First on the First - Eclairs


OK, first confession.  It's not my first time making eclairs.  But it IS my first time with gluten-free eclairs, so that should count, right?
The recipe for these is a riff on the one in Chef Coppedge's Gluten Free Baking With the Culinary Institue of America.  The riff was mostly based on the fact that I don't keep his flour blends mixed up any more and I had to go with what was in my pantry.

1/4 c. unsalted butter
1/4 c. water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. of GF AP flour (I used my blend, which isn't too different from the blend called for in the book. Any non-bean-based GF flour is probably OK)
2 Tbsp potato starch
1 Tbsp whey powder
1 Tbsp egg replacer
1 Tbsp guar gum
4 eggs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a bowl, combine flour, potato starch, whey powder, and egg replacer.  Set aside.
Bring butter, salt, and water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add flour mixture.  Stir until all liquid is incorporated.  Continue to cook and stir a few minutes more until mixture comes together in one mass, more or less.
Place batter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium until room temperature.  Sprinkle the guar gum over the top and mix to combine.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated before adding the next.
Transfer batter to a piping bag and pipe eclairs onto parchment paper.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until brown and crsipy.

And now it's maybe time for a second confession:  I'd forgotten all about First on the First until the 29th.  Oops.  And I get home from work on Wednesdays around 9 PM.  Also - I hate custard.  So what's a worn out girl with no time on her hands to do when it comes to filling her eclairs?
Maybe pull out the leftover German Buttercream from yesterday?


For the recipe, see the inestimable Brave Tart.
Thaw a pint of strawberries, and add 1/4 c. of sugar and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice?


Yeah, why not?  I did mash the strawberries, and then piped the buttercream into the sliced eclairs and spooned the berries on top.  You could drizzle them with some melted chocolate if you like.  I prefer my strawberries uncontaminated.


Next time I try these, I'll probably add about 1 Tbsp of sugar to the pate a choux - I think the eclairs would brown better.  I think I may also have overcooked the flour and butter mixture, as they didn't puff as much as I'd have liked and promptly fell as soon as they came out of the ove.
The still taste good, though!

See you next month!

Comments

  1. They look fantastic to me! I enjoy gluten free baking, but I think making eclairs gluten free would be very hard:-) Beautiful job, Take care, Terra
    www.CafeTerraBlog.com

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  2. LOve love the strawberries & "cream" idea and agree that chocolate would ruin it. Since we are being 100% honesty, I prefer cream puffs...stuffed with ice cream :)

    And I'm very impressed with gluten-free pate a choux!

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  3. Haha, glad to find someone else who remembered to do this on the 29th! I'm not a custard fan either - LOVE the buttercream!

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  4. I didn't make mine until VERY late on the 29th and into the wee hours on the 1st, so you're not the only one. :) Love the buttercream addition!

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