hello guys, today let's make eclairs. as a prep, sift cake flour. and warm eggs until it feels slightly
warm in a water bath or microwave. in a pot, add water, milk, salt, sugar, and cubed butter. and heat it at
medium heat until it starts boiling. shake a pot sometimes so
that the butter melts easier. and especially toward the end, turn
the pot to make the temperature even. and once the milk starts boiling hard everywhere,
stop the heat and add the sifted cake flour. and mix until it looks combined like this. and cook at medium heat again to cook starch
in flour all the way. and that is because the starch in the flour is not cooked enough
yet at this point. we need to heat it to about 176 Fahrenheit, which is 80 C to
make the starch very gooey and stretchy, which is very important for the pastry
choux to rise and expand in the oven. you could insert a thermometer to check the
temperature, but this is how I usually judge. and how long that takes really depends on
the amount of dough, the size of the pot, the strength of the heat, and so on. but
it usually takes about one to two minutes. once it's heated enough, remove it from the heat
and knead just a little bit with a paddle or spatula before you add eggs. by doing this,
we can make sure that the dough is even, and it also prevents eggs from cooking
partially. and while the dough is still hot, add eggs. add about 1/3 to 1/2 of the eggs first
and continue mixing until it comes together. and add about half of the rest and mix until
it's combined again. and add the rest. mix until it's evenly combined. To check the consistency, scoop a lot of it
with a spatula and drop. it should fall in three to five seconds, and the dough
should be hung in a triangle shape. to pipe easier, I like to use flour as guidance. with one batch of this recipe, you can get
about 10 eclairs. you can change the thickness and the lengths as you like. as you can see,
drop the batter instead of dragging it when you pipe. you can see that the pastry tip is
lifted up when I pipe. and hold the bag with the other hand to support the weight so that
you can draw the lines without being shaky. this can be very difficult at the very beginning,
but you get used to it more after some practice. in the end, insert your thumb in the
pastry tip and squeeze everything out. and at the very end, spray plenty of water all
around. if you don't have a sprayer, use a brush. you can mix eggs and water just like
I did in my cream puff tutorial. but by using only water, the baked
choux gets a little bit softer. and bake right away before they cool down too
much. bake at 375 Fahrenheit and turn it down to 350 F. and stop the oven and wait before opening
the oven door to cook the center all the way. and for any choux pastry, it's extremely important not
to open the door while you baking them, especially toward the beginning to the middle, because
the choux collapse with the temperature drop. once they are cooled, make two holes on
the bottom using a pastry tip. or you can also use a chopstick or something
similar. don't add too much pressure, and wiggle fast like this so that
the choux is not going to crack. and insert a toothpick or something
sharp to break the skin inside. in the pot, add milk, vanilla beans, and sugar. and heat them at medium
heat. meanwhile, mix egg yolk and sugar together until it gets pale like this. and add cornstarch, all-purpose flour, and salt. mix really well until it gets smooth. and once the milk starts simmering,
add some of it and mix really well. and slowly add the rest over mixing. and heat it at medium heat
while mixing really fast. once it starts getting thickened a little
bit, remove from the heat and mix it really fast until it looks nice and smooth.
and immediately heat it at medium heat again and keep mixing really fast evenly. and
it'll soon start boiling and get really thick. keep heating it a little bit more until
it gets looser and shinier like this. add butter. mix. and strain it and mix at the very end with
a hand blender if you have it. it's going to make this
pastry cream even smoother. in the past, I've made a
pastry cream tutorial. there, you can learn about pastry cream in more
detail, so check out the video after this. and wrap directly on the surface and chill
in the fridge until it cools down completely. once it's chilled completely, the pastry
cream should set like this. don't worry; that means the starch in the flour is cooked
enough. so it's a good thing. simply break it down and mix it with a spatula or paddle
to make it smoother and softer again. to make this simple chocolate filling, we're gonna
mix chocolate, heavy cream, and pastry cream. take about 8 ounces from the whole pastry
cream. and we're gonna make the ganache by mixing melted chocolate and heavy cream. mix
heavy cream little by little, dividing a few times. the chocolate was very warm, and the
heavy cream was cold but not extremely cold add about half of the ganache to the
pastry cream and mix really well. add the rest and mix until it looks nice and even. the cream is a little bit on the softer
side because the ganache was not cold. so I'm going to chill this in the fridge a little
bit while I am filling the vanilla pastry cream. I like to wrap the cream and insert
it in the pastry bag. that way, you can add the chocolate filling without
cleaning too much with the same bag. fill from one side. and the other side until the cream
starts coming out from the other hole. that means the cream is packed full.
here's a little story from when I was a baking student. in the class, we made cream puffs,
and I had to submit the cream puffs to my chef. he was one of my favorite French pastry chefs.
I thought I made the choux pastry pretty well, and I was very confident. after he ate it, he
showed me inside and said, "look at this little amount of pastry cream. this is not cream puff,
this is not. it's so disappointing." and at the time, it was almost like a little culture shock.
I did not think it was that big deal. since then, I try to fill cream as much as I can, and
that really changed the whole experience of cream puff and eclairs. so now I know how
disappointing it was for him. lesson learned, fill as much as it can hold until
it bounces back from the hole. now let's finish this eclair with the most
basic glaze, which is melted chocolate. by adding some oil, the chocolate
flows a little bit better, and also, the chocolate is not going to be
too crunchy after it's chilled. try not to mix the melted chocolate
vigorously so that it's not going to hold a lot of air bubbles in it. I highly
recommend using couverture chocolate, but you can also use chocolate
chips if it's not available. and that's it! eat it right away or chill
it in the fridge until you serve. the chocolate gets set in the fridge. so
it will turn into a more matte look. enjoy this amazing eclair in many shapes and
sizes. the soft shoe pastry and the melty creamy fillings are so perfect together. the
chocolate filling remains nice and creamy also. If you tried it at home, please let me
know how it was, and I will always love to know how you enjoyed it with your family
and friends. to store it, wrap it tightly, or put it in an airtight container. and you
can store it for up to four to five days but eat it within that day for the best taste. about a
few months ago, I shared how to make cream puffs, and it's also made by pate choux. so it's really
a matter of how you pipe. and also, for eclairs, you almost always glaze the top with something
like melted chocolate, fondant, mirror glaze, and so on. this recipe is slightly different from the
cream puffs recipe. the choux is slightly softer with this recipe. and if you haven't checked out
the cream puff tutorial yet, please do. there, I explained a lot deeper about the baking
science behind choux pastry. it's kind of like a choux pastry masterclass. and don't forget
to check out my blog. I started my blog last June, and I'm slowly adding up new recipes every time
I share a new recipe here; I also write the post there. you may be able to see it's still not
perfect. I'm still learning how to write, but I think I am improving. so please check that out and
let me know what you think. all right, that's it for today. thank you so much for watching. enjoy
pastry living, and I'll see you next week. byebye.
