daring bakers: i declare my love of éclairs!

if you must know - and as you can probably tell from the more than pathetic results - i did this at midnight the night before the deadline. and i am so pissed at myself because when meeta from what's for lunch honey along with tony of olive juice picked pierre hermé's classic chocolate éclairs i was so frickin' excited! does it really need explaining? i mean, doesn't everyone love éclairs? plus, i've never made the choux before, so i was definitely on to the challenge!

hmm, challenge ... by definition, doesn't that mean i shouldn't have left it the last minute? yes, i know, but stay with me here. i halved the recipe, because i'm trying to train, and having a box of fresh éclairs around was not going to help. first batch of choux came out runny after i beat in the eggs. me thinks it wasn't the eggs but that i didn't mix and heat the dough thing long enough.

i am far from even being a novice, let alone expert, in this stuff - so i had really no idea, but the reasoning sounded good at the time. so the second batch had the dough thing mixed and heated for at least 4 minutes, and this time the eggs added beautifully and i had a nice pipable dough. coincidence? who knows, i'm just happy it worked. so now they were baking good, golden brown, rising up, out of the oven ...

and the damn things deflated! and became soggy!! i think the main reason is because i left them - by mistake (see midnight baking circumstances, above) - on the hot baking sheet to cool instead of putting them on the rack. me thinks that it must need the air circulation. i also read the tip from foodbeam to poke a hole in the bottom once they're done to let the steam escape. makes perfect sense, thanks hindsight!



i wanted to cry. of course i want things i bake to come out correctly. but because this was new and because i love éclairs, i really really wanted these to come out better than ever! and now they were just soggy eggy hot dog buns!!

thankfully the over the top death by chocolate pastry cream made up for it!

so dear darling choux ... i may have failed you this time, but you have not seen the last of me, i promise i will make you proud!

and i promise if you take a look at some of my fellow daring bakers, you will be drooling to make your own éclairs today! they are an amazing group, and every time i think about dropping out of this thing (hello time management problems) i am always pulled right back in by all the gorgeous creativity they show month after month. if these lads and lassies don't inspire you as well, then i don't know what will!

chocolate hot dogs, anyone? ;)