Mega Eclairs

Mega Eclair - Homemade

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (pronounced: [pɑt a ʃu] or shoo (sh as in ship - oo as in moon))
is not the easiest pastry in the world, but I remembered making it when I was at school (with some success).
I used Delia Smiths recipe from her site Delia Online - Choux Pastry
I still need to perfect the oven technique but all the ones I've made, including gougère (choux made with cheese), have been edible. Delia has a tip to make the pastry crisper...... use bread flour. It Works :)

When I started to make these last night I was intending to make it as a cake. I marked up some parchment paper with a circle and piped the batter on, building a couple of layers. I cooked it for 30mins and think it probably needed 40-45mins to be perfect.
The biggest downfall of choux pastry is that once you've checked to see if the pastry is cooked it won't ever continue cooking enough to puff up (the steam is released which gives the lift until the pastry "sets")
There's a lovely baker in Chatham, New Jersey U.S.A. at Woodland Bakery, her name is Gretchen Price. She demystifies the baking process in this fabulous video but it still takes care and attention. I will remember to pipe a "test piece to waste" next time.

As there was no real lift to the pastry I thought I'd try something a bit different.
I only had frozen double cream and (too late) realised that defrosted cream doesn't whip back up. The water was separating from the fats.
I split the choux circle in two. Mixed some icing sugar into the defrosted cream and spread this on each of the rounds. I rolled them up like a Cannoli and spread them with melted chocolate. Served with a fork and spoon they made a very ample dessert.