My FAMOUS Eclairs...Mother's Day 2011

Okay, Okay, I know it has been a while. Alix said that a blog is hard to keep up on- but my issue isn't blogging, it is taking the time to take the pictures from my camera, and then to edit them, and then to download, then to upload, and it goes on and on. It is just time consuming and Monday-Friday I am busy and tired.

So for Mother's Day, we all came to my mom's house and made dinner for Kim. Andie made steak, Colleen brought Lobster that Chad had brought home from Maine, Alix and Stephanie did side dishes (potatoes, Brussel sprouts, green beans, etc...) and I made my FAMOUS Eclairs!!! Basically- they were a hit. Dinner was good but my Eclairs were great! I made 56 and there were ZERO left at the end of the night. Follow me along the baking process- but I will never give away me recipe! It's my trademark and one day, when I open my Bakery/Cupcakery I will sell my Eclairs.

So basically, I start out by making the Pastry dough. No I cannot give you my recipe. Andie even complemented my Pastry dough and that's a huge compliment A: because no one in my family thinks I can bake or cook, and B: because out of my family, Andie is a trained professional- She went to Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale Arizona, so her opinion actually bares some weight in my opinion!

***The key here people, is COLD eggs. That's all I can tell you!

Next I made a homemade pastry bag- trick from Andie- use a large zip lock baggie, and cut the tip off according to the size you want. I use this trick for decorating cupcakes, cookies, and for piping out my dough. I made mini eclairs, and one batch of puffs for fun!

There were literally sheets and sheets of mini eclairs~

I won't spill my secrets on cook time and temperature, but I will say that you need to let the Pastry cool before you fill it. I usually fill it with a homemade custard, but Kim (my mom) specifically asked for whipped cream filling so voila~

Once I was done filling all of the eclairs, I made a homemade chocolate ganache which I drizzled on top of the eclairs. They may not be the most beautiful things in the world- but they tasted like heaven and were all gone at the end of the night!!! All in All it was a great Mother's Day. I even let Jackson have a tiny bite of an eclair and it got his seal of approval!