How-To Make a Foolproof Eclair
At Home! Oh YES, you can!
“There are certain French pastries that feel better left to the French.”
The dainty French Macaron, perfectly caramelized Canelés and while we’re at it, let’s add the elusive Chocolate Eclair to the list!
Personally, my American pride is stoked whenever I hear my French husband make a statement like this, which is what inspired me to shoot my Foolproof Macaron Video on YouTube years ago, which is still climbing at something like over 6 million views?! Apparently, it struck a chord. You can read about my impetus for developing that recipe in a Huffington Post Article I wrote on the subject.
With spring brunches, baby showers and Mother’s Day coming up, I thought my eclair recipe could come in handy!
We’ll Cover:
How to make the shells and keep them nice and crispy (yes, you can freeze them!)
How to create a luscious pastry cream and what to watch out for when making it.
Glazing the eclairs and how to prep them ahead.
Cookbook Update!
Today is a glorious day in the cookbook process! Why you may ask? Well, because last night, around 11:02pm, bleary eyed and stuffed from too many batches of what might just be my all-time, favorite Thanksgiving stuffing recipe that I couldn’t stop eating, I submitted my last recipe to the publisher! That’s 101 recipes folks in less than 7 months! Phew! All I can say is it feels like I just climbed Mount Everest!
Oh, but the process is far from over. After I test and re-test my recipes for the book, sometimes dozens of times (Blueberry Pie Recipe, I’m looking at you!) The recipes then get sent to NYC and get tested again, but this time by the publisher’s tester (this is why I held out for a big publisher, because they have the resources for things like this!) I’ll then take his feedback, make any adjustments, or perhaps RE-TEST the recipe again until it’s perfect!
They say writing a Cookbook is a “labor of Love” and boy do I see what they mean! But, I’ve become so engrossed in this process (maybe a bit obsessed by it) that I just want it to be the “Best Thing I’ve Ever Done!” (how’s that for pressure?!) and I can honestly say these recipes are really some of my best work and I CANNOT wait to share them with all of you!
Picking Surfaces
While we’re on the subject of “making things perfect”, this week I had a lovely visit to a local stone yard with my photographer to pick out surfaces. Now normally, when I shoot for my blog, I use “faux stone surfaces” like the image of the eclair above, which was shot on one of those. This is fine for the blog, but for the cookbook…I want the REAL thing! Real marble, and soapstone and the like, which will just add so much more depth and soul to the photography.
But, as I would learn, there’s really no such thing as casually "shopping for marble slabs”, you don’t just flip through them like a magazine, each one needs to be moved by…(gulp) a little truck with a mechanical arm.
Looky Here…Crazy Huh?
Next Week?
We’ll go shopping for clothes for the cookbook! One of my favorite French Clothing Brands, Sezane has offered to supply all the clothes for the book! YAY! I’ll give you a little preview of my shopping trip next week! xx
I never thought eclairs would be within the realm of possibility to make at home but now I’m thinking these are going to be showing up in our kitchen this summer.
Couple comments/questions: 1) Are you having your viewers test your recipes? 2) Are you redoing your kitchen? 3) I find looking on HOUZZ for countertop idea and what looks good is a great place to pick out something — even if it’s a set design for photos.