We’re swimming in fresh blueberries from the yard and I couldn’t be happier. # 306: Blueberry Éclairs

I got a pile of blueberries from my parents’ yard and squealed with joy. Bring on the blueberry pancakes, muffins, crumble bars and of course, éclairs!

Even though the choux decided it was le tired and collapsed on the cooling rack, they were still delicious! I took them out too early, sigh. Shame on me because I know better and was distracted by an audiobook. And if we’re admitting things, I should also confess that the filling wasn’t as structurally sound as I wanted and was begging for some mascarpone or gelatin to stabilize it. Again, I blame my distracted brain that was solidly in a book world far from here.

Powdered freeze-dried blueberries added an extra level of oomph (and a baby blue hue) to the diplomat cream filling.

Catch me cutting the pastry cream recipe into thirds for the sake of my freezer space. We’re currently working our way through tupperware after tupperware of frozen sweets, rediscovering cookies and cake scraps from bakes past all while muttering “no, I don’t have a baking problem” under my breath.

Have you tried the egg-separating trick using a cooling rack? You just balance the rack over the bowl you want your egg whites in, crack the egg open and let the egg white drain off, leaving the yolk sitting like a little gem on the rack. I haven’t tried it yet since using the egg shell halves like little egg-yolk boats hasn’t ever let me down, but I bet it would be incredible for a large-scale bake.

Tiny whisk alert!

Feeling more purple than blue, but we’re rolling with it anyway.

Welp. It’s very purple. Still pretty though!

Choux time.

That was definitely a missed pun opportunity. Something about tying your choux(s)? Eh I’ll come up with something by the next time I do a post with choux pastry.

This is your regularly scheduled reminder to not panic at the texture of your dough when you first add the eggs. Eggs literally always break the world when they are first added to a lovely, cohesive batter or dough, but with a little convincing they blend right in.

Et voilà!

Not too thick or too loose. Goldilocks would approve.

There’s always one awkward cream puff amongst the éclairs, since I can’t bring myself to throw away any of the dough.

It’s like a baker’s dozen – the cream puff is my decorating snack!

Ready to get all dolled up.

Channeling Lumiere here: try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!

One dainty row of berries or the more the merrier?

I resorted to food coloring so the glaze would swing away from purple/grey and towards a recognizable blue.

I went back and added a bunch of polka dots to the classy plain-glazed one and it’s half terrifying, half adorable.

Happy munching!