Put to the taste test this week ... éclairs
THE latest food fashion in Paris is for éclairs.
Sweet and savoury toppings are works of art at Galeries Lafayette’s food court — L’Éclair de Génie is entirely devoted to them — quite a treat at €6 each.
At home we have to be content with the basic cream-filled and chocolate-topped version. C’est la vie!
Éclairs don’t respond well to storage as they are usually fresh and consequently free from additives.
For this reason, not all shops stock them.
Of course any creamy, sweet cake has to be seen as a treat.
The average 40-50g chocolate éclair is likely to clock up 170 to 270 calories, but in its defense, fresh cream and chocolate, with egg and butter in the choux pastry are far better than other treats filled with hydrogenated fats, excessive salt, and other additives best avoided.
As treats go, there are worse. I even found a low-fat one which worked well.
Making éclairs is not difficult as long as you get the oven temperature right.
Make sure it is well up before popping them in.
Cutting a slit in the cooked choux bun to release the steam is another good trick.
If they look a bit soggy, I return them to the oven for a few minutes to firm up.
There are plenty of recipes online.
The most luxurious and tastiest of the selection, there is also a regular cream-filled one for €1.75. This one, filled with chocolate mousse, could easily be shared.
It ticked all tasters’ boxes with light pastry, a deliciously creamy filling and a rich chocolate topping, with one end dipped in chocolate vermicelli.
The other end has a white chocolate disc (nabbed by the children of tasters). From Carrigaline shop and stall in English Market Cork
9.5
Exactly as we had hoped, this appetising looking éclair was light and tasty, and had nicely shaped pastry with plenty of cream and chocolate.
8
Just what we hope and expect of a chocolate éclair, there is good, light pastry here, filled with plenty of cream.
The topping was not so chocolaty, but overall tasters were happy. From Mallow Road, Cork shops and café.
7.5
Four slim éclairs in a box had one taster complaining there was too much chocolate and that the flavour could be better.
This was not the common complaint, and tasters liked the texture of the light pastry too.
Dried glucose syrup and dried whey and palm oil (no mention of sustainably produced) were the only compromises to completely fresh (there was a sell by date of a few days), and the cream filling was natural.
7.5
We found these at the bakery at the Grand Parade end of the English market, Cork and at €1 each they were the cheapest of the selection.
However, the pastry was quite dry in taste, and the chocolate topping lacked depth of flavour.
However, the cream was natural and liked by the taster who cared most for the amount of cream in each.
6
Two éclairs in a see-through box had a sell-by date of three days.
Filled with fresh cream, they are topped with what they describe as chocolate fudge which was far too soft and runny, with little flavour.
The pastry was the driest and most papery of the selection, explained perhaps by quite a few chemical additives.
There are also over the counter éclairs made by Old Mill, available in some of the branches.
4
These are found all over Cork in supermarkets and smaller shops and have quite light (though just slightly papery) pastry, filled with enough fresh cream not to be messy.
The topping of cooking chocolate, with not a lot of chocolate flavour, is still pleasant.
7
All tasters were impressed with the lightness and taste of these frozen éclairs despite carrying the label ‘reduced fat’— about 13% difference in saturated fats to others.
The filling is made from water and cream thickened with modified maize starch, and the sweeteners are less desirable sucralose and maltitols (both chemical-based sugar substitutes).
Eggs are used for the pastry, with rapeseed oil instead of butter — not a bad thing. Topping was quite chocolaty. Good price for 6 éclairs.
7
