I love éclair.
I remembered buying éclair for this van that goes around the neighborhood selling breads and cakes in Tanjung Aru many years ago.
The choux pastry dough was soft with smooth butter cream filling and the chocolate topping was delicious. Until today I cannot find any in KK that can beat the ones I ate when I was a child.
The bakeries that sell éclairs in KK are Butterflies Bakery, a Bakery at 360 Hotel (Jalan Gaya), a Teatime Express at 2nd Floor Wisma Merdeka and at hotel bakeries.
Teatime Express also sells a variety of cakes and local kueh. It has very limited menu ranging from Konlau or soup mee, porridge, nasi lemak and chicken curry. The food taste was not up to my expectation but the pricing was ok. The owner was an old lady who grumbles and scolds her staff. She is probably having a bad day. I pity the staff who was scolded endlessly and it continued until we left.
Below are eclairs found at Euro Bakery below Hotel 360. Cost more but larger in size.
Again non of the commercial bakeries in KK has that soft dough quality which I prefer. Most are hard and tough like to chew.
Finally some gourmet eclair at Tong Hing. Cost RM9.90 a piece. Filling too rich and chocolate too hard. Not worth the 9 bucks.
Finally some gourmet eclair at Tong Hing. Cost RM9.90 a piece. Filling too rich and chocolate too hard. Not worth the 9 bucks.
Since I cannot find any that fit the bill, I learn to make them my own. Here are some of my tips and points.
The Topping.
It must be Chocolate Ganache. I have seen white chocolate eclair but nothing fits better than good old chocolate.
Make sure you use good quality chocolate. Preferably branded ones like Van Houten or Cadbury. There is a big difference between good chocolate and no name chocolate. At least to me, since I am a chocoholic.
I usually melt the chocolate with evaporated milk/milk/whipping cream depending on what type of milk I have at home. I also use the microwave to melt my chocolate as it is fasters than using the double boiler. I do not weight the ingredients and use my own judge to an equivalent portion for both.
I think the key to making good eclair is the chocolate which must NOT be hard so dipping it with pure chocolate is a No-No. When you use it with cream the chocolate with be soft to bite.
I think the key to making good eclair is the chocolate which must NOT be hard so dipping it with pure chocolate is a No-No. When you use it with cream the chocolate with be soft to bite.
The Filling.
Whipping Cream. Cheap and easy to make. You can use butter cream but I find whipping cream less fatty. However the problem with whipping cream is that it allows the dough to absorb moisture from it. Therefore if you do not want soft dough eat it quickly. As for me, I do not mind soft dough…in fact I prefer it.
The Choux Pastry
The puff up pastry should be brown all over and no cream colour patches. To avoid burning lower the oven temperature. Do not be tempted to take out earlier than required. I always break my own rule and end up with one batch that goes flat.
The picture on the left is the batch that just come out of the oven and the picture on the right is when the puffs went poof!
The picture on the left is the batch that just come out of the oven and the picture on the right is when the puffs went poof!
In the picture below the left is the puff that when flat and the right is the nicely cooked puff which stayed puff up after it has cooled. So remember, no cream patch look...cooked it until thoroughly browned.
Whether you use milk or water, it does not matter. The different is only in color. So in my recipe I use half milk and half water.
Price of butter is getting pricey each year so I decided to substitute it with Margarine in my choux dough ingredient. You can use butter. Nothing beats butter but I am going cheap due to the extreme cost of butter lately.
To replace the missing butter taste, I add evaporated milk. Hopefully the incorporation of milk will still continue to make the pastry rich and buttery.
My choux dough recipe is a cheaper version as the cost of price
The Choux Dough Ingredient – Cheap Version
4 eggs
½ cup of evaporated milk
½ cup of water
1 cup of flour
120g of Margarine
The dough rises higher, more puffy, darker and thinner.
The Choux Dough Ingredient – Original Version
4 eggs
1 cup of water
1 cup of flour
120g of Butter
The dough do not rise as high as above and light in color
IMPORTANT TIP: Do not let the uncooked dough sit in the baking tray. It will produce a flat looking dough result.
Another important clue for my higher puffy dough is the fact that I left the cooked dough to sit for more than 8 hours at room temperature with a wet covered cloth. I do not know if this has any effect to make the dough as is but its worth to note this point.
Pour a little cooking oil on the baking tray then use kitchen paper to wipe the oil all over the pan. It is another cheaper version than using my precious butter. Another way is use baking paper which I am too lazy to cut out.
I use two spoons to spoon drop the dough.
The Pastry Cream
2 cups of milk
¼ teaspoon salt
4 tbsp tapioca flour
½ cup and 1tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
50g of butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
- Whisk salt, flour, eggs and sugar in a bowl.
- Cook milk until it bubbles at the side and steam is produce when you scoop it with a spoon. Pour the half of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisking at the same time.
- Return the mixture to the saucepan, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula; return to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a few bubbles burst on the surface and the mixture is thickened and glossy.
- When it has cold down to luke warm, cover it with cling film plastic to avoid skin forming.
The pastry cream was firm enough to hold its own shape. I probably add too much tapioca flour but I found it pleasant enough. The taste was unique - salty sweet - maybe need to trim down the salt but then again it was an interesting taste. I cannot say better than whipped cream but it was good.
