PeepThread

One of my favorite vacation activities was learning to make éclairs and chouquettes at La Cuisine Paris. In two hours we made the pâte à choux (dough), pastry cream (filling) and chocolate claçage (ganache). I’ve included the ingredients and directions at the bottom of this post. Our cooking group was comprised of a mother & daughter from Australia, an Irishman who received the class as a gift from his girlfriend, and two good-looking American girls. Emilie Murphy was our instructor and I’d love to take another class from her. Emilie also works as a private chef and has cooked for George Clooney, among other famous peops.

We started by making the pâte à choux, which was originally called pâte à chaud (hot dough) and changed hundreds of years ago for some unknown reason. The dough is made with lots o’ butter & eggs in a pan over a burner and has to be continuously stirred until your arm falls off. You know it’s done when you only have one arm left.

When the dough is the right consistency, you can pipe it into éclair and chouquette shapes. This takes some skill and mine looked crazy at first. The chouquettes get covered in pearled sugar before going into the oven. I must find some pearled sugar here in California. Must.

We made the pastry cream on the stovetop while the éclairs and chouquettes baked. It has to chill in the fridge for a little bit. We made two batches – one coffee and one chocolate.

Allison made our chocolate claçage. Just dark chocolate and whipping cream. What else do you need in life?

Éclairs and chouquettes out of the oven, we used a pencil to poke 2 holes in the back of each éclair. Then we piped the cooled pastry cream into each one. The chouquettes we ate plain, though you could fill them if you want to.

We dipped each éclair into the ganache and smoothed it on top with our fingers. Pretty simple and oh so good. I literally ate 4 éclairs and 6+ chouquettes before we even made it out the door.

Pâte à Choux
250 ml water
100 g butter
150 g flour
6 g salt
4-5 eggs

Heat the butter and water on low heat. When the butter has melted, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add all the flour at once and stir. Then bring back to the heat and mix quickly until the mixture forms a dry ball that comes away from the pan. Remove from the heat, and beat in the eggs a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Chouquettes: Fill a pastry bag with the mixture, pipe a circle, then brush with some beaten egg and sprinkle pearled sugar on top. Éclairs: Pipe a 4 inch line of dough at an angle. Bake both éclairs and chouquettes at 200°C for 25 minutes. Be careful not to open the oven. When done, remove from oven and allow them to cool before filling.

Pastry Cream
500g milk
2 eggs
50 g corn starch
120 g sugar
vanilla as desired
60 g chopped dark chocolate
coffee extract

Bring the milk to a boil with the vanilla. Separately, beat the eggs with sugar until the mixture is pale and thick, and stir in the corn starch. Pour a small amount of the hot the milk into the egg mixture and stir. This is to prevent you from heating the eggs too quickly. Then pour the warmed egg & milk mixture into the saucepan. Heat gently and stir continuously until the mixture thickens and boils for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and transfer into a large bowl. This is when you can add coffee extract or chocolate to flavor. Set aside to cool.

Chocolate Ganache
100 g dark chocolate
80 g whipping cream

Bring cream to a boil and pour it onto the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth. Leave to cool for a moment, then spread on the éclairs.

Enjoy!

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