The biggest reason I love fall is because of the Mcsweeney’s article; “there’s a nip in the air and my house is full of mutant f*cking squash.” And since I received a request for fall recipes as well as a request for eclairs, I decided to combine the two. What screams fall more than a pumpkin spice latte? Maybe apple cider donuts, but I’ll get to those later. Anyway, a classic choux pastry filled with pumpkin spice latte pastry cream. On top is an orange pumpkin spice latte icing. Check them out!
Notes on Pastry Cream for the Eclairs
First off is the pastry cream. The pastry cream needs to chill in the fridge before filling so its best to prepare the pastry cream first. Add the milk, pumpkin pie spice, and chai tea bags to a sauce pan and heat to a simmer. Continue to heat for 3 minutes then remove the tea bags. While the milk is heating, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk vigorously until the mixture turns a pale yellow, around 2 minutes. Using a ladle, spoon the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. The idea is to temper the egg yolks so that when you add the mixture to the hot milk, the yolks don’t cook.
Add roughly half of the milk to the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Next, stream the egg yolk mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly. Continue cooking for 3 minutes whisking constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. The mixture should hold the marks of the whisk when its getting close. If you stop whisking, the mixture should begin to bubble after a few seconds. Remove the mixture from the heat and place the mixture in a fine mesh sieve. Using the whisk, press the mixture through the sieve. Next, stir the butter into the mixture, one piece at a time. Continue whisking until all of the butter has been incorporated.
More Pastry Cream Notes
Next, transfer the mixture to a storage container and place a piece of cling film over the top of the mixture to prevent a film from forming. Chill in the fridge for at least four hours. Once the mixture has chilled, mix with the sour cream and add to a pastry bag with a 1/4″ rough pastry tip. Shake the bag to get any air bubbles out and place in the fridge until ready to use.
Choux Pastry Notes
Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and place a rack in the middle of the oven. In a sauce pan, heat the butter, milk, water, sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer. Once the mixture starts bubbling add the flour mixture and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon. The idea is to heat the flour up and get rid of the raw flour taste. Continue to beat the mixture until the film that has formed on the bottom of the pan has reabsorbed into the mixture. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix for 30 or seconds or so to cool the mixture down.
Add the eggs one at a time until the mixture is smooth. The mixture should holds the shape of a “V” when you remove the paddle attachment from the batter. You may not need to add the fifth egg, and you may need to add a sixth. If you’re not sure if your mixture is the right consistency, there’s a helpful article by theflavorbender to help you determine if you have it right or not.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a 1-1/2″ french star tip. Shake the bag a few times to remove any air bubbles. On a silpat lined baking sheet, pipe the eclairs. Holding the piping bag at a 45-degree angle with the piping tip on the silpat, pipe a 4-5″ long log. Repeat with the rest of the choux pastry until the baking tray is full. Leave an inch of two between logs. Dust the tops of the choux logs with powdered sugar or spray with cooking oil, like PAM. This will help the choux develop a nice crust while baking.
Bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, poke a hole in the sides of all of the choux logs. Bake for another five minutes. Turn the heat off on the oven and prop the door open with a wooden spoon. This will allow the choux to cool slowly so that it doesn’t collapse. Remove from the oven after 15 minutes. Using a paring knife, poke three holes in the bottom of the choux logs. This will make filling the choux with pastry cream much easier. Fill the choux logs with the pastry cream. The eclairs should be filled but not bursting.
Eclairs Icing and Assembly
Sift the powdered sugar through a sieve into a large mixing bowl. Add the vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice. Add a few tablespoons of milk and whisk to combine until the mixture reaches the desired consistency. Mix in a few drops of orange food coloring to reach the desired color. Transfer the icing to a pastry bag and cut a 1/4″ hole in the bottom of the bag. Pipe the icing on top of the filled eclairs. Serve immediately. Store any leftovers in the fridge and consume within three days.
Final Notes
If eclairs seem very similar to a croquembouche, its because it is. The pastry cream and choux recipes are the same, you just have to pipe the choux differently and make the craquelin as well. If you’re ballsy, you can make a PSL croquembouche.
Pumpkin Spice Latte Eclairs
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Piping bag and 1-½" french star nozzle
- whisk
- Fine-mesh strainer
- baking tray w/ Silpat
Ingredients
Pastry Cream Ingredients
- 456 grams Whole milk
- 2 Chai tea bags
- 1½ tsp Pumpkin Pie spice
- 2 grams Kosher Salt
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 30 grams cornstarch
- 5 large egg yolks
- 85 grams Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces (6 tbsp)
- 56 grams sour cream
Pâte à Choux Ingredients
- 125 grams Whole milk (½ cup)
- 13 grams granulated sugar (1 tbsp)
- 2 grams Kosher Salt (½ tsp)
- 100 grams Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces (7 tbsp)
- 113 grams water (½ cup)
- 130 grams Bread Flour (1 cup)
- 5 Large Eggs +1 just in case
Icing Ingredients
- 240 grams Powdered Sugar
- 2 grams Pumpkin pie spice
- 1 gram vanilla extract
- 2-4 Tbsp Milk
- orange food coloring
Instructions
Pastry Cream Instructions
- Place a fine mesh sieve over the top of a large heatproof bowl, preferably metal, you'll see why later.
- Separate the eggs and set aside
- Combine the milk. chai tea bags, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a medium, heavy-bottomed sauce pan and over low-medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking occasionally. Remove the tea bags from the milk mixture once it has been simmering for a few minutes.
- While the milk is heating up, combine the sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch in a large bowl and whisk to combine, Go overboard and really give your forearms a workout, switching between your left and right hand when one gets tired. The mix will seem too thick initially but will thin out the more you whisk it, around 2 minutes
- Using a ladle and whisking constantly, add around half of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture. This tempers the egg yolk mixture so when you add it back to the pan, it doesn't cook the egg yolks.
- Whisking the hot milk mixture constantly, pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
- Continue to constantly whisk the mixture in the pan and increase heat to medium. Cook for around 3 minutes or until the mixture holds the marks of the whisk and has thickened up to the consistency of pudding. If you stop whisking for a few seconds, the mixture should start bubbling.
- At this point, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mixture to the fine mesh sieve you set up earlier. Using the whisk, press the mixture through the sieve, discarding any solids.
- Whisk the butter into the mixture, one piece at a time until smooth. If the mixture cools too much and the butter isn't melting, place the (hopefully) metal bowl over the stove top on very low heat. Whisk constantly to bring the temperature of the pastry cream up enough to melt the remainder of the butter.
- Transfer the pastry cream to a storage container and place a piece of cling film directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a film from forming. Place in the fridge until cold, at least 4 hours.
- Once cold, combine the sour cream with the pastry cream in a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Transfer the pastry cream to pastry bag with a 1/4" round pastry tip.
- Shake the bag a few times to get any air bubbles out and store in the fridge until ready to use.
Pâte à Choux Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and arrange racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and water. Bring the mixture to a simmer using a wooden spoon to help the butter melt.
- Once the mixture starts bubbling, add the flour all at once and stir with the wooden spoon. Once the flour has been incorporated, stir vigorously until everything comes together into a soft dough and there's a light film on the bottom of the sauce pan.
- Continue to cook the dough over medium heat, vigorously beating the dough against the sides of the pan until the film on the bottom has reabsorbed into the bowl and the dough holds together in a ball, around 3 minutes
- Transfer all of the dough into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Let the dough sit for a minute or two then mix for 30 seconds to help cool the dough slightly.
- On low-medium speed, add the eggs to the mixture one at a time. After each egg the mixture will look glossier and looser than before. After the fourth egg, check the consistency of the mixture. It needs to be thick enough to hold its shape but loose enough that when you pull the paddle out of the dough, it forms a V shape when it falls off the paddle. Add the extra egg if needed to get the right consistency.
- Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a 1-½" french star tip. Shake the bag a few times to get any air bubbles out and twist the bag to close.
- Place the tip of the piping bag on the silpat at a 45 degree angle and without lifting the tip off of the silpat, pipe a 4-5" long log. Twist the tip when you want to stop piping for a clean break. Dip your fingers in water and press the rough edge of the dough back in for a clean end. Repeat for the rest of your eclairs.
- Dust the tops of your eclairs with a bit of powdered sugar or spray them with a bit of cooking spray like pam.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 375. After 25 minutes poke a hole in the ends of all of the eclairs, rotate the trays from the bottom to the top racks and bake for another 5 minutes
- After 5 minutes, turn the oven off and leave the eclairs inside to cool for 15-20 minutes. Prop the oven door open to help them cool slowly. Remove the pastry cream from the fridge so it can start warming up.
- Remove the eclairs from the oven and using a small paring knife, poke three holes in the bottom of each eclair to allow steam to escape and to help with filling later. Let the eclairs cool completely on the baking trays.
- Take the bag of pastry cream and insert the tip into the bottom of one of the eclairs and squeeze the bag to fill. The eclairs should be sufficiently filled but not so much that they're bursting. Repeat with the rest of the eclairs.
Icing Instructions
- Sift the powdered sugar into a large mixing bowl
- Add the vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice and whisk to combine.
- Add a few tablespoons of milk and whisk to combine. Add more milk as necessary to get the right consistency for piping.
- Add orange food coloring as necessary to get the desired shade of orange.
- Transfer icing to piping bag and cut 1/4" hole in bottom for piping icing onto eclairs.
- Pipe icing onto eclairs and serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
