Saturday, August 30, 2008

Daring Bakers August Challenge - Éclairs

After a whirlwind summer, I have finally have the time to participate in a DB challenge. Éclairs were chosen for August and I was excited to get my hands dirty, so to speak.

Éclairs consist of a choux dough, pastry cream filling and chocolate glaze. The whole process is not hard but takes time to make sure things aren't rushed.

This challenge was a huge learning lesson for me. Even with the best of efforts, the finished product ended up being disappointing. My choux ended up a little flat and eggy but the other components were great. They were still able to be sliced and filled. I'm glad I tried them, now I just have to perfect them.

Thanks to Tony Tahhan and MeetaK for choosing something that we love to eat but not necessarily love to make. You can check out the DB blogroll to see what everyone else made and I'm pretty sure someone there has the complete recipe available for your reading pleasure.

Have a great long weekend!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks great sorry the choux was eggy but it doesn't look too flat to me

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Very well done! Your Eclairs look fabulous

cheers,

Rosa

#1SAHM said...

these look fabulous! I used to get these from my local state fair all the time but I bet they're a zillion times better homemade. : )

#1SAHM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
steph- whisk/spoon said...

hopefully you enjoyed them, or at least the experience of making them. :) i think a lot of people had problems with this choux recipe--there are much better ones out there, trust me. your cream filling looks delish!

Anonymous said...

Glad you got to make something you love to eat so much! That éclair looks delicious.

jasmine said...

I'm wondering if the "flat and eggy"ness may have to do with atmospheric conditions. Because of all the rain I don't think it was quite dry enough to let them cool down properly...

Your eclair looks lovely, though.

j

Shelby said...

The eclairs look great, I don't mind eggy - I guess. lol. At least not in a choux...

Jenny said...

Your eclairs look great!
Glad to see you around. :-)

Topher said...

Looks delicious. What kind of filling is that?

Bunny said...

Your eclairs look so good, I like the way you piped the filling in , very pretty!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Your eclairs are looking pretty good to me.
Mine were"eggy" too.:(

Anonymous said...

The eclairs look great. I took a lesson from Baking Illustrated and used 3 whole eggs and 2 egg whites instead of 5 whole eggs. No one complained of egginess. I like the piped filling too.

Anonymous said...

i too didn't like that the pastry was a bit eggy. i think though that some people took out one egg and i think that if i ever make these again i'll probably use one less than this recipe calls for.