August's Daring Baker's Challenge

Daring Bakers chose éclairs for this month’s challenge and to accommodate my allergies, I had to make a gluten free chocolate-less non-cream filled éclair. It also happens to be soy and corn free.

I will admit it wasn’t easy but it wasn’t very hard. When I was in school, I left prior to reaching pastries hence forth didn’t learn how to prepare a proper pate choux. Pate choux isn’t a complicated recipe but it’s just a tender subject because of temperature changes. You have to be quite careful when you go about adding the eggs to the warmed heated mixture of butter, sugar, and flour and pray that it doesn’t “cook” the eggs. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll get it right the first time. I wasn’t but being a person of determination, I did it again.

And again.

And again.

And then I got it. The difficulty wasn’t, however, in the process of mixing. With me, it came upon the actual cooking time. I compared several gluten free recipes with normal recipes to collaborate a self-satisfied method of preparation. Some had the temperature too high for my oven, some had it too long, some had it too short and some just - well - the taste wasn’t that notable. It was rather funny because I was more concerned about the ganache than the pastry where I put together a chocolate free ganache in less than two minutes. The other issue I ran into was that I discovered that starches clump more than flour..so there was that issue to deal with. It was a pain in the butt but I wasn’t giving up.

The filling, as opposed to your average vanilla pastry crème or a cannoli filling of ricotta and mascarpone, which was my first intention prior to realizing that I’m lactose intolerant, I used a previous jam filling that I had made. Well, jam-like anyway. Instead of following parisan or French characteristics, I again, as with my Kabocha crème brulee, went Asian. The filling is called Ube Jaleya (Purple Yam Jam), a Filipino condiment made from the purple yam or ube. I thought to add a filling of jam after I discovered my dairy intolerance, so I went through a whole slew of preserves to fill the éclair. I now have a million recipes to try since I’m on a canning craze, but nothing stood out for me. It was all too common. Strawberry and chocolate? Marmalade and chocolate? Mint and chocolate? No, it just didn’t work.

Now potatoes and chocolate - what? Yeah and that’s why I chose it. The ube jaleya is made sweet, as any other pumpkin butter, apple butter, etc. would be so I thought the sweetness would equalize. Now in presentation, I dusted the dish and the éclair with wasabi powder, playing on the umami aspect. When you take a bite of this delicate tiny pastry, the flavors explode. What you get is sweet, sweet - snap, there’s that powder. The wasabi powder isn’t as hot as one may think so a simple dusting is not overpowering as compared to actual wasabi paste.

I’m not a 100% pleased with this recipe but it -did- taste quite good. I think my issue was that I’m not used to making a pate choux so if I had more practice, it might come out to be flawless. I, personally, am not a pastry fan; I’m more of a baker-ish type of dessert chef. In other words, give me a blank vanilla cake and I’ll create you a work of art with some royal icing and marzipan. Still, at least now I can say, “Yes I’ve made éclairs,” but I don’t think I’ll do it again any time soon. I also gave efforts into adding less sugar and uhm pudge to the waistline so with these éclairs, you have about 95 calories per mini éclair not counting the filling. So less calories, more éclairs! I got eight plump mini éclairs but if you prefer, you can make them into normal sized ones If you can possibly fit two tablespoons of jam into your éclair, then you would get an estimated total of 155 calories per éclair.

I can’t wait till my next Daring Baker’s challenge! I hope it’s a cake; I really want to bake a big fat fluffy cake

Allergy Free Eclairs (with an Asian Twist)
3 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp tapioca starch
½ cup water
½ cup margarine
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup egg substitute
1 tbsp egg sub + 1 tbsp rice milk for wash

Get a nice pot, one you like and aren’t afraid of burning if it comes to that possibility. Into the pot, melt the butter and sugar. Stir until the butter is completely melted and melded into the sugar then add the flour and turn off the heat. Stir like crazy. Stir until you obtain a pudding-like consistency. Remember the cooking type of pudding? It will look something like that with a few clumps because I doubt all the starch will melt on the first turn. Keep stirring in an effort to remove the lumps, reheating if you think its necessary then let the mixture rest and cool.
Once your ‘pudding’ batter has cooled enough, transfer it into a mixing bowl.

Preheat your oven to 375 before continuing.

You now can gradually add the eggs, water and vanilla, mixing until everything is incorporated. The batter will be vaguely sticky, yet able to hold its shape when its squeezed or spooned on your parchment paper. The size of your éclairs depends on personal preference and due to that I made mini ones. Mix the egg with the little bit of milk and brush the top of each eclair lightly. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Once the time is up, turn off the oven, open the door, and allow the éclairs to sit inside for about 10 minutes or so.
You should have soft yet puffy hollow shells. To top these shells, you can use my following mock-chocolate ganache.

Almost Chocolate Ganache
2 tbsp roasted carob powder
½ cup water
½ tsp rum
½ tbsp instant coffee
¼ cup sugar
½ tbsp arrow root dissolved in 3 tbsp water

For the this recipe, you will have extra because I originally made this as a basic condiment prior to deciding to fill the éclair with it. The purple yams come in various sizes so if you want to half the recipe, get a smaller potato. I don’t know if I would try using a different potato since the potato ’gluten’ content of the yam is very high in comparison to sweet potatoes or others. You could, if you wanted, give it a try with sweet potatoes but a purple yam is more creamy.

Low Sugar Ube Jam
1 large purple potato/ube/batata
2 tbsp margarine
2 cups of dairy alternative
2/3 cup sugar substitute
½ tsp vanilla

Microwave or boil the potato until soft. Into a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients and whip until you get a luscious and smooth puree. Even if it seems liquid-like, it will thicken after refrigeration - trust me.
And there you have it. An Asian spin-off of an original French delight.