Mini Éclairs with Strawberries & Cream

Recipe by Cook's Hideout

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 2 Theme: Bookmarked Recipes Dish: Mini Eclairs For Day 2 of this week's marathon, I have these cute little mini eclairs I made back in April for the Easter party at home. I was always under the impression that eclairs are very difficult to make, on the contrary these are quite easy to put together and are sure to impress the guests. The first time I heard the word 'Éclair', I thought it the Cadbury chocolate eclairs we used to eat as kids. But this one is actually a French pastry that is made...

Ingredients

• (1.25l) fish stock (Whole)
• (1.25l) fish stock
• (1.25l) fish stock (-  or ½ a stick)
• (1.25l) fish stock
• (1.25l) fish stock
• 2 eggs (- large)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean seeds (- scraped (or use 1tsp vanilla extract))
• 2 tbsp sugar (Confectioners)
• 2 cups strawberries (- hulled & chopped)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsps mint (- finely chopped)

Method

1. Make Éclair: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring butter, milk, water and salt to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in flour.
3. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 3~4 minutes.
4. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixture or to a mixing bowl. Using a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, mix until the mixture is cool slightly, about 1 minute. With the machine running, add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Transfer dough to a piping bag fitted with a ½" round or star tip.
6. Pipe 20 2½" long eclairs onto the baking sheet.
7. Bake until the eclairs rise and are golden brown, about 20~25 minutes.
8. Transfer to wore rack to cool.
9. Make Vanilla Cream: Combine heavy cream, vanilla seeds and confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour. Beat the cream until soft peaks form. Keep chilled until ready to use.
10. Macerate the Berries: Combine the berries with sugar and mint. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until ready o use.
11. To Serve: Split eclairs in half lengthwise and pipe vanilla cream onto the eclair bottoms. Spoon macerated berries on top of the cream and sandwich with eclair tops. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately.

View the recipe instructions at Cook's Hideout