Vanilla Bean Eclairs with Raspberry Glaze

I made these some time late last year. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out cos they looked so girlish pink, and almost too pretty to be eaten.

Vanilla Bean Eclairs with Raspberry Glaze

eclairs in the making; vanilla bean specked custard cream 

I was reading a very informative article about choux making by Ilan of Iron Whisk (article link below), and his post was so detailed that I immediately had the urge to bake some choux. I was in the mood to explore, so I decided that I would make a fruity eclair. The initial plan was to make a raspberry custard eclair with raspberry glaze, but after some thought, I decided to scrape that idea and just make a vanilla bean custard instead as my family is not a big fan of sour fruits desserts, and raspberries tend to have quite a tart flavour.

I was so pleased when the eclairs puffed out so well, but I think I used a smaller piping tip than required cos I got tons of medium small eclairs (and also, cramps in my fingers from my attempt at piping all of them in straight even sized lines).

Glazed

So love the gorgeous vibrant shade of magenta berry pink shade of the glaze that I didn't even do any filtering for the photos. I normally process my images through Lightroom filters, which could change the overall colour tone. But for these pictures, any editing would have altered the pretty bright pink shade that I just omitted the process.

I decided to decorate the eclairs two ways. One with chopped raspberries and silver dust, and two, with a fresh raspberry on top. It was a pity I didn't have any fresh mint on hand to give it a contrasting pop of green colour. But hey, I'm actually growing fresh mint (that the colleagues gave me last November for my birthday) now, so hopefully, I'll have plenty of mint to use soon.

What flavours should I try next for choux pastries? I've yet to try matcha, or yuzu, or chocolate, or milk tea flavours. Perhaps I'll try one of these the next time I make choux pastries...

Vanilla Bean Eclairs with Raspberry Glaze
(makes about two dozen eclairs)

Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream
2 cups milk
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
130g sugar
5 egg yolks
35g corn starch
30g unsalted butter, room temperature

Combine milk, vanilla bean seeds and half the sugar into a saucepan. Throw in the scraped vanilla bean too if you like.
Heat the saucepan on med heat till the mixture is brought to a simmer.
Whisk together the remaining half of the sugar and corn starch in a bowl. Add the egg yolks and whisk together till a smooth paste forms.
Slowly temper the yolk mixture with the heated milk mixture, adding the milk bit by bit, whisking to mix the custard.
Pour the custard back into the saucepan, heat over low heat, whisking constantly to prevent burning. When the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, remove from heat, strain using sieve into a bowl.
Stir in the butter, then cover with clingwrap, refrigerate till ready to use (Refrigerate for a few hours at least for the custard to set).

Eclairs (adapted from Ilan at Iron Whisk)
75g milk
75g water
75g butter
5g salt
5g sugar
100g bread flour
150g eggs, lightly beaten (about 3 eggs)

For detailed step by step instructions, pop over to Ilan's website (I'm quite lazy to type all of it out :P)

Raspberry glaze
100g icing sugar
2 tbsp raspberry puree, strained

Mix the icing sugar and raspberry puree together. Use immediately.

Assembly
Transfer custard cream into a piping bag.
Poke a hole into the end of the eclair, fill with custard cream. Repeat for remaining eclairs.
To glaze the eclairs, dip the top of the eclair into the glaze, then flip it over again, cleaning the edges to clear away excess glaze.
Set aside on a rack for glaze to set, repeat with remaining eclairs.
Decorate as you wish (I used chopped fresh raspberries, silver powder, and fresh whole raspberries).
Serve immediately.