Yes. It’s another tea recipe. I can’t help it. I’m obsessed lately and I’m pretty certain it’ll calm down once I’ve done overkill with tea. I have to admit…I am a binger in almost everything I do. I binge eat, watch, bake and eat and watch and bake.
And it started from a young age. I remember recording INXS’s “Never tear us apart” repeatedly on both A and B sides and listening to it over and over and over again until the film on the cassette melted. I’ve also been known to watch entire seasons of shows in one night. Recently my OCD evolved to binge baking and then binge eating what I baked. And lately its been baking with tea. Tea in my creams, tea in my cakes, tea infused in my breads, tea in my moisturizer…you get the idea. I’m consumed by tea.
I was recently at the Evergreen Brickworks a wonderful collection of preserved lands and ponds with a wonderful weekend farmers market when I stumbled on some black lavender tea. The tea is a heavenly blend of earl grey and lavender.
I promised an Instagram friend (Em, this ones for you:) an éclair recipe. That said, I didn’t want to post a simple vanilla crême pat filled éclair that everyone has. Thus, I infused both the crême pat and the icing with the tea. The flavour turned out marvellous. Fresh, delicate with a subtle perfume fragrance. Let me know how it goes Em.
Bon app!
- PÂTE à CHOUX – Éclairs
- 200 ml whole milk
- 155 ml water
- 12 grams or 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 150 grams or 2/3 cup of unsalted butter
- 210 grams or 1 1/4 cup plus of bread flour
- 4-6 large eggs
- BLACK LAVENDER CREME PAT:
- 375 ml of whole milk
- 4 large egg yolks
- 100 grams or 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 25 grams or 3 tablespoons of cornstarch
- pinch of table salt
- 100 grams butter or 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter cut into cubes
- 3 teaspoons of black lavender tea
- ICING:
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon black lavender tea
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon clear corn syrup
- Mauve/lavender food gel or purple
- ÉCLAIRS:
- Preheat oven to 425 F and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper- racks in oven on top and bottom third
- In a saucepan, on medium high heat mix the milk, water, sugar, salt and the butter until well combined and the butter has melted
- Allow mixture to come to a boil and mix constantly about 2 minutes.
- Add the flour and mix constantly again for another 2 minutes until the dough comes together
- Transfer the dough to a stand mixer and let it cool for a few minutes while stirring on low speed (1 or 2)
- Once the batter has cooled, add eggs in one at a time, making sure each egg is well combined as well, scrape bottom and sides with a spatula between eggs.
- Stop at 5 eggs and test the batter to see if the batter is thick but slightly pliable.
- Mixture will be similar to thick sticky cookie dough.
- If too thick or not sticky enough, add another egg. otherwise stop at 5 eggs
- Using a star tip #865 or cut corner of a ziplock bag about 1/2 inch…
- Pipe 5 inch long and approximately 1 inch wide éclairs on the parchment paper on baking tray and leave at least 1.5 inches space between eclairs
- Bake for about 5-8 minutes at 425F or until golden brown
- Turn heat down to350F and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the éclairs are a deeper golden brown.
- Rotate baking trays at around 20minutes into baking
- Allow to cool completely before filling
- BLACK LAVENDER CRÊME PAT:
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, simmer the milk and the black lavender tea ..turn heat off and let the tea infuse
- In the meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, salt until light creamy and pale
- Add the cornstarch and whisk until incorporated and smooth
- With a fine mesh sieve, remove the loose tea from the milk.
- Pour about half the tea infused milk into the batter and stir well
- Then pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and stir vigorously for about 2 -3 minutes on medium heat. Do so until the pastry cream starts to gently boil…Make sure you stir the entire time.
- Once the crême pat has boiled remove from heat and stir in the butter until its well combined and melted
- Pour into shallow wide bowl and place plastic film over the crême pat to avoid a skin from forming and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until completely chilled (alternatively you can line a baking tray with parchment paper and spread the crême pat on the tray and cover with plastic film and chill in fridge…the shallow tray will expedite the chilling to about an hour)
- ÈCLAIR ICING:
- Simmer the whole milk and tea for 5-7 minutes over medium heat in sauce pan…set aside to allow for tea to infuse and cool about 10 minutes
- Discard the loose tea with a sieve
- Combine the milk, icing sugar, corn syrup and food gel to your desired tone and mix until smooth
- ASSEMBLING ÉCLAIR:
- Put creme pat in a piping bag or ziplock bag with a small corner cut out
- Take eclairs and pierce two holes with a chopstick or wood skewer on opposite ends of the eclair about an inch in from the ends and gently twirl them around inside to make a bit of space for the crême pat.
- Pipe the eclairs with the crême pat
- Dip the the éclairs in the icing and tap off the access
- Wait a few minutes for the icing to dry before serving.
These photos are so gorgeous!! And those eclair are so incredibly beautiful!! I was laughing because I am totally the same, I’m a binger too!! 😂 That’s why Netflix and I get along so well!! 😊
Ha! Thank god for pvr/Netflix/on demand. I watch full seasons by pulling all nighters lol. I’m glad I’m not the only one out there. Ha. Thanks for stopping by Steph !! Xox
I’m completely inlove with your photos… and recipes, of course.
Oh this roses… simply beautiful
Kisses
CláudiaV
Hi Claudia.Thank you for stopping by. You are so kind Claudia.xo
You’ve got some of the most beautiful and amazing photos on the web but even though I subscribed to your newsletter I still don’t get your newest post.
Thanks so much Merlinda for your kind words. I actually only send newsletters at special occasions as I feel everyone in overwhelmed by emails coming at them from all directions. That said I may update that so it’s more frequent. Thank you for your feed back and for stopping by. Xoxox betty
Stunning! I feel so inspired. What size nozzle do you use for both piping the pat a chou as well as the crème pat?
Hi Alex,
For the eclair I would use either a star-shaped tip, about 1.5cm in diameter or 1/2 inch round piping tip. For filing the eclair I use Bismark Metal Piping Tip (#230). Happy baking. Cheers,Betty
Thanks so much for the quick reply Betty!