Gluten Free Eclairs

Choux pastry should not be feared in gluten free baking, in fact I'd say its a great place to dive into gluten free patisserie. Choux pastry can be used for many things such as profiteroles, puffs, eclairs, and even a new style of doughnut (the chouxnut).

This recipe I've made into eclairs but can easily be adjusted for profiteroles, I will make a note on how to below.

Equipment & Storage

For this recipe, you will need a sauce pan, electric beater, baking tray and a piping bag. You can make these eclairs and coat with chocolate a day in advance making sure you keep them in a sealed container, but don't fill them with cream until ready to serve.

Making Profiteroles

To make profiteroles follow the same steps up until number 8. Instead of piping the batter into oblongs, pipe them into round blobs. You will get a bit of a peak, so dampen your fingers and pat it down so the surface is nice and smooth.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown, making sure not to open the oven.

Once baked piece each profiterole with a kebab stick to let the steam out, and let them cool completely before filling.

Once cooled, fill the profiteroles with pastry cream, you can find my recipes for chocolate or vanilla pastry cream here.

Drizzle with chocolate and enjoy!

I N G R E D I E N T S

• 90ml of milk

• 55ml of water

• 60 grams of butter

• 2 tsp sugar

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 80 grams of gluten free flour

• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (omit if flour mixture already contains it)

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

To decorate

• 200ml of double cream/heavy cream

• 2 drops of vanilla essence

• 100 grams of melted chocolate

• Sprinkles

M E T H O D

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C on bake. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. In a medium sized sauce pan, gently melt together the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt until combined over a low to medium heat. Turn your stovetop to a medium heat and slowly bring the mixture to a boil.

3. Once the mixture has come to a boil, turn the heat down to low and add in all the flour and xanthan gum and mix with a silicon spatula for 2-3 minutes. Your dough should be very sticky at this point.

4. Put the dough into a large bowl and gently mix with a spatula to cool down.

5. Add in the beaten egg half at a time. Start mixing your dough with an electric beater on a low-medium speed, and add in the first half of the beaten eggs. This will take about 2-3 minutes of continuous beating until it comes together.

6. Once the dough is smooth, add in the second half of the eggs and beat again until it has come together.

7. At this stage you should have a smooth dough that slowly falls off a silicon spatula. There may be a couple of lumps, but don’t worry about them - better not to over mix this dough.

8. Put the dough into a piping bag and pipe 12 oblongs, about 2cm in width and 8 cm in length onto the baking tray. Make sure you leave 3-4 cm in between as they will grow.

9. Place in the oven for 40 minutes and do not under any circumstances open the door. It’s better to bake these until a dark golden brown so that a solid crust forms and will hold the eclair up instead of deflating.

10. After 40 minutes, remove them from the oven and leave them to cool completely before slicing.

11. Once the eclairs are ready to be decorated, whip the double cream with a drop of vanilla essence until it forms stiff peaks, if you’d like it a bit sweeter add in a teaspoon of icing sugar.

12. Slice the eclairs in half, and pipe the cream on the bottom half, and gently place the top half of the eclair on the whipped cream.

13. Spoon over the melted chocolate and sprinkles.These are best eaten on the same day, but will keep well in the fridge for 24 hours.