Sunday, March 18, 2012

Coffee eclairs (of a sort)

I made these a while ago for Karl's birthday but I never got around to putting this up. These are very easy to make but just don't do what I did and let them cool on the baking tray. Those allowed to cool on the baking sheet left the bottom part behind whereas as those I removed immediately remained intact.

So, start by making a choux pastry. There are many, many recipes for this out there and they are all the same in essence. I used the amounts given in Michel Roux's great book Pastry which has a nice recipe for profiteroles. By the way this is a fantastic book containing everything you need to get the hang of many different kinds of pastry and I would not hesitate to recommend it (or indeed his other books: Sauces, and Eggs).
Melt 100g of butter, 125mL milk, 125mL water, pinch of salt, and a small spoonful of caster sugar and bring to the boil. Off the heat mix in 140g of plain flour, dry the mix a bit on the heat then, in a bowl, beat in 4 eggs.

I piped this mix onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and baked at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15-20 mins (I was somewhat inconsistent with the size of my eclairs...). It's usual to brush the outside with some eggwash (egg and milk) but I neglected to do this. As I said above don't leave them on the baking sheet, instead transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The icing was very simple:make a cup of espresso coffee and mix some into about 200g of icing sugar a little at a time to make a smooth icing. After filling them with some cream (whipped with some caster sugar and vanilla essence) the ice the buns and you're done!


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