Lemon and White Chocolate Eclairs

Baby boy is coming home! I had made these éclairs to go with the spiced lemon curd I had made a few weeks ago. I was so excited about the lemon curd, I totally forgot about the éclairs; yep, that’s just how I roll.  Well, not really but this past month I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking so I have enough material to regularly update the blog without spending all my time in the kitchen becauuuse…baby boy is coming home for the summer! So of course I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen while he’s here, OK I’ll probably still be in the kitchen cooking and baking on demand for him but I don’t want to be stuck taking pictures because frankly, for me, the biggest stress point is the photography, the kitchen I really don’t mind.

 

Anyway, baby boy gets here tomorrow and I’m as nervous as I’m excited; he’s travelling alone for the first time. I probably wouldn’t be as worried if all it took was one flight to get here but he’ll have to take three flights to reach home from…home. I think I have a valid reason for being a little jittery though the husband insists I would have been just as worried had it been one flight. No! Ok maybe; either way baby boy seems super excited to be travelling alone, so that’s comforting.

So choux pastry or pate a choux always scared me, I thought it was this super complicated difficult thing but as it turns out, it’s not; it requires just four ingredients and is relatively easy to make. It kind of reminds me of my fear of soyta and how I felt when I finally did make it, but that’s a story for another day (note to self- make soyta). Choux pastry is a great basic recipe to know because like the lemon curd which can used to fill a number of desserts, choux pastry is the base for many savoury as well as sweet dishes. This particular recipe is from a book I have called Chocolate- that’s it, just Chocolate with no author names, nothing else on its cover or inside. I had picked it up years ago when we were in Dubai, because I mean come on, how can you resist buying a book called Chocolate? Anyway I absolutely love this book and the éclair (choux pastry) recipe is adapted from it.

Your eclair should look like this on the inside- kind of hollow, with big holes or gaps.

I love the combination of the tangy, fresh lemon curd with the sweet sweetness of the white chocolate; the two flavours really seem to balance each other out. It’s a refreshing alternative to the heavy chocolate and cream éclairs, which I’m quite sure I’ll be making pretty soon as the husband has dropped more than a few not so subtle hints which include- “this would be really good with chocolate”, “chocolate éclairs are the best”, “my favourite is chocolate éclairs”, “baby boy would like chocolate éclairs” well I don’t know about baby boy but I definitely know what his father would like *major eye roll*

So here it is- the lemon and white chocolate éclairs I had almost forgotten about. I’m off to make cookies for my little cookie monster, and for the next couple of months all my posts will probably start with ‘baby boy is home’.

p.s. – these pretties would also be perfect to celebrate the upcoming Mother’s Day, I know my mother would’ve loved it; I get my love of citrus from her.

Ingredients

For the choux pastry 

• Butter (unsalted)- 70 grams
• Water- 150 ml
• All purpose flour/maida- 100 grams
• Eggs- 2

Lemon Curd recipe can be found here.

• White Chocolate (melted)- 500 grams
• Chopped pistachios and lemon zest- for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Lightly grease a baking tray with butter or baking spray and keep aside.
2. In a saucepan, add water and butter and heat gently till the butter melts. Bring to a rolling boil and take the saucepan off the heat. Immediately add the flour, all at once, beating well (I used a wooden spoon for this) until the mixture forms a ball. Keep aside to cool slightly.
3. Once the flour mixture has cooled, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. It will take a little time for the egg to mix in with the flour mixture, just keep at it (think of it as exercise for your arms) till you have a smooth mixture.
4. Spoon the mixture into a disposable piping bag fitted with a 1 cm nozzle or with a pair of scissors cut the pastry bag to get an opening about a cm wide.
5. Lightly sprinkle the baking tray with a little water. Pipe éclairs about 3 inches long, leaving a gap of about an inch in between each éclair.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the éclairs are nicely brown and crisp.
7. Remove from the oven when done and make a slit (on the side) in each one to let the steam escape. Let the éclairs cool before filling.
8. To fill the éclairs you can either split each éclair length wise all the way or make a slit long enough to easily fill with lemon curd.
9. Once filled, cover the éclairs with the melted white chocolate. Pour or spoon over the white chocolate to cover the top of the éclairs. Top with chopped pistachios and lemon zest.

Notes

*Let the flour mixture cool before adding the eggs.

*It will take a few minutes for the eggs to mix in with the flour mixture, just keep going.

*Make sure your oven is preheated before adding the éclairs. Depending on your oven, it might require a little longer than the given time for the éclairs to be fully cooked through.

*Slit the éclairs once it’s out of the oven, the éclairs should be dry and crisp; the steam will make it soggy.

*Make sure the éclairs have been cooled before filling.

*Make the lemon curd ahead of time (stays in the refrigerator for up to a week) so you don’t have to do everything all at once.