For 25 éclairs
Preparation : 1 hour 25 minutes / Cooking : 43 minutes / Resting : 30 minutes
FOR THE CHOUX DOUGH:
- 500 ml of water
- 500 ml of milk
- 20 g of salt
- 20 g of sugar
- 450g butter
- 550 g of flour
- 800 g eggs (about 14 small eggs)
FOR THE GENMAICHA TEA PASTRY CREAM
- 500 ml of milk
- 20g genmaicha tea
- 100 g egg yolks
- 80 g of sugar
- 50 g of cream powder
- 10g matcha tea
- 50g butter
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM
- 100 ml of liquid cream
FOR THE CRACKER
- 150g butter
- 150 g of sugar
- 380 g of T55 flour
FOR THE MATCHA TEA GLAZE
- 175 g of white chocolate
- 100 ml of liquid cream
- 100 g of neutral topping
- 10g matcha tea
Make the cracker : work the softened butter with a spatula with the sugar and flour. Form the dough into a ball and place it in the fridge to harden, wrapped in cling film.
Make the genmaicha tea pastry cream : in a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil and add the genmaicha tea. Turn off the heat and leave to infuse, covered, for 30 minutes; Filter through a tea strainer. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cream powder and matcha tea. When the mixture is homogeneous and smooth, add half of the milk-tea infusion to loosen it, stirring well, without foaming. Transfer this mixture to the saucepan, stirring constantly with a whisk, while scraping the bottom and for 4 minutes until you obtain a cream of a slightly thick consistency. Add the butter and mix well. Remove into a cold container and cover in contact with cling film. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Prepare whipped cream with the liquid cream. Incorporate it into the well-cooled pastry cream to obtain a smooth cream.
Make the choux pastry : pour the water, milk, salt, sugar and diced butter into a saucepan and bring to a strong boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Mix vigorously with a spatula until the flour is completely absorbed. Return the pan to medium heat. Dry the dough by stirring with a wooden spatula until it comes away from the sides and forms a ball. If necessary, remove the pan from the heat two or three times to avoid burning the dough.
Transfer to a salad bowl. Work the dough to cool it a little, preferably in a food processor, and add the eggs one by one, mixing constantly. The operation is difficult at first, but you will see that the eggs are incorporated little by little. Always wait until you have a smooth dough before adding the next egg. The dough is ready when it forms a cone when falling from the spatula. Don't work it too much, otherwise it may not swell.
Make the éclairs : put the dough in a 16 mm diameter piping bag. Arrange eclairs 15 cm long on a buttered and floured baking tray (or a non-stick baking tray). Preheat the oven to 180°C (th 6), Roll out the cracker into a 2 mm thick crust then cut it into rectangles of the same dimensions as the éclairs (approximately 2.5 cm wide and 15 cm long) and place one on each éclair. Press lightly to adhere. Cook for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 160°C and continue cooking for 20 minutes.
Let cool on rack.
Garnish the éclairs : pierce 3 holes at the bottom of each éclair using an 11 mm diameter nozzle. Put the pastry cream in an 11mm diameter piping bag and fill the éclairs.
Make the matcha tea glaze : cut the white chocolate into pieces. Bring the liquid cream to the boil and add the white chocolate. Heat the neutral topping in the microwave at 650 W for 40 seconds. Add it to the melted chocolate as well as the matcha .
Dip the upper side of the éclairs in this icing. Hold them vertically to let the icing flow and remove the excess with your finger. Let cool on a rack.
ADVICE
For this recipe, you can use either genmaicha tea or matcha genmaicha tea.
Ideally, the first cooking of éclairs is done in a non-ventilated deck oven at 180 °C, and the second in a convection oven at 165 °C. The cracker makes éclairs a little sweeter and crispier, but you can do without it and glaze the choux directly. For the photographic éclairs, we made slabs of chocolate instead of icing. To do this, heat white chocolate in a bain-marie up to 48 °C. Lower the temperature to 26 °C while mixing. Quickly heat the container in a bain-marie to bring the temperature up to 28 °C. Spread the chocolate in a thin layer on a sheet of guitar paper (polyethylene sheet used for working with chocolate). Cut it into rectangles of the same dimensions as the éclairs.