August Daring Bakers - Chocolate Eclairs!

This post will be short and sweet, literally and figuratively! I've been super busy as I mentioned a few posts below. Things haven't slowed down with all the planning and preparing for the big move back to civilization.

I did find time to cram a few rounds of these wonderful pockets of delectable goodness in, however. This month's Daring Bakers Challenge is courtesy of Meeta @ What's For Lunch Honey and Tony @ Tony Tahhan. In special homage to one of pastry's demigods, they chose chocolate ecliars from Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.

I love eclairs, I love cream puffs, I love them probably a bit to much for the vanity of my waistline, but how could I resist making these delectable goodies? I made these twice this month, once following the recipe as written, and the second time experimenting with the choux dough and trying my hand at different fillings.

My first attempt generated a choux that was a little eggy. After some discussion with fellow DB-ers, I ended up beating the eggs into the warm flour mixture longer between each addition. That seemed to do the trick!

The other thing I did on the second go round was cut the flour back by a quarter, and add double that amount in cocoa powder. I adjusted the liquid only a little. This created a chocolate choux dough that I proceeded to fill with vanilla and chocolate diplomat creams. I have to say, I really enjoyed the chocolate choux, the only adjustment I might make next time is add a bit more sugar OR roll/sprinkle the dough with sugar before baking to sweeten it up a bit. Even with the sweetness of the filling, the chocolate choux could have been a little sweeter :).

Here's some pictures. I slacked horribly this month. I was hoping to find a day where I could dedicate the time to make this for a post, but that never came to fruition. Made both eclairs and small cream puffs! They were delectable and my co-workers couldn't believe I could throw down and make something like this! They liked the eclairs better from an eatability perspective than the puffs...



The recipe can be found on Meeta's blog (or many DBer's pages), so I'll refrain from posting it again. I will certainly be making this many many more times in the future!