Recipe: Pistachio and strawberry éclairs

I’m back on the blog after a short break, during which I enjoyed the magic atmosphere of the film festival here in Cannes. The city changes completely during the festival: lots of photographs, journalists, movie stars, police security and then even cheap shops start selling tuxedos!

We have two crazy, glamorous weeks a year, where lots of people try to crash the private beach parties. Once again, I failed miserably in getting an invitation to those so I just ended up baking at home as usual. 🙂

I had been waiting for strawberries to come back since last September, when I found this recipe by Christophe Adam: pistachio and strawberry éclairs.

Christophe Adam has been modernizing éclairs in the last years and I absolutely love the looks of his pastries, all very colourful and original.

These pistachio and strawberry éclairs  are decorated with strawberry slices and a whipped pistachio ganache which hides a small spongecake soaked in a strawberry and orange blossom water syrup. Sounds fancy uh? 🙂

I won’t lie to you: this recipe takes time. Oh, and you also need to be able to make choux pastry, a spongecake and a whipped ganache… but everything is possible if you follow my step-by-step recipe! 😀 Have fun!

Pistachio and strawberry éclairs

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Ingredients

Choux pastry

105g	Water
105g	Milk
105g	Unsalted butter
2g	Salt
4g	Granulated sugar
105g	Strong flour
~190g	Eggs (~4 eggs)

Pistachio paste

70g	Pistachios
30g	Grapeseed oil

Whipped pistachio ganache

2g	Gelatin (= 1 sheet)
430g	Heavy cream (35% fat)
100g	White couverture chocolate
30g	Pistachio paste

Pain de Gênes spongecake

40g	Granulated sugar
100g	Almond paste (50% sugar)
100g	Eggs (~2 eggs)
30g	Strong flour
2 pinches	Baking powder
20g	Unsalted butter
1 dash	Milk

Strawberry syrup

25g	Water
15g	Granulated sugar
5g	Orange blossom water
100g	Fresh strawberries

Decoration

30	Fresh strawberries
	Mint or basil leaves

Directions

Choux pastry

1

Bring to a boil the milk, water, salt and butter in a saucepan. Make the sure the butter is fully melted.

2

Remove from the heat and immediately add all the flour

3

Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon then put the pan back on the heat and continue stirring the dough

4

Keep drying the dough up on the heat only for a few minutes until it comes away from the sides of the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the saucepan

5

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and let it cool down for a few minutes

6

Add an egg and stir until it is completely absorbed in the dough

7

Add all the other eggs one at a time. Slightly beat the last egg before adding it then pour it slowly little by little on the dough, checking frequently if the dough has reached the right consistency

8

When the dough is shiny but firm (i.e. not runny), it is ready to be piped. Pipe 11cm stripes using a star tip on a parchment-lined pan.

9

Bake at 170°C for at least 40 minutes or until the éclairs are dry and not too soft.

Pistachio paste

10

Toast the pistachios 15-20 minutes at 150°C and then let them cool down at room temperature

11

Mix the pistachios at high speed for a few seconds: remove some coarsely chopped pistachios and keep them for the decoration.

12

Add the oil and keep on mixing for a few minutes until the pistachios become a thick paste and start releasing their "oil". Store the pistachio paste in an air-tight container.

Whipped pistachio ganache

13

Let the gelatin soak in cold water for around 10 minutes before using it

14

In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil on medium heat

15

Place the white couverture chocolate and pistachio paste in a bowl

16

Pour half of the boiling cream over the white couverture chocolate and pistachio paste and stir to form an emulsion

17

Add the remaining half of the hot cream and stir again until it's all incorporated, then add the gelatin. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Pain de Gênes spongecake

18

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar and ground almond paste to form a thick dough

19

Add the eggs one by one while mixing. Scrape the bowl often if needed.

20

Add the flour and baking powder sifted together then mix again until they are incorporated

21

Melt the butter

22

Add the milk and melted butter (max 45°C) into the mixture. The result must be rather airy and not too liquid.

23

Spread the batter on a parchment-lined pan and bake for 8 minutes at 180°C. Let the spongecake cool down on a wire rack.

Strawberry syrup

24

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat and let the mixture boil for one minute

25

When the syrup is at room temperature, add the orange blossom water and the pureed strawberries

Assembling the éclairs

26

Cut the baked éclairs in two

27

Cut the spongecake in 2x9cm rectangles and dip them in the strawberry syrup

28

Place the dipped spongecake rectangles inside the éclairs halves

29

Whip the pistachio ganache over an ice bath until it becomes thick and can be piped easily. At this stage it might be needed to refrigerate the whipped ganache for a while before piping.

30

Divide the whipped ganache in two piping bags fitted with star tips of different sizes and use them alternately over the éclairs so that the spongecake is completely covered

31

Add some strawberry slices of different sizes over each éclair

32

Finally decorate with some coarsely chopped pistachios

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