The very definition of an epic mess is when you’re left cleaning chocolate from between your toes. And yes, I probably should have expected that when I set out to recreate my eclair doodle from the announcement post, not quite realizing that 3 different glazes and 6 different colors and 2 different fillings plus drizzles and sprinkles would use up every bowl and spoon in the house. It’s one thing to imagine the mess you’ll make and another thing entirely to actually make it.

We made two different filling flavors, both based on a vanilla bean pastry cream. One had a touch of almond extract, the other, bourbon. I accidentally made less of the bourbon filling, turning us into prospectors hunting for the hidden gold (aka bourbon). It’s like when you take your chances with the box of chocolates, hoping you don’t get the nasty coconut one, except we were all hoping we’d choose the bourbon eclair. The almond was good, admittedly, but the bourbon was better. But, overall? Not too bad. Definitely not something to be scared of, and not nearly as ‘challenging’ as some of the previous challenges. I think the piping is perhaps the hardest part, but the pastries puff up so much when baked that it pretty much masks any imperfections, and whatever’s left gets covered up by the thick chocolate glaze. If only all of my mistakes could be covered with chocolate glaze…

Pâte à choux. A fancy name for a pretty simple dough that starts on the stovetop, and finishes in the mixer. The result is smooth and shiny, like a thick and elastic cake batter that holds its shape when piped.

Tip: put your pastry bag in a drinking glass, folding down the top over the rim to make for easy loading.

There is no leavening agent in eclairs; rather, they rely on steam to create the crisp outer shells and hollow centers screaming to be filled with sweet pastry cream.

I used a small star tip to ‘inject’ the filling into the centers. You are supposed to make holes in the sides of the pastries anyway when they come out of the oven (to help release steam and keep them from collapsing), so it’s not as hard as it seems. You can also get a specialty ‘filling’ tip for your pastry bag instead of a star tip, which would make this job even easier.

I will say that they are not lying when they say that eclairs are best enjoyed the day they are made: day old eclairs are not pleasant. The chocolate glaze held up at least, although the pastries themselves were a bit soggy. The ones with the powdered sugar glaze (the maple, white, and colored ones) melted and oozed all over the oven (where we stored them overnight because cats). It wasn’t pretty.

Luckily we all ate our fill of them before (“mini” means you can totally justify eating 3 or 4, right?) so they didn’t all go to waste. Another challenge in the books! I was very impressed with your submissions as well. Although I did have a few cream puff submissions, which weren’t technically part of the challenge (cream puffs use the same general techniques but skip over the piping step in lieu of round spoonfuls) but I’ve included them here nonetheless because they were just so gosh darn pretty.

Beth, Beth’s Blue Plate Special Beth, Beth’s Blog Zainab, Blahnik Baker Cat, Food Family Finds Clarisse, The Tummy Train Erica, Kensington, MD Eva, Eva Bakes Gianna, Olive Oil, Salt, & Pepper Kate, Philippines Kelly, Cups + Spoonfuls Liz, The Floating Kitchen Meriem, Culinary Couture Sarah, Flour & Spice Terra, Mckinney, TX Linda, Bunch with Joy Stephanie, Mother, I’d Like to Blog Mabel, Miss Hangry Pants

Thanks for playing along! I’ll be announcing the next kitchen challenge in June, in the meantime, happy baking!