I went along with it. Vegan eclairs. Vegan, sugar-free, chocolate-free, eclairs. Made with carob, because chocolate was a no-go.
I tried a first batch a few weeks ago using a made-up recipe of almond butter, soy milk, etc., but it was a drastic failure. In the end, I went with a recipe I found using Google, but alas was not quite satisfied with it. The eclairs themselves were doughy in the centre, so I had to scrape out the centres before filling them with my runny pastry cream. But the maple glaze turned out perfectly, all shiny and sticky and sweet.
Looking at the pictures, I now wish I hadn't shared all these stories about how dissatisfying they actually were. But that's all just me being picky - Michael loved them, and ate most of them while I was trying to take pictures. And the leftover pastry cream made a great soy carob pudding.
My recipe is adapted from the eclair recipe posted at Baking Love. Thanks for that.
Vegan Pate a Choux
1 cup flour
3 tsp. maple sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. oil
1 cup soy milk
Egg replacer
1 tbsp. oil
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. corn starch
1/4 cup soda water
Combine, oil, vinegar, baking powder, cornstarch and water in a medium bowl to allow mixture room to expand. Whisk together. Stir together flour, vegan sugar, salt, cream of tartar. In a saucepan, bring the non-dairy milk or water and shortening or oil to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat for a moment. Add the flour mixture all at once, return to heat, and reduce the heat to low. Stir constantly until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides and the spoon and is smooth. Working quickly, remove from heat and add the egg replacer in thirds, beating well after each addition until the dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from the sides.
Dispense into eclair shapes on a non-stick baking sheet.
Bake at 205C (400F) for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 170C (350F) for another 20 minutes. Turn off oven and leave it slightly open for 20 minutes. Cool.
Chocolate Pastry Cream
1 cups soy milk
1/4 cup silken tofu
3 tbsp. maple sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
1/4 cup carob chips
1 1/2 tbsp. oil
Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Set aside a smaller bowl that can hold the finished pastry cream and be placed in the ice bath. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. Whisk tofu, sugar, and corn starch together in a medium saucepan. Continue whisking as you slowly add a quarter of the hot milk into the mixture.
Strain the mixture into the saucepan, place over medium heat, and whisking vigourously and without stop, bring the mixture to a boil. Keep the mixture at the boil, mixing energetically, for 1-2 minutes. Still over heat, stir in the chocolate, then remove from heat and scrape the pastry cream into the small bowl.
Set the bowl into the ice-water bath and, stirring frequently so that the mixture remains smooth, cool the pastry cream a fair bit. Remove the pastry cream from the ice-water bath and stir in the oil in three or four additions. Return the pastry cream to the ice-water bath and keep it there, stirring off and on until it is completely cool.
Maple Glaze
1/4 cup maple syrup
Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn down to low, and allow to settle until the syrup becomes sticky and candy-like. It should concentrated and caramel-like in consistency.
Assembly
I sliced the eclairs in half, filled each with a bit of the pastry cream, and spread the tops with the maple glaze. I topped them off with little fragments of maple candy. Yay!
- Follow RecipesDream
- Follow @us
