Homemade Banoffee Eclairs

Spring is here! This is a recipe from John Lewis COOK Edition…

Whenever I watch the Great British Bake Off, I set out with the intention of trying to keep up with the challenges as the episodes air, in order to try and improve my baking skills. Unfortunately, this never happens. I get to week one and fail to keep up. I do enjoy watching though, as amateur home bakers are thrown into increasingly tricky challenges. I enjoy baking, but I don’t get to bake anywhere near as much as I’d like to. If I worked in a restaurant, I’d definitely want to be in the pastry or dessert section.

At home, my skills are passable; I’ve perfected the art of making a good chocolate cake and enjoy baking my Polish-inspired fruity traybakes. I tend not to make too many savoury pastry dishes (this is a good thing) and I’m really bad at making novelty cakes or anything using sugar craft skills – I don’t have enough patience. I’ve only ever made one batch of choux pastry before, for these profiterole cupcakes and I’ve probably always assumed that making homemade éclairs would be a little bit beyond my comfort zone. Not so! Read on…

A short while ago in the food world, a prediction was made that éclairs would be the new cupcake and there are now all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours to try in the trendiest bakeries. I’m sure we’ve all had one from our local bakery – traditionally an éclair is made from choux dough or pastry, filled with cream and topped with chocolate or fondant icing.

The éclair originated in France in the 19th century and, as I’ve discovered this week, they can actually be made at home, with relative ease. I say that, because there are a couple of steps to follow when making the choux, and you do have to pipe, but, as I discovered, since the choux is later split and filled and topped with chocolate, they don’t actually have to be perfect. If you can make éclairs then you can make profiteroles (or cream puffs) and vice versa, so they are a good thing to add to your repertoire. Plus, anyone you serve them to will be incredibly impressed!

A good éclair is light and fluffy, the filling should be whipped cream (which can be flavoured as my cream was for this banoffee version), or you can fill them with a French custard or crème pâtissière.

With the éclair being of French origin, I was confident that Richard Bertinet’s Banoffee Eclairs, as spotted in the spring edition of the John Lewis COOK Edition (download in iTunes or pick up for free in store) would work a treat. The recipe uses surprisingly few ingredients and they bake in just under 20 minutes, so I’d say that homemade éclairs make the perfect project for the Easter weekend ahead. If you can pull these off (and I did on my very first attempt) you’ll feel so proud that you’ll want to ditch your job and open up a French pastry shop the very next day, or enter the Great British Bake Off!

Richard has simplified the method for making his choux pastry. Once you’ve heated the water, salt and butter in a pan, you tip in the flour, give it a quick mix and then transfer the mixture into a stand mixer. I waited for the mixture to cool a little before adding the eggs, one by one, until, as if by magic, a smooth, glossy mixture formed. Then it’s simply a case of piping the dough into straight lines, baking, cooling, splitting and filling. They are actually really fun to make!

To make my éclairs, I used the Kenwood Chef Sense Stand Mixer, also provided by John Lewis. I also drizzeld a little salted toffee sauce onto my banana on the inside of the éclairs…for good measure.

I learnt that éclairs rise, seemingly without any raising agents, because of the high water content in the dough, evaporates to steam which causes the choux to rise – clever!

The choux should also be cooked for long enough to dry on the inside, so that they don’t collapse when you take them out of the oven.

Et voilà – a pretty spring Banoffee Eclair tea party.

Spring tea set (left) – Bluebellgrey stoneware, cake stand by Sophie Conran for Port Merion, pink plates Pip Studio – all John Lewis.

Homemade Banoffee Eclairs

Print
Prep time 30 mins
Cook time 20 mins
Total time 50 mins
A recipe for Banoffee Eclairs by French pastry chef Richard Bertinet, as featured in the spring COOK edition by John Lewis. Recipe shared with permission.
Author: Ren Behan Cuisine: French Serves: 12
Ingredients

• 225ml water (just under one cup)
• 60g (half a stick) butter
• ½ tsp salt
• 125g (one cup) plain flour, sifted
• 4 eggs
• 300g (10oz) dark chocolate (53% cocoa solids), broken into chunks (I actually used good quality milk chocolate)
• 600ml (2 and a half cups) double cream
• 4 tbsp muscovado sugar (I used soft, light brown muscovado)
• 4 bananas, thinly sliced
• Toffee sauce (optional, I added a pinch of sea salt, too)
• Yellow writing icing to decorate (optional)

Method

1. For the choux pastry
2. Add the butter and salt to 225ml water in a pan and bring to the boil. Tip in the flour and whisk until the mixture clings to the whisk. Then, using a wooden spoon, beat well on the heat for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is glossy. At this stage, I took the choux off the heat and let it cool.
3. Transfer the mixture to a food mixer and beat for 1 minute.
4. Add the eggs one at a time while keeping the mixer running. Go carefully with the eggs as you may not need them all. You are aiming for a smooth and glossy mixture that will hold its shape.
5. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.
6. Lightly grease a non-stick baking tray.
7. Fit a plain nozzle about 1cm diameter to your piping bag and fill with the choux pastry. Pipe 12 lines of choux, 12-15cm long, onto the baking tray. (I piped slightly shorter lines of choux)
8. Bake the éclairs for 15-20 minutes until golden and puffed up. For the last 4 minutes, leave the oven door slightly ajar to allow the steam to escape and help the drying process. Remove them from the oven and leave to cool.
9. To fill
10. Once cooled, halve the éclairs lengthways, and separate the tops and bottoms.
11. Put the chocolate into a bowl over a pan of simmering water, above water level. Turn the heat low to melt the chocolate slowly, stirring all the time.
12. Dip the upper halves of the éclairs in chocolate, drain over the bowl, then leave to set on a tray.
13. Place the sugar in a bowl, add the cream and whip into soft peaks.
14. Fill your piping bag with the cream and pipe it on the choux bases.
15. Layer the banana slices on top. (I also added a drizzle of toffee sauce).
16. Add dots of cream, then top with the chocolate-covered halves. Serve as soon as possible.

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Kenwood Chef Sense Stand Mixer and spring ‘tea set’ props provided by John Lewis. The cost of my ingredients were covered, too.

Will you be having a go at these pretty Banoffee Eclairs this Easter?

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