My mom is really something special. This may not be news to those who know her, but she is. Just. Brilliant.
All my life, I've learned from her. She's imparted some very important lessons. For as long as I can remember, she's stressed the importance of wearing clean underwear, keeping $20 in cash in your wallet at all times and using lemon, lime or other citrus to make almost any food or drink taste better. I've learned the underwear and lemon lessons very well, if I do say so myself. The $20 one, somewhat less so... and I hear my mom's softly accented voice everytime I count out dimes and quarters at the frozen yogurt shop near my office. I told you.
But some of the wisest lessons I've learned are those that went unspoken. She taught me to take advantage of any opportunity to sleep, especially during a twice daily, two-hour commute from our suburban home to midtown Manhattan, a commute that I barely endured - with much complaining - for three months during the summer of internships in 2003 and that my mom has completed every day for nearly 20 years. It must be the napping.
She also taught me not to let people waste my time. Equally sweet and authoritative, she's not afraid to take matters into her own hands. Yesterday, for example, she commandeered the round brush and hair dryer from the stylist wrestling with her thick, increasingly angry hair. Silly? Yes. Amusing? Terribly so. But atypical? Not at all.
Still, my mom does not cease to surprise me. A couple of weeks ago, I heard flip flops slap their way down the stairs, saw from the corner of my eye a head of rollers bop past. The sound of the fridge opening, a flash of light, the fridge closing. The head of rollers bopped into the living room and sat gently beside me.
Looks good, my mom said. I watched a half of a freshly made eclair disappear.
I was awestruck. My mom believes in whole, healthful foods. She believes in proper eating, with utensils and napkins and small bites and breathing!
Mmm. In a matter of seconds, the second half followed the first. What ever happened to swallowing before taking another bite?
What? she coughed, trying to talk and chew while smiling. That's how you're supposed to eat them.
I closed my disbelieving mouth. I knew she was right. I mean, goodness, it had been right there in the name all along. In French, eclair means lightning and in Paris Sweets, Dorie Greenspan says some people think the pastry was dubbed eclair so that its name would describe the way in which it is meant to be eaten: lightning fast.
So I guess I couldn't really fault my mom. It was just that, well, they weren't lightning fast to make. In fact, they were quite time-consuming and, if I can admit this here, it was a little stressfull. Scary. To be honest, I had questions:
Step 2: How would I know if my dough were very smooth?
Step 4: What if the thin fingers of dough... about five inches long and one inch wide were slightly more varied and, um, bug-like?
Step 5: What if my wooden spoon gets so hot that it burns my hand?
Step 5: What if I can't figure out how 8 and 12 add up to 20 minutes and bake one set of pastry bugs for 32 minutes?
Step... I've lost count: Is the pastry cream supposed to smell like an omelette before it cools?
By the end of it all, I was tired, sweaty and on the verge of tears for fear that the eclairs would be rock hard and poisonous, and I decided to forgo the fondant, leaving my chubby little lightning rods naked, on a baking sheet, to chill in the refrigerator.
Doesn't all that deserve to be savored, or at the very least munched on cautiously? I sure thought so.
But not only did my mom not get sick, not only did she go back for a second eclair after dinner, she licked her fingers! If that's not the right way to savor a pastry, I don't know what is.
Dorie Greenspan's recipe is for Coffee Eclairs, with a coffee fondant. I skipped the espresso flavoring to keep beverage options open - my mom and I like our sweets with tea. The pastry cream is simple but not plain, vanilla. Too add the coffee flavor, lightly whisk 1/4 cup of cooled espresso into the vanilla pastry cream. Below you can also find a fondant recipe based on Dorie's.
For the pastry cream:
2 cups whole milk
1 moist, plump vanilla bean, split and scraped (or one tablespoon pure vanilla extract, which should be added after you stir in the butter)
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pats, at room temperature
1/4 cup espresso, optional
Bring the milk and the vanilla pulp and pod to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cover the pan, turn off the heat and allow the milk to infuse for at least 10 minutes, or for up to one hour. If necessary, reheat the milk until hot before proceeding.
Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and set aside a smaller bowl that can hold the finished cream and be placed in this ice bath. Set aside a fine mesh strainer, too.
Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Whisking constantly, drizzle one-quarter of the hot milk over the yolks. When the yolks are warm, whisk the remainder of the milk into the yolks in a steadier stream; remove the pod and discard or save for another use.
Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at the boil - still whisking energentically - for one to two minutes, then pull the pan from the heat and press the cream through the strainer into the small bowl. Set the bowl into the ice bath and, stirring frequently, cool the cream to 140 degrees F.
Remove the cream from the ice bath and whisk in the butter. Add vanilla extract now, if necessary. Return the cream to the ice-water bath and keep it there until it is thoroughly chilled.
Add espresso to chilled cream, if desired.
For the dough:
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup all purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand. Fit a large pastry bag with a large star tip (or cut a small hole into a large Ziploc baggie, though this may be the reason for my hilariously misshapen eclairs) and keep this close, too.
Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a rapid boil in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over high heat. Add the flour all at once, lower the heat to medium-low and quickly start stirring energetically with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together and a light crust will form on the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring - with vigor - for another two minutes to dry the dough. The dough should now be very smooth (???).
Turn the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or continue by hand. Add the eggs one by one and beat until the dough is thick and shiny. Don't be concerned if the dough falls apart - by the time the last egg goes in, the dough will come together again. Once the eggs have been incorporated, the still warm dough must be used immediately.
Spoon half the dough into the pastry bag and pipe out thin fingers (or toes, or insect shapes, depending on your bag of choice) of dough that are each about five inches long and about one inch wide (I say these measurements are negotiable) onto the lined baking sheets, making sure to leave about two inches puff space between them. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Slide the baking sheets into the oven and bake for eight minutes before slipping the handle of a wooden spoon (it gets hot!) into the oven to keep the door slightly ajar. When the eclairs have baked for 12 minutes, rotate the pans front to back and top to bottom. Continue baking until the eclairs are golden, firm and, of course, puffed, another eight minutes or so. The total baking time is 20 (20!!) minutes (!!!). Transfer the eclairs to a rack and cool to room temperature. (The eclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling. Alternatively, pipe out the eclairs and freeze them for up to one month before baking.)
Carefully cut the eclairs horizontally in half and lift off them tops. Using a pastry bag or a spoon to fill each eclair base with cream. (Dorie says there will be cream left over, but I, alas, I had none.) Tuck the filled bases into the fridge, covered lightly with wax paper.
The fondant, for those so inclined:
1/4 cup cooled espresso
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifter
A squirt of lemon juice
Pour the espresso into a small bowl. Add about two cups of the sugar little by little, stirring constantly with a whisk and trying not to create bubbles. Stir in the lemon juice, then continue to add as much confectioners' sugar as needed to produce a fondant that evenly coats the top of an eclair and stays where it is spread.
One by one, hold the eclair tops over the bowl of fondant and, working with a small icing spatula, spread them with the fondant. Settle each eclair top on a filled base and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
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