastry puff! I added the water, butter, salt and sugar to the pot and melted it together with the butter, before adding the flour. The flour turned it from runny to soft and dough-like, which was really satisfying to stir around. After heating it for a couple minutes, I removed it from the stove, let it cool for a few more minutes, and added in the eggs. I then transferred this mixture to another bag for piping, and piped the dough onto the baking sheet! I'm not the best baker, so my pastries didn't turn out as smooth and nice as they were in the recipe video, but I'm still happy with them! They were about the right size, so I didn't worry too much that they were misshapen.

Boiling butter mixture

Heating the dough for a couple minutes (I did a bad job of mixing while holding the camera with one hand, haha)

Piping the dough onto the baking sheet!!!

After that, I put them in the oven at 375˚F for 25 minutes, at which point they had inflated and puffed up! They were golden brown, and already looked delicious! At this point, my mom figured out what I was making and she told me how proud she was of me for trying to make something as delicious and tricky as éclairs. That made me really happy, and motivated me to make these the best éclairs I possibly could! (For a first-timer, of course!)

The cream was still a little runny, so I though that maybe instead of putting a hole in the bottom of the pastries, I could do it on the side instead to minimize the possibly spilling. I used a chopstick to put the holes in the pastries, which were very airy and hollow on the inside, despite knowing that the hole the chopstick made would probably not be big enough to pipe the cream in. Instead of piping with the bag itself, my mom suggested using this other tool instead (I forgot what it's called already, sorry) and helped me pipe the cream into the pastries! The éclairs were almost complete, except for the finishing touch: the chocolate!

I used up the rest of the whipping cream, and cut as much dark chocolate as I could from this block of dark chocolate that I had, and melted it together to make the chocolate sauce. It was very much not as runny or sticky as the one in the video, so I couldn't just dip the finished éclairs in to create that chocolate shell. We just spread it on top instead.

Adding the cream into the piping tool

Piping cream into the éclairs!

Adding the chocolate covering

Aaaaaand... voila! The finished product was amazing! I couldn't believe how well they turned out, considered I had never made them before!

Here's a little video of me enjoying one! :D

The pastry is nice and light, not too sweet or salty, or anything like that. It has its own flavour and texture, and does a good job holding the vanilla cream! The chocolate sauce is quite bitter, due to the high amounts of dark chocolate I ended up adding in, but it compliments perfectly with the slightly sweet vanilla cream filling. The two of them create a very nice balance, making the dessert not too sugary or too heavy. It was just a perfect little treat for everyone at home to enjoy!

Overall, it was nice to make use of that remaining whipping cream. But more importantly, the positive feedback and smiles I got from everyone in my family made me feel better today. It reminded me that I'm special, and I can do things that are really cool! Sure, I haven't had enough time yet to perfect any skill, but someday, I will be, if I just love doing it over and over again. That's how I felt making these éclairs: that I was doing something that made me happy, and that I could get better at it someday because I'm so motivated to make it better. Sometimes, life gets you down, but don't forget to take a look at the little things that will lift you up. Hearing how proud my mom was of me was all the positive reinforcement I needed to make my day brighter. Make sure you keep doing nice things and being yourself, to make other people's days brighter too!

I made a video version of this for YouTube! Check it out here!

That's all I have for now. Take care, everyone!

From Keira