Gluten Free Sister's Cooking Show: GF Eclairs

In this episode we decided to do something a little different and do a theme, so we decided on a French theme (it's explained why in the video). We tried to think about good French desserts that we would like to have that we can't have anymore, so we finally decided on eclairs. We were a little nervous to make them just because we didn't know how they would turn out - as many of you know gluten free baking doesn't always taste quite the same as normal gluteny baking. But in the end we were extremely pleased with how they came out. There are a number of different steps it took to make them but overall it wasn't difficult and they were quite tasty  I was even told by my gluten eating husband that I must make him eclairs once a month now. :) I think I'll stick to making them for me though. :)

Hope you enjoy our latest episode of Gluten Free Sisters Cooking Show - this time brought to you from Springfield, MO.

Here is the recipe: Original recipe is from www.glutenista.com

FOR THE PASTRY:

• 1 Cup & 2 Tablespoons Gluten-Free Flour - VERY important! See note at bottom
• 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1 Stick Butter (Unsalted)
• 1 Cup Water
• 4 Eggs, Room Temperature

FOR THE FILLING:

• 5 oz box Instant Vanilla Pudding
• 2 1/2 Cups Milk
• 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 tsp. Gluten-Free Vanilla Extract

FOR THE CHOCOLATE TOPPING:

• 2-4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
• 2-4 Tablespoons Butter

Time for some baking!!

PASTRY:

1. Preheat Oven to 400 degrees
2. In saucepan over medium-high heat, boil Butter, Sugar, Water & Salt
3. Remove from heat, add flour & stir like heck for TWO minutes
4. Place dough in bowl of Stand Mixer & beat at medium speed for ~1 minute 
5. While mixing -  add eggs one at a time, giving them time to absorb
6. Keep mixing until dough is smooth & sticky (if it looks like mac & cheese, keep mixing!).  Refrigerate dough for a few minutes to make it easier to work with.

Using a Pastry Bag with 1" tip, pipe out dough into logs on baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  ~2 inches for mini-eclairs and ~5 inches for large gluten-free eclairs

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes

Reduce heat to 325 and bake eclairs for 20-30 minutes longer, until brown.

Remove from oven, place on rack to cool & pierce a few small holes in eclair to let steam out. 

FILLING:

• Make Vanilla Pudding: Combine Pudding Mix & Milk, let firm up in fridge for at least 5 minutes
• Place Cream in a mixer & whip (med-high speed) until soft peaks form
• Mix in Powdered Sugar & Vanilla
• Fold in Vanilla Pudding

Time to Fill Pastry!!

• You can either cut the eclair in half and spread on some filling OR we filled a pastry bag with the filling and then filled the inside of the eclair with the filling. You will most likely need to fill each end of the eclair to get even dispersement of the cream. 

CHOCOLATE ICING:

• Melt Chocolate in Microwave starting with 30 seconds, mixing, then moving to 10-15 second increments
• Add in Butter & stir until melted
• Dip top of eclair in chocolate (pour chocolate onto plate if needed)
• Enjoy immediately!  Those that you don't eat keep best if frozen. 

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE FLOUR

• You must use a Gluten-Free Flour or a Flour Blend that behaves like gluten-y flour! What does this mean? usually Xanthan Gum. We used our Domata flour and it worked great! The original recipe called for Jules GF flour mix - just make sure your flour mix contains xanthan gum!