Éclair Pie
This is the easiest version for the classic French Pastry, eclairs. We will choose how much pastry cream and ganache frosting we want in our desserts, and we will not be constraint by the shape of the eclairs.
I loved eclairs since I was a little girl, and I am not a dessert person, for sure. I liked the fact that they were in fact not so sweet, and they had both vanilla and chocolate, and none was overpowering.
But every time I baked them, the classic way, I struggled to get them all in a nice shape, some would deflate, some were deformed, and most of them were difficult to glaze and fill. And then we would eat them in a moment…so much work for so little time.
And then came the Éclair Pie revolution. The pastry so easy to be baked thinly, filling and frosting in a matter of a few minutes, the whole cake done in just a few hours. What a treat. The baking of the 2 dough layers takes me one hour, because I bake them one after another, but if you have a big enough oven, or you want to bake them at once in 2 separate levels, it can be reduced to half. And in the meanwhile you can make the cream. So you might have the desert don in less than an hour, and you just have to leave it to cool in the fridge…the hardest part.
But I can assure the simplicity of this dessert will make up in deliciousness. To be honest, this one does not last long in our house.
I hope you try it out, even if you are a beginner, and let me know in the comments if you liked it and what you would change in the recipe.
Éclair Pie
Ingredients
Dough:
- 250 ml water
- 100 g butter or oil
- 125 g flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3-4 eggs 3 if > 60g, 4 if less
Filling:
- 500 ml milk
- 2 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- vanilla
- 45 g cornstarch
- 120 g butter
Ganache coating:
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 150 g whipping cream
Instructions
- In a saucepan boil the water with the butter (oil) and salt.
- When boiling add the flour at once and remove from heat mixing well until flour is all incorporated.
- Return to medium heat 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously, until the dough starts to stick to the bottom a little.
- Remove from heat again and leave to cool until just slightly warm.
- Add the eggs to the dough one by one, and mix well after adding every egg, until the egg is fully incorporated.
- On two parchment papers, draw on each a circle with approximately 24-26 cm diameter, and distribute the dough between those two circles, spreading it uniformly and thinly. I leave a finger between the dough and the circle, in the oven it will expand a lot, more than the circle. So keep that in mind.
- Bake the circles on the back of a baking tray, in a preheated oven at 220°C for 10 min, then lower the heat to 180°C and bake them 20 min more.
- Remove from the oven and completely cool on a cooling rack.
- While the circles bake, prepare the filling by mixing the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and corn starch. I start with just a little milk and the rest of ingredients until they are completely mixed, and then I add the rest.
- Cook the filling on a medium heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens.
- Remove from the heat and add the butter in the hot mixture, stirring very well until the mixture is smooth.
- Leave it to cool (covered) or cool it on a water bath.
- Lay one of the circles on a serving plate, add the cooled filling, layer the other circle on top and press slightly.
- For the ganache, chop the chocolate, heat the whipping cream until it starts to boil, and add it to the chocolate.
- Stir patiently until smooth and pour on top of the cake.
- Leave for at least two hours in the fridge and then serve.