August 31, 2008

Apricot & Nectarine Eclairs


The August Daring Baker's Challenge

This month's challenge is hosted by Meeta and Tony. They choose the the Chocolate Eclair recipe from Pierre Herme. The recipe is from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme written by Dorie Greenspan. The complete recipe can be found on either Tony or Meeta's blog.

This recipe is composed of three parts: pate a choux or cream puff dough, pastry cream and chocolate glaze. I used a blend of chestnut flour and almond meal for the cream puff dough. While my eclairs puffed up beautifully, although the interior cavity didn't run the length of the eclair. I simply slit the side of the eclair, so I could fill it. For the pastry cream, I added a minced apricot and nectarine. It was a delicious and addictive cream, with most of it eaten before we stopped and filled a few of the eclairs. Lastly, I topped the eclair off with the chocolate glaze.

This is a great recipe and one my family thoroughly enjoyed. My daughter's favorite part was eating little scoops of the glaze, once it had cooled in the refrigerator. My husband preferred the complete eclair and my son liked the plain eclair without chocolate of cream filling. I found my caloric downfall in the apricot nectarine filling.

Happy Labor Day!

28 comments:

Vegan_Noodle said...

What a unique filling... sounds delicious!! I'm with your daughter on wanting to eat scoops of the glaze :-)

breadchick said...

Yea, I would have found the apricot nectarine filling a HUGE downfall too! Well done.

Anonymous said...

Nicely done!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

What an innovative flavor combination for an éclair - love it!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

What an innovative flavor combination for an éclair - love it!

Anonymous said...

These look great, Natalie! I really loved doing this challenge, and, well, eating the éclairs, too!

Sally JPA said...

Oh my goodness, that makes me drool.

Cheryl Harris said...

that looks awesome. I'm tempted to try again now! Love to hear more details later.

Rachel said...

Apricot and nectarine...wow.there's so much variety in pastry creams that I've seen!!

Dianne's Dishes said...

It looks great! I wondered how these would fair gf. Jamison wasn't interested in them so I didn't attempt this one gf, but your éclairs look fabulous!

Anonymous said...

ooohh - apricot and nectarine! sounds heavenly! (they look really good too!) I agree with your daughter about the scoops of glaze. :)

Karen

Gabi said...

Wow those sound delicious! I love it :)
xo

Anonymous said...

Truly amazing- This is one I would have never dreamed could be gluten free! And it looks delicious, too. :)

Antonio Tahhan said...

amazing how you were able to make these gluten free - pure genius! My roommate is allergic to gluten and so I might give it a try. The filling was my favorite part, too!! Thanks for baking with us!!

Shelby said...

what wonderful flavors!!

Andrea Meyers said...

Ooo, I like the idea of the apricot and nectarine filling! This was such a yummy challenge. Thanks so much for helping everyone with it!

Heather B said...

yum! Your filling sounds delicious! Great job!

Alexa said...

Lovely flavor combination... perfect for the Summer bounty.

jasmine said...

The filling sounds delicious--I can just imagine the aroma.

j

Lauren said...

Ooo, your eclair looks amazing! Apricots and Nectarines sound wonderful!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

The eclairs look very nice. And I love your nectarine apricot flavour combination. Sounds very exotic.
I just wish I could find the ingredients here.:(

linda said...

Delicious filling, you're the first one I see with nectarine and apricot in the filling.
I think your puff without filling must have tasted better than a gluten-full puff.

Anonymous said...

Great job with your eclairs! Your filling sounds interesting!

~Amber~ said...

Looks excellent! Great job.

Debyi said...

Wow! Chestnut flour for the eclair and minced apricot and nectarine for the pastry cream sounds so good. Great job.

Simply...Gluten-free said...

Wow, I think I am in love! These look amazing.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Gorgeous! That Eclair looks terribly scrumptious! Very well done!

Cheers,

Rosa

White on Rice Couple said...

love the filling! I can never get tired of eclairs!