French Friday with Dorie: Éclairs, Éclairettes, and Cream Puffettes

I was really excited about this week's French Friday with Dorie recipe because éclairs evoke fond childhood memories of going to the bakery with my Dad. He was always so patient with me because I took so long in making my selection. I had to carefully look at every pastry in the display case and then I would finally - inevitably - select an éclair with chocolate on top. So I decided that this week I would make what I consider the traditional éclair - my traditional éclair anyway.

I went to three stores this week to look for a piping tip that was at least 2/3 inches as Dorie suggests, but all I could find was a 1/2 inch pastry tip at the baking supply store. The shop owner said that because of the popularity of cupcakes he hasn't been able to keep large tips in the store. When I got home from the store I made my pâte à choux and was so happy (relieved) that it came out just fine. I love how the dough breaks away and then comes together. So fun! Anyway, I fitted my tip on the pastry bag and started piping and thought, "Wow, these look really small!" I carefully piped out the pâte à choux in four-inch lengths leaving about an inch in between each one. I also made some cream puffs because I thought they would be fun to fill with the pastry cream.

Well, when I took them out of the oven I couldn't believe how small the éclairs were! They looked like toy hot dog buns! They no where near looked like those big, beautiful bakery éclairs that I enjoy eating so much. And the puffs were more like puffettes. I frantically looked through my tips again and finally found one that was a bit bigger, but had jagged teeth, so I thought, "What the heck." When I pulled them out of the oven they had ridges and looked similar to a churro with shallower ridges, but at least they were a medium-size. Still not the size I wanted, but at least you wouldn't have to eat 10 of them to equal one normal size éclair.

I had made the pastry cream a few days before and pulled it out of the refrigerator to warm up so that I could fill the éclairs. It was a bit of a challenge to fill the éclairettes. The churro ones were much easier to fill, but the ones that I enjoyed piping the pastry cream into the most were the cream puffettes. It was easier to tell when the puff was filled with the cream. After I finished filling all the pastries, I started making the ganache. I don't know what I did wrong, but my ganache turned out really thick - more like chocolate frosting, but it sure tasted good.

I decided to try again and made more ganache with the same results. Really good flavor, but it thickened too quickly which made it difficult to spread evenly.

Both kids happened to be home while I was working on these and were happy to taste test. They liked the cream puffettes and the churro éclairs better than the éclairettes - only because they were so small! My daughter said that the churro ones were the perfect size because the ones at the bakery are too large and too sweet. They all loved that these were not overly sweet pastries, especially my husband. The éclair itself was light and soft and when you took a bite the pastry cream mixed with the bittersweet ganache tasted so good. Me? I really enjoyed them all, and sampled each size, but I did make one just for me that had milk chocolate glaze - more like the ones I remembered eating as a child.

I can't wait to see what my fellow FFwD members did with the éclairs. I am sure I will be inspired to make different variations the next time I make these. And there will be a next time because these were so much fun to make. Plus, I am determined to try making the ganache again AND I will be buying a larger pastry tip! You can also check out the creations that the FFwD members made over at French Fridays with Dorie.

Next French Friday with Dorie: Mustard Bâtons