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They're a choux in

The secret's in the choux pastry. Photo: Steve Shanahan
The secret's in the choux pastry. Photo: Steve ShanahanSupplied

Eclairs have outlasted many boutique food trends, but have never quite made it to first place, playing second fiddle to macarons, friands or tartelettes. That is, until now. With eclairs sporting their luminous fondant coats and bold-flavoured fillings, they are enjoying the front row window of many boutique patisseries in Paris.

Fauchon, the Parisian specialty food store at Place de la Madeleine, uses eclairs as a whimsical background for its creativity. Don't be surprised to see the doleful eyes of Mona Lisa following you from her sweet pastry canvas.

Other notable Paris patisseries, such as L'Eclair de Genie and L'Atelier de l'Eclair have savoury eclairs in their repertoire.

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But the traditional eclair, and incidentally my favourite from my 1960s school tuckshop, is a simple affair. The case is made with choux pastry dough, piped from a pastry bag in a log shape, and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside.

You fill it by piping the filling in or splitting the eclair lengthwise. The classic filling is a vanilla pastry cream.

If you want to be adventurous, I have included some creative fillings - cumquat, lime, strawberry and chocolate. If you're using a fruit paste, prepare it and the chocolate ganache first, then the pastry cream, then the choux pastry, and finally the coloured fondant icing.

For the best flavour, chill the finished eclairs for an hour or so before serving. Use a large pastry bag with a size 13 or a 1.5-centimetre piping nozzle to pipe the pastry.

Debbie Skelton is a Canberra food writer, debsravingrecipes.blogspot.com

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Choux pastry

Makes about 12 eclairs

½ cup full-fat milk

½ cup water

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120g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

1 cup plain flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

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Position your oven racks evenly in the oven. Preheat the oven to 190C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Stick the paper down with a little cooking spray to hold it in place.

Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a rolling boil in a medium-sized heavy-based saucepan over high heat. Add the flour all in one go and lower the heat to medium. Mix in the flour quickly with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together and a light crust will form on the bottom of the saucepan. This stage is meant to dry out the pastry. Continue to stir the pastry even though it will be stiff, for another two minutes. The dough should be smooth and pull away from the sides of the saucepan.

Turn the dough into the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. If you don't have a mixer, continue the next stage in the saucepan off the heat. Let the dough sit for a minute to rest, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition and incorporating each egg completely before adding the next. The dough will fall apart and come together during this process. Beat until it is thick, glossy and smooth. It is ready to use immediately, or you can freeze it (cover in cling film).

Fit a large pastry bag with a size 13 nozzle (1.5 centimetres). Fill the bag with the dough and pipe out even strips of dough about 13 centimetres long, and about four centimetres apart. If you haven't got a bag, you can still make these with spoonfuls of dough (eclair trays are also available). As you are piping, cut the ends off the piping nozzle with a sharp knife to keep them even and smooth.

Bake the eclairs for about eight to 10 minutes, then rotate the trays for even cooking, and bake for another five minutes or so until they are pale golden brown. Then wedge the handle of a wooden spoon in the oven door so it stays slightly open and bake for another three to five minutes. The total baking time is about 15 minutes. Place on an oven rack to cool.

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To assemble

Cut the eclairs in half lengthwise with a bread knife and pipe on the pastry cream, or make a small hole with the nozzle tip in the base of each eclair and pipe the cream directly into the middle. You will need a different pastry bag for each flavoured pastry cream.

Ice the filled eclairs with the matching fondant. Hold each eclair vertically over the icing and spoon the icing from the top to allow it to run down the eclair, letting excess drop into the bowl.

For chocolate eclairs, fill each eclair with a mix of vanilla cream and chocolate ganache (mixed first). Top with the softened ganache using the same method as the fondant.

For traditional eclairs, simply use the basic pastry cream with no added flavourings to fill, and the chocolate ganache for the topping.

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Chocolate ganache

125g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

25g butter

125g pure cream

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Place the chocolate and butter into a medium-sized heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Pour the scalded cream over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is melted and the cream is incorporated. Cool in the fridge.


Vanilla pastry cream

2 cups whole milk

6 large egg yolks

½ cup sugar

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⅓ cup cornflour

1½ tsp vanilla paste

50g unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces

Bring the milk to the boil in a small saucepan. In a separate saucepan, whisk the yolks with the sugar and the cornflour until thick and well blended.

Still whisking, add a third of a cup of milk into the egg mixture to loosen it, then the remaining milk in a thin and steady stream, whisking all the time. Put the pan over a medium heat and stir continuously and vigorously with a wooden spoon. Take care to stir into all the edges of the saucepan to prevent the custard sticking. Boil, still stirring, for a minute or two. The mixture should be very thick and pudding-like. Remove from the heat.

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Stir in the vanilla paste and let stand for a few minutes, then stir in the butter, a piece at a time. Scrape the pastry cream into a bowl and press plastic wrap directly on top to stop a skin forming. Place another piece of plastic wrap around the top to seal the bowl. Refrigerate to cool.

Use as is, or flavour. To flavour, divide the pastry cream into smaller bowls and add some of the cooled fruit paste or chocolate ganache to each portion. A rule of thumb is to not add more fruit paste than half the amount of pastry cream, to ensure the cream remains stable.


Silky fruit pastes

You can use whatever fruit you like. I used six cumquats, halved; three limes, two of them juiced and one chopped up; and a punnet of strawberries, sliced.

For each fruit paste, place the fruit and four tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan. Add at least three tablespoons of water for the kumquats and lime pastes. The strawberries need less water.

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Bring to a boil, with the lid on, then reduce the heat. Stir occasionally to ensure it doesn't burn and add the water as needed to loosen the mixture. Cook the fruit down until you have a jammy sauce. This will only take three to five minutes.

Push each paste through a fine sieve to extract a silky fruit gel. Cool in the fridge.

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