Parisian Chocolate Eclairs

I admit I have been a chocolate eclair

lover since I first started baking as a

young girl, but I have always been just

a little disappointed in how they turned

out and how soggy they became.

Then I went to Paris and experienced

the visual delight of rows and rows

of thin, gorgeous eclairs and I knew

I was missing something.

Here is a photo I took in Paris in 2015

at Christmas time.  Of course we sampled

quite a few.

You know how your computers and phones

are suspiciously tracking you and listening in

on conversations?  Well, we are planning a

trip to Europe with our kids and all of a

sudden my Pinterest is just swarming with

pins of eclairs.

I was captured by a photo and the title

of a post by Food Nouveau

on how to make eclairs.  After reading

it, the recipe for the pastry seemed very

typical, but Marie had some tips that

were a little unusual, so I decided to give

her recipe and tips a try, and follow the

instructions exactly - I am not so good at

that, but when we took our pastry classes

in Paris, we learned how exacting that 

teacher was, so I decided to throw some

of my casualness out the door and be

more exacting.

I also decided to pipe my dough out into

thin strips to make them more like my

Parisian favorites, rather than spooning

them out like we always did growing up.

After boiling the water, butter and milk, Marie

said to let the mix cool for about 5 minutes,

stirring a few times to let some of the steam

out.  Well, that seemed logical - remove steam

and I would have a less moist pastry.

Marie's Choux Dough

(A variation)

1/2 C. water

1/2 C. milk

1 cube butter, cut into pieces

1/4 tsp salt

1 C. flour

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to a boil

in a saucepan.  Stir in the flour and let it cook

for about a minute to let moisture escape (ahh,

that steam escaping thing again.)  It will form

into a ball.

Remove from heat and place in bowl of

your mixer.  Let cool five minutes and

stir occasionally during this cooling time.

You will see a lot of steam escape as

you do this.

Place bowl on mixer stand with paddle

attached and beat in one egg at a time.

It may separate, but continue until all

eggs are used up.  It will be a nice

glossy mass now.

Pipe into eclairs or puffs, on parchment paper.

I used my half inch sized round tip, and piped

them about 6 inches long.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature

to 350 and bake another 20 minutes.  

Let cool on a rack.

We had always just cut our eclairs in half, but

I wanted mine to be Parisian, so I made

three holes in the bottoms and piped

my chocolate whipped cream inside.

Not certain this would work, I had to make a

test one to see if the filling got all the way in.

Hooray - it worked.

Then they were dipped in chocolate ganache.

These were beautiful just this way, but

I wanted to have some fun.

After the ganache had set, I piped some

wonderful chocolate buttercream on

trying out some of my new Russian tips.

(They take a little practice, but I liked

the way they turned out.)

The secret is my new one and only cocoa

powder.  I honestly can't remember which

blogger recommended it, but there is nothing

like it and I have tried all of the expensive

brands.  This runs on Amazon just under $20

and gives everything chocolate such a 

wonderful flavor (when paired with Mexican 

vanilla, of course.)  I get so many

compliments on my chocolate buttercream

and I have to give all the credit to this cocoa.

Chocolate Buttercream

1 C. softened butter (I always use salted)

4 C. powdered sugar

1/4 - 1/2 C. Extra Brute Cocoa - depending

on how dark you want it.

2 tsp. vanilla

5-6 T. milk

Mix all with paddle attachment until

smooth.  To use the Russian tips you need

a stiffer frosting, so I added about 1/3 C.

additional powdered sugar, or less liquids.

For the filling, you can do whatever

you want, pastry cream, pudding, or

whipped cream.  I whipped two cups of

cream and added 1/2 C. powdered sugar and

1/3 C. of my chocolate ganache.

Now I want to try all kinds of other

eclairs that are popping up on my Pinterest feed!!

Thanks for stopping by for a little chocolate.

Butterfly Cake for Baby's 1st and Baby Shower

Sweet baby Emery turned one this week,

so I made a Butterfly Smash Cake for her.

We set the cake up in her bedroom under

her darling canopy that she loves to go

play in.

At first she was only interested in playing 

with her pearls.

We had to introduce her to the cake.

It is amazing how quickly they grow and

how much they change in the first year.

We decided to move the cake to the

floor.  Just like the darling little lady

she is, she delicately ate her cake.

But it didn't take long for her to let us

know she had had enough sweets.

I had made the same cake a few days before for

a baby shower for Amy from our craft group.

Everyone in the craft group helped.

Laura hosted it and set this stunning table,

 Joanne created the beautiful balloon

garland, Karen did the flowers, Brenda

organized us on the food.

It was like a giant charcuterie table.

I love this shot with the table reflected in

Laura's mirror.

Crafty and meticulous Brenda and Karen

made this gorgeous quilt for Amy's baby.

It was fun using the same cake inspiration

for two baby events in the same week.

There is nothing like celebrating darling

little girls!

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

and

Dishing It and Digging It

MacKenzie Childs Pie Plate Winner

Happy Valentine's Week to the lucky winner

of this giveaway of a 9.5 inch 

MacKenzie-Childs pie plate (or dish,

or bowl, or whatever you want to use it for.)

I used the random number generator to

choose the winner, and the lucky lady is....

Bonnie

at

Living With Thanksgiving.

I think she is going to love this.  I know

I love mine!

I love how the pattern changes on the underside,

and the gold rim.

And I am even including a couple of

bags of these fun mega-sized

Valentine M&M's with messages on some.

Speaking of Valentine's -

hubby gave me this gorgeous box

of chocolates - lips, heels, lipstick

and gold - how girly and gorgeous and

delicious too!

Visit Bonnie to tell her congratulations

on winning!

Happy Valentine's Table and Surprise Giveaway

Happy Valentine's to the cutest couple I know!

They turned 90 this last year, and they are

still romantic, and kissing, and holding hands,

and even dancing together.

I created this surprise tablescape for

my husband.  He loves to come home to

a romantic table for two in front of the fireplace.

It makes him feel special, and I always

get just a little giddy setting it.

It is easy now that there are only two

of us at home, but we used to pull the

coffee table in front of the fire and

do a fun dinner for the kids too, as they

sat on the rug.  There are so many ways

to create special memories around food.

Since we just got home from a Valentine's

celebration Disney trip for the two of us, 

I decided to create a Mickey and Minnie

Valentine's Day table for us in front

of the fireplace.

Everything is set in signature red and white

with heart placemats, one of my favorite white

wood chargers, red and white alternating plates

and Minnie's signature red with white polka dots.

I have several red goblets to choose from,

but I chose these that I bought years ago.

The table is featuring my new Mickey Mouse flatware

that I purchased at Disneyland.  As much as we 

love Mickey and Minnie, these are a perfect 

addition to our home.

Despite pouring rain that I mentioned in my

last post, we ventured out to get these on our

last day.  I could have bought all kinds of 

dishware.  They had some new plates - maybe

next time!

The Mickey flatware looks cute on top

of a heart-shaped napkin fold.

Also brought home from Disneyland this time

were these wonderful Disney "Kitchen Sinks"

that we had sundaes in.  I just had to feature

them on our table.

Of course I ordered Minnie's,

and hubby ordered Mickey's.  

They are large and make quite the sundae.  

We got them at Clarabelle's in California Disney.

I had actually been wanting them for some time,

but we were always too full to order them,

so we had them for our lunch.

Hubby hasn't seen the table yet.

I can't wait to see his face when he

walks into the living room.

He is so cute - he sends me pictures

via text to remind me of a fun vacation,

or to say, "Let's get away" again.  He

really does appreciate things like this.

Now on to the giveaway mentioned in

my post last week

The surprise giveaway is this great

MacKenzie-Childs 9.5" pie plate (or serving bowl).

To qualify to win just click here,

leave a comment on that post, guessing

where my MacKenzie-Childs pieces

traveled to for my birthday in January.

Be sure to enter before midnight February 8, 2019.

The winner will be chosen from the correct

guesses - pretty easy - you can even look at

the other comments (haha).  If you don't have a

blog where I can contact you, leave your email.

Remember you can't win if I can't get ahold of

you to get your address!!!!  Then another random

winner will have to be chosen.

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Dishing It and Digging It