It was a lazy week for me after a long weekend as the federal holiday, Memorial Day happened to fall on the recent Monday. After cracking my brain on what to bake to fit the respective themes of the baking events I have been participating over the past weeks of the month, I was inspired by a store-bought dessert, Chocolate Éclairs, which a friend had brought along to our recent potluck dinner. And that's definitely one of my favourite pastry desserts!
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| Chocolate Éclairs (Minis) |
Just like my past bakes, I would do a fair bit of research by comparing the various recipes, reading the reviews and comments of others who have attempted, including watching online videos on the making process, if available before I embark on my own baking experiment. Honestly, I felt a little intimidated after doing my homework because it seems like the challenge faced by many is in the making of the choux pastry, otherwise called
pâte à choux, or simply known as the "shells" of the éclairs. Finally, I decided and settled on
Paula Deen's Chocolate Stuffed Eclairs recipe found on FoodNetwork.com, but guess what? My choux pastry, that is the shells of the éclairs turned out to be a success on my first attempt and I actually failed on the chocolate cream filling. @_@! I suppose I'm one of the fewer minority for that matter. The chocolate cream filling felt like the texture of red bean paste, if you know what I am referring. Somehow somewhere, I couldn't figure how and where it went wrong. So I quickly turned to the
crème pâtissière of the alternative recipe by
Gale Gand's Chocolate Eclairs which I've kept from my research and made a vanilla cream filling for my éclairs instead. And there goes my original plan of finishing up the last two episodes of my Taiwanese drama after my bake when a half day baking affair took almost the entire of my day. Thought I could enjoy these éclairs for my tea-break which I didn't get to have one today, and ended having these éclairs as an after-dinner dessert. Still, this is definitely worth it!
I am sharing this post with the event, Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) organised by
Bake For Happy Kids and
My Little Favourite DIY hosted by Tze of
Awayofmind Bakery House.
(P.S. And I realised I have past the submission deadlines for the respective baking events, namely The Biscuit Barrel Challenge (May 2014: Favourites) organised by Laura of
I'd Much Rather Bake Than…, AlphaBakes (May 2014: Letter "E") hosted by Ros of
The More than Occasional Baker & Caroline of
Caroline Makes, and Treat Petite May 2014 theme, World Baking Day hosted by Kat of
The Baking Explorer & Stuart of
Cakeyboi, which I had intended to share this baking post with when I was ready to publish this post. @_@!)
