Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs, which I never quite made the right way

My second Daring Bakers challenge, this time the assignment was to prepare Chocolate Éclairs. This month’s hosts were Tony Tahhan and Meeta K – be sure to check their blogs for advice on eclairs.

As for me, I have already made eclairs once, they came out ok, and I would say the result was so-so this time as well. You see, for me eclairs need to be firm, you should be able to eat them while holding them in your hand and at the same time you should be able to avoid getting chocolate or the filling cream all over your face and hands. I made them twice during the last month and both times the eclairs puffed up nicely in the oven, but later shrunk back a bit and became soft. So, I filled them up and covered with the glaze, but it was impossible to eat them with your bare hands – they would just fall apart. Both times! I guess they are not just my thing…

However, if you are not afraid of the challenge, do try them. The recipe is below (makes 20-24 Éclairs) – follow the five steps:

Step 1: prepare the Pâte à Choux, also known as Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a regular bowl.  Let the dought cool down for about 10 minutes. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating (either with hand or mixer) after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be put in the oven.

Step 2: bake the Éclairs:

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Step 3: prepare Chocolate Pastry Cream (you are welcome to use whatever filling you like, I made it exactly as in the challenge, but acutally would have prefered a vanilla filling or something  alike..this recipe was quite demanding and in the end I don’t think it was worth the hassle)

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.  In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled.  Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it  remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Step 4: prepare the Chocolate Glaze

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly.  Then reduce the heat  to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Step 5: Assemble the éclairs (just before serving)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

4) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Tasting the bubbly

Champagne – sparkling wine, northeastern region of France, popping corks and wild celebrations, “Sovetskoje” (for Eastern-European people at least), F1 winners, glamor – this is what I think of when hearing this word. I don’t know much about those bubbly wines (or for regular wines for that matter), but I do like to have a glass or two from time to time. Recently I was also in a wine-tasting event at ComoComo, a chic and entertaining restaurant in Brussels of which I wrote some weeks ago, and that was an event to remember. Will write about it sometime in the future, because today I want to concentrate on Champagne, the region of France and the drink.

Last Friday me and J thought we should do something interesting over the weekend and decided go to Champagne. We started to arrange things and found a car, a place to stay, some landmarks for sightseeing and some good restaurants where to have dinner.  On Saturday we were already on our way to France,  heading to Reims (or Rhhhhhans, the way you are suppose to pronounce it), the center of the Champagne’s wine growing district.

 

It is a lovely city. A very important one in French history as well - all the kings of France from Louis the Pious in 815 to Charles X in 1825 were crowned here at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. It is also said that the French nation was born here in A.D. 498.  Pretty impressive, huh? I would have gone to Reims only because of the cathedral itself – imagine yourself walking inside what I call a super-sized church where the crowning of kings used to took place…and it is free of charge!

There are several champagne houses in Reims or in its outskirts and you might have a lot of trouble deciding where to go. I guess they are all offering the same kind of service – a bit of history of the house, a tour in the cellars where you’ll hear about the champagne-making process and the best part – wine tasting – in the end.

The websites of the different wineries are pretty impressive – have a look at G. H. Mumm, Veuve Clicquot, Piper-Heidsieck, Laurent Perrier…Mumm got the best reviews from Tripadvisor and thus was our first choice. Not only was it rated as the best winery experience, it was also within the walking-distance from the center of Reims where we stayed (about 20 min walk). All the others were a bit far and  you needed a car…but who is to drive when they offer wine tasting at the end of the tour?

To be on the safe side, call in advance and book a visit, otherwise you might be turned down at the door, especially in summer. I had the pleasure of calling them, after I had practiced my French with J on the car on our way to Reims. I did succeed in booking us a visit, in French! Although I stayed within the basic lines, like “Est-il possible de réserver une visite pour deux personnes, d’aujourd’hui pour cinq heures?”, I felt like I had achieved something great. Talking in French in France, all by myself. Man was I proud of myself!

This feeling was of course diminished later that day when we reached the G. H. Mumm winery. The lady from the reception switched directly to English when I tried to say something like “Nous avons une réservation pour une visite“…It’s the French “rrrrr” that I am not comfortable with. But anyways – our first trip, when we reached Reims, was to Mumm, where we walked through the center of the town, passing the amazing cathedral and some other sights.

Mumm was really a nice experience – I highly recommend it. The building itself was so pretty and the first door we saw had a sign “Public Relations” on it. Had I had my CV at hand, I would have handed it in for consideration.

But about the tour now. When you buy a ticket fort he tour, you must choose how many Campaigns you’d like to taste - depending on that you either pay €8 or up to €19.50. The tour started with a short film about the history of Mumm champagne, followed by a guided tour in the caves (7 and 14 m underground) where some 25 million bottles are stored!

There are kilometers of tunnels underground which form a network of “streets”, each named after surrounding Champagne region’s villages. The longest “street”, seen in the picture below, is 400 m long and  called Champs-Élysées. You can see meters of slowly fermenting champagne, all waiting to be in someone’s hand or table in about a few years.

The guide told us plenty about the technology of production of champagne, starting from where the grapes are grown and ending with how Champagne ends up being sec or demi-sec.  Did you know that it takes about 5 years to finish one bottle of champagne? It all starts with harvesting (mostly by hand), then the  primary fermentation and bottling takes place, after which a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast (each brand has its own secret recipe) and several grams of sugar. According to the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée a minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop all the flavor. During this time the champagne bottle is sealed with a crown cap similar to that used on beer bottles. Wines from Champagne cannot legally be sold until it has aged on the lees (the sediment) in the bottle for at least 15 months in the case of non-vintage Champagne.

After aging (a minimum from one and a half to three years), the sediment must be consolidated for removal. The bottles undergo a process known as riddling (see the picture). In this stage the bottles are placed on special racks called pupitres. This places the bottles at a 45º with the cork pointed down. Every few days the bottles are given a slight shake and turn and dropped back into the pupitres (eventually the angle is increased). The drop back into the rack causes a slight tap, pushing sediments toward the neck of the bottle. In about 6 to 8 weeks the position of the bottle is pointed straight down with sediment in the neck of the bottle. Professional riddlers can shape up to 40 000 bottles a day! Manual riddling is not very common anymore – most of this process is done with machines now.

Now, if the sediment is finally in the neck of the bottle, it must be removed. Usuallythe method is the following – the bottles are chilled, the neck is frozen, and the cap is then removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the ice containing the lees, some syrup is added to maintain the level within the bottle and the bottle is then quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide level in the bottle. Then the bottles are washed and labeled.

 

Through the whole champagne-making process the champagne stays in the same bottle – so for example, the fancy Mumm bottle you get in a restaurant or from a shop, has actually been in the cellars for several years, all dusty and dirty, before it goes through the washing up and labeling.

Mumm champagne  is usually made in bottles as big as 750 ml, but there are also smaller and bigger bottles, each of which have a name – have a look at the picture below.

The tour ends with wine-tasting. We chose to taste two different champagnes, just enough, had we had three, we would be too drunk to find our way back to the hotel…Mumm bubbles rocked!

So much of the tour and Mumm champagne. A bit more about Reims now.

If you are looking for a quality wine, champagne or other alcoholic beverage, you might want to stop by at La Grande Boutique du Vin, which is even open on Saturday. You might want to go there with car to buy some boxes of good liquids…

As for dinner – we picked this restaurant because it had good reviews and it was also suggested by the hotel. However, I should have done some more research on it…Le Millénaire was nice, very nice, even very very extra super nice, but my god was it pricey! Only like 100% over our budget…but the food was so tasty and service excellent, so in the end it was all worth it. But if you are traveling with small budget, I recommend you to find something else.

By the way, popping cork when opening a champagne bottle actually shows one does not respect the bubbles. You see, in order to get the best champagne experience, you should open a bottle quietly, thus keeping more bubbles in the wine, making the glorious sparkling fizz last longer and making the drinking of it a lot more pleasurable. It’s also a lot safer, with no flying corks involved, but of course less exciting than the alternative method.

I tried to find some guidelines on which champagne to pair with which food. Of course, wine and food pairings is an individual choice just because every person’s sense of taste is different. In general, each person should decide for him or herself what combinations of wine and food taste good – don’t worry about what anyone else says should work.

However, I found some guidelines on this – see the table below. Typically, you want to drink light-to-dark, just as when you plan a meal you start with delicate tastes and work towards heavier tastes. For this reason, Champagne tends to go very well with appetizers or opening courses in a meal. It also goes well with sushi and very light meals, and of course as an after-dinner celebration!

All in all, trust your own judgment, and eat and drink what you enjoy.

	Extra Dry	Brut	Blanc de Blanc	Blanc de Noir
Mild Cheese				-
Strong Cheese
Appetizers
Shrimp, crab, lobster	-
Shellfish	-
Seafood w/lite sauce	-
Seafood w/cream sauce	-	-	-	-
Grilled fish	-	-	-	-
Pasta w/cream sauce	-	-	-	-
Pasta w/red sauce	-	-	-	-
Asian food				-
Poultry
Pork	-	-	-	-
Beef	-	-	-	-
Fruit/Dessert
Chocolate	-	-	-	-

Healthy chicken rolls

This recipe actually comes from Weight Watchers – it was mentioned in one of Estonian newspapers as a possible Christmas meal, a healthy one. We Estonians like to eat a lot (like huge amounts) of food during this particular holiday…you visit your friends and family and during every visit you eat like madman because the food is so good!

This dish, which is not that heavy, can therefore be a possible Christmas dish. I served it in the middle of summer (call it something like practicing for Christmas Eve dinner) and it also suited well. Especially when it was a (usual) rainy and cloudy evening here in Brussels.

So. I had about 250 g chicken fillet from which I made 8 chicken rolls which is more than enough for two. If you have a bigger crowd to feed, adjust the amount of ingredients accordingly.

• 250 g chicken fillet, cut into 8 thin slices
• 8 dried plums
• ca 3 tbsp cream cheese
• salt and pepper
• water and some oil
• wooden toothpicks or thread

# Sprinkle chicken slice with some salt and pepper and place a dried plum and some cream cheese on one side of the fillet.

# Roll the chicken fillet and fix the roll either with toothpicks or thread. Prepare all the rolls.

#  Heat the oil in a pan and place chicken rolls into the hot pan. Fry until browned on both sides. Pour some water into the pan (the chicken rolls should be almost covered with the water) and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes. Add some water if necessary.

# When done, place the rolls in a plate, remove the toothpicks or thread and place on a serving plate. Serve with some potatoes or steamed veggies. I offered potato-broccoli puree as a side dish and it suited well. As a sauce, use the liquid from the pan, it is very tasty!

I was amazed – this dish is so easy to prepare and such a lovely combination of colours, tastes and flavours! A bit spicy chicken balances the sweetness of the plum so nicely, I couldn’t help being mad for not preparing more of those rolls.

J suggested that one can even make a bit smaller rolls and then offer them as a snack served with a toothpick on a buffet table. Great idea, huh?

Chocolate cream for a lazy person

Pardon me, but I have been lazy and not doing a proper job in the kitchen. I tried to do a plaited bread about a week ago and well, let’s not call it a success. Let’s call it a total failure. The dough was not right, the filling was too sweet, and the outcome was far from a plaited bread. More like a strange looking pone. The smell was good though. But that was all that was good. It was too sweet and ugly. J blamed the oven, so did I.

Other than that, I have been lazy. I have made dishes that are already up in this blog. I have made pasta dishes and potato dishes, I have made oven casseroles which traditionally fall apart because I either use too much cream or too little eggs. I have made woked apples and peaches. The peaches were good actually, but I did not have camera at hand, so I might do them again just for the picture. And the taste of course.

So, I haven’t tried anything new. Well, this laziness stops now. I hope. But let’s be honest, today’s post is more like a dish for a lazy person. But its a start, so stop judging me.

Well, let’s say it is summer and you have just finished your dinner and want some dessert and then discover that you have only some ricotta in you fridge. What you must do, is the following: mix ricotta with sugar and cacao, add also some vanilla. Melt some chocolate and add it to the cream, also stir in some Baileys. You might also want to add some chopped nuts. And serve it with a chocolate biscuit. Yummy! And oh so rich that I thought I need to go running for two hours at least when I finished it…but then again, what is there in life when you can’t eat stuff that you like whenever you want it?

Peasoup with peppermint and grilled salmon

Sound weird? I also thought that when I saw the recipe in one of the Estoninan newspaper…so you have a green pea soup which tastes like peppermint and which is served with salmon. Strange, right? But, as said in last post, you should eat fish every week and I try to be open for new tastes and challenges, so I decided to give this recipe a try.

Originally it should serve 4 but I don’t know whether it was because my plates were to big or I measured the quantities wrong, but I could only squeeze 3 platefuls of soup out of it. Ok, you might have salmon enough for 4 but in case you are serving it for four not for two as I did, I suggest you to increase the amount of ingredients.

And what else – please don’t use chicken stock or any other stock to season the soup. I had this plan at the beginning – you know, whenever you are doing a creamy soup and are not satisfied with the taste (maybe it is too bland) then if you pour some stock in it, it usually comes out ok every time. But with this soup using stock is forbidden. Seriously. You would just kill the taste of peas and peppermint and that would ruin the soup.

500 g salmon

400 g frozen green peas

50 g butter

2 small onion, chopped

150 ml dry white wine

salt

500 ml water

handful of chopped peppermint leaves

2 tbsp olive oil

juice of a half lemon

0.5 tsp pepper and some lemon pepper

200 ml cream (35%)

 

# Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, add peas and onion and heat through. Add white wine and simmer for about 15 minutes. Season with salt, add the water and simmer until the peas are soft.

# Process the potful into a nice creamy soup. Push the soup through a sieve, add peppermint and process a bit more, to mix in the peppermint.

# Cut the salmon into four, rub in with olive oil and salt and fry until browned on each side (for about 2 min). Then place salmon in an oven dish, sprinkle with lemon juice and pepper and bake at 190 degrees C for 6 minutes.

# Add the cream to the soup and bring to boil. Adjust seasoning – you might want to add some salt. Serve immediately – place soup into a soup bowl, put salmon in the centre and top it of with some whipping cream (not sweet!).

Indeed, this was something different. With all its freshness it is a perfect summer soup. A nice presentation as well, so if you are looking a first course to impress your guests, this is it.