My Eclair Filling

[nightscotsman]

ye gods, if we had to use a double boiler for our pastry cream at work (where we do batches starting with 4 gallons of milk every day, at the very least), it would never get done! 

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Yeah, we did 14 kilos of milk and about half a pound of vanilla beans. Every day

(glad I don't have to do that anymore )

[jgarner53]

That 4 gallons doesn't include the batch (yield about 24Q) we do at least 3x/week in our pasteurizer.

Or the separate, "specialized" pastry creams we make (rose, coconut, chocolate, jasmine, and rum).

[Grub]

Okay, here's my latest effort... It turned out better, but I'm still missing something -- my guess is, maybe I should just try to make them way ahead of time and let them sit in the fridge to "settle." Because the filling (pastry cream) DID thicken up nicely when I heated it -- but after I let it cool, it wasn't so thick anymore...

Anyhow, this was the result:

Out of the oven (prior to adding filling and topping), they looked pretty decent (uh, okay, that's just my amateur opinion, heheh). The last one was just the leftover...

But when I turned them over, the big ones had a sort of "canyon" underneath, and when I inserted the filling, it tended to leak out a bit there... Perhaps the problem is, I might have made them too big?

Finally, the finished eclairs with chocolate topping (after a couple got eaten -- I was a little slow on the camera trigger there). The aspect of tempering chocolate is a little beyond me at this point, so I don't expect to get it firm and shiny.

Here's the recipe I've been using. It's from "Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking," 1966 edition. (Scaled down by half.)

First, the filling: Vanilla Cream Filling -- basically, custard with cornstarch and vanilla.

1.5 cup milk

6 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1/2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1) Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt.

2) Scald milk in saucepan.

3) Stir sugar, cornstarch and salt into milk.

4) Cooking, stirring until thickened.

5) Cover, cook for 10 minutes.

6) Temper eggs with mixture, add eggs.

7) Cook for 5 minutes, add butter.

8) Put in bowl, sprinkle with sugar (to avoid skin).

9) Chill. Add vanilla.

I particularly like the way the cornstarch is heated to thicken up -- before the egg is added. That sort of takes care of the problem of heating things enough to thicken it, but not so much it starts scrambling the eggs.

I put this into a soup bowl, covered it with cling-wrap (stabbed a few holes in it with a knife though) and left it in the fridge, while I made the eclairs themselves.

Then, the eclair dough:

1/2 cup water

4 Tbsp butter

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup AP flour

2 eggs, beaten

Method:

1) Melt butter with water and salt in a saucepan, bring to a rolling boil.

2) Reduce heat and stir in flour.

3) Remove from heat and add eggs, stirring until smooth. (I did the tempering thing here too).

4) Place in ziplock bag, cut corner and pipe onto greased tinfoil sheet (I like that better than cookie sheets).

5) Cook for 45 minutes at 400F.

6) Cool on a rack (moved to the fridge afterwards, as I felt I was running out of time).

And the assembly:

1) Cut (small) holes in end of eclairs.

2) Use turkey baster to inject filling. (Filling had liquified a lot at this point, and would spill out a bit.)

3) Leave eclairs in freezer, hoping for the filling to solidify -- which it didn't.

4) Melt chocolate, water, sugar and a dash of salt, dip top of eclairs into this, and return to freezer.

That's it. And yeah -- if you paid attention -- I did forgot to add the vanilla. Argh.

I would really, really, really like to be able to nail this dessert. Because, if I could -- there'd be no end to what I could do with it. I could incorporate rasberries in the chocolate topping, and blueberries in the filling. Or orange rind and strawberries. Anything.

[McDuff]

Here's the formula I use every day

1 qt milk

8 oz sugar

1 egg

6 yolks

2.5 oz cornstarch

.5 oz ap flour

pinch salt

vanilla to taste

2 oz butter

Put 3/4 of the milk and 1/2 the sugar on to the fire.

Mix the cornstarch, flour, remaining sugar and salt together.

Put the egg and yolks in a bowl, add the remaining milk, mix till blended.

When the milk is almost boiling, mix the egg/milk mixture into the dry, stir to blend, then trickle it into the hot milk, stirring with a whip.

Bring to a boil and cook for three minutes.

Off the heat add the butter and the vanilla.

Pour into a shallow pan, press plastic wrap right onto the surface and refrigerate.

If the milk is almost boiling when you pour in the egg mixture in a thin stream, it will thicken almost immediately. This eliminates the need for tempering it in. I make a bigger batch of this every day and have never had it curdle. A starch thickened sauce with eggs in it must be boiled, and you can do this without fear of curdling it. Do this with a creme anglaise and it's a different story. You absolutely don't need to cook this for ten minutes. If this makes too much creme patisserie for you, it's so good that you're going to be eating it with a spoon.

Your pate a choux recipe is a little suspect to me also. I would use a bigger one, make sure you cook the paste for a full 5 minutes to help dry it out, paddle it slowly in the mixer till it's not hot anymore, beat the eggs together and add them in an intermittent thin stream allowing the batter to absorb each addition before continuing. When 3/4 of the eggs are in, do what's called the tacky test. Pick up a blob of batter between the thumb and forefinger and pull them apart. If the dough breaks, it needs more egg. If it pulls into a string, it's ready. the finished dough should be shiny and smooth, and shouldn't slump when you pipe it. Use bread flour to make pate a choux. I used to struggle with this stuff, but now that I'm making a 15 lb batch a couple of times a week I'm getting really good results.

Edited March 5, 2006 by McDuff (log)

[Swisskaese]

I would try this recipe for Pastry Cream it is very thick and perfect for filling eclairs.

[SweetSide]

Okay, here's my latest effort... It turned out better, but I'm still missing something -- my guess is, maybe I should just try to make them way ahead of time and let them sit in the fridge to "settle." Because the filling (pastry cream) DID thicken up nicely when I heated it -- but after I let it cool, it wasn't so thick anymore...

Here's the recipe I've been using. It's from "Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking," 1966 edition. (Scaled down by half.)

First, the filling: Vanilla Cream Filling -- basically, custard with cornstarch and vanilla.

1.5 cup milk

6 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1/2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1) Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt.

2) Scald milk in saucepan.

3) Stir sugar, cornstarch and salt into milk.

4) Cooking, stirring until thickened.

5) Cover, cook for 10 minutes.

6) Temper eggs with mixture, add eggs.

7) Cook for 5 minutes, add butter.

8) Put in bowl, sprinkle with sugar (to avoid skin).

9) Chill. Add vanilla.

I particularly like the way the cornstarch is heated to thicken up -- before the egg is added. That sort of takes care of the problem of heating things enough to thicken it, but not so much it starts scrambling the eggs.

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Aside from trying the other pastry creams recommended, one point to rememberas McDuff points out...

You must bring your pastry cream to a boil with the eggs included and cook. This process kills an enzyme in the egg yolk that breaks down a starch sugar. Not bringing the pastry cream to a boil will cause the enzyme to breakdown the cornstarch and will cause your pastry cream to thin out...

Sounds like the method you used was part of your problem. The devil is always in the details... especially if they were unwritten in your recipe...

[etalanian]

You made me venture into the cellar to pull out volume 4 of the WD Encyc of Ckry, which I haven't looked at in many years.

Sweetside is correct - if the pastry cream itself doesn't reach 212 degrees, you won't destroy the enzymes in the eggs that break down the cornstarch, and you will have runny pastry cream. Try using a thermometer. Water boils at 212, but I think a custard will start boiling before it reaches that temp, and so needs to cook for a while after it starts boiling.

My thinking is that you need more egg yolk in this recipe. Maybe 2 or three more. You should perhaps try the recipe from McDuff, or look through this thread for a recipe and instructions about Pichet Ong's pate a choux:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=74731

And you don't need to temper chocolate for the tops of eclairs. You want a rich, dark, fairly thick icing. Tempering isn't at all necessary.

Good luck!

Eileen

edited for a correction

Edited March 5, 2006 by etalanian (log)

[Grub]

Thanks once again -- that's great information. Hopefully, it'll be enough for me to get it right the next time around.

Just for the record, even though I left the eclairs in the fridge overnight, the filling remained liquid (pretty much showing everything you guys said, is correct).

[shaloop]

I made two firsts today; cream puffs and bavarian cream. I, too, made the same mistake of not bringing my pastry cream to a boil and it was a little thin. However, since I added gelatin to make bavarian cream, it didn't matter so much and turned out fine once cooled and whipped cream was mixed in and chilled. Here are my finished puffs:

I didn't photograph the bavarian cream, but it was good, especially for a first. The cream puffs were good too, but the recipe didn't call for salt and I didn't think of adding it till they were baking. Next time...

[Grub]

Those look REALLY nice -- fluffy and light. I think of my eclairs rather more like chocolate covered, goo-filled logs, than delectable pastries at this point... If I wasn't so stubborn, I'd try this out instead. Nice work.

[Wendy DeBord]

Grub, I have to suggest trying a different recipe. Your pastry cream is still too thin. It looks like it needs more yolks because it's a milky color. Sorry................

[designerobsessed]

Shaloop, your puffs look amazing! Can I ask what recipe you used?

[shaloop]

Shaloop, your puffs look amazing!  Can I ask what recipe you used?

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Thank you! Being my first attempt, I realized after making them some things I should do different next time. I didn't brush them with an egg wash or add salt or sugar, all of which I'll do next time. As for the recipe, I'm sorry I can't give credit to the proper source as I just scribbled it down from another poster (Maybe here at e-gullet) who said it was a basic, all purpose recipe. The recipe is:

1 c water

1/2 c butter

1 c AP flour

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 400. Bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour all at once and continue to cook, stirring until doughs balls up. Remove from heat and stir in eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Stir till smooth and shiny. Drop by rounded tablespoonfulls (I used cookie scoop) onto parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Thanks to whoever posted the original recipe!