Sunflower seed & carrot eclairs
Ingredients
The carrot eclair shells
- 200 g carrot juice
- 100 g milk
- 100 g butter
- 5 g salt
- 120 g flour
- 200 g egg
The sunflower seed craquelin
- 80 g sunflower seeds
- 100 g flour
- 50 g cane sugar
- 70 g butter
- 3 g squid ink
Instructions
The carrot eclair shells
- Pour the carrot juice into a saucepan and reduce it till you’re left with 100 grams. Always begin with weighing the empty pan first. This will make checking the reduction process very easy. The empty pan weighs 1035 grams. So in the end it needs to be 100 grams + 1035 grams.
- Once it’s reduced add the milk, the butter and the salt. Now bring this to a boil.
- Then add the flour and directly start mixing to prevent lumps from forming. Now while stirring cook the batter for three to four minutes on a medium heat. We do this to give the dough more strength and remove the floury taste. Once it’s starts to shine you know it’s done.
- Then take the pan off the heat and let it cool down for 5 minutes.
- After that mix in the egg. Do this egg by egg and mix it every time to insure it’s well incorporated.
- Then transfer it into a piping bag and it’s ready to be used.
- Now you could bake the batter like this, but I use this eclair mold to preportion the batter and get a beautiful even result. Click here for the one I use. Then level the top and let it freeze till solid.
The sunflower seed craquelin
- First toast the sunflower seeds at 160 °C for 10 minutes. Once toasted let them cool down and then blend it into a fine powder.
- Now place the flour on your worktop and make a well in the middle. Fill it with the cane sugar, the sunflower seed powder, the butter and the squid ink.
- Bring all the ingredients together and knead it into a firm dough. Now place the dough on a silicon sheet and place another sheet on top. Roll it out until the dough is around 3 to 4 millimeters thin. The dough is very soft, especially when it becomes warm. That’s why you need to roll it between two sheets. Now place it on a rack or tray and let it set in your fridge.
- After an hour or two remove the top sheet and cut it with the desired cutter. The trimmings you can reuse for your next choux pastries.
How to bake the eclairs
- Remove the choux batter from the mold and place them on a silicon sheet. Let them defrost for 30 minutes before placing the dough sheets on top.
- Then bake them at 180 °C for 30 minutes. Absolutely don’t open the oven in between, then they will collapse!
- Now after the 30 minutes I always leave them in the oven with the door slightly open for another 10 minutes. This to insure all the moisture has evaporated. Then keep them dry and covered for later.
