Éclairs à la Ladurée – Irresistibly Delicious Pastries
·Shortcrust pastry
Cut the butter into small pieces and mix with the flour, sugar and vanilla (or use sugar infused with vanilla pods, or vanilla sugar). Work everything together well, wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for an hour.
Choux pastry
Put the milk, water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the flour, sugar and salt, stirring constantly. The dough should form a ball that starts pulling away from the bottom and sides of the pan – that's how you know it's ready.
Beat in the eggs
Transfer the dough to a bowl, let it cool slightly, then beat in the eggs one at a time until the dough is smooth and glossy.
Pipe the pastry
Fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip about 2.5 cm wide and pipe “sticks” roughly 10 cm long onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Leave plenty of space between each one, as the pastry will puff up quite a bit.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry
Take the shortcrust pastry out of the fridge, knead it briefly, then roll it out to a thickness of 1–2 mm. Cut out rectangles about 4 cm x 12 cm and place one on top of each piped choux pastry stick.
Bake
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C until golden. In my oven this took about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before filling.
Custard
Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, then add the cornstarch and whisk until the mixture turns pale yellow and thickens. Pour the milk into a saucepan. Split the vanilla pod lengthwise, add the seeds to the milk and bring to a boil.
Cook the custard
Slowly pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Pour everything back into the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Cook until it thickens, then whisk in the butter. Cover with plastic film and let cool.
Whip and fill
Whip the cream and fold it into the vanilla custard. Fill the prepared éclairs by piercing three small holes with the piping tip and piping the cream inside. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Tip
Éclairs are best filled just before serving – if you leave the filled pastry in the fridge for too long, it turns soft and loses its texture. Store the unfilled shells in an airtight container.