When I was a little girl, I loved tea parties. One of my most memorable birthday parties was when my mom hosted a tea party for me at an old historic mansion and each of my friends and I wore old fashioned dresses and elegant hats. We sipped on tea and ate cucumber sandwiches and petit fours. It’s funny how when you are a child you always want to dress up and act like an adult and the you grow up and realize how simple and magical childhood was.
I think one of the reasons that I still love tea parties so much is because of the dainty, delicate foods. So, when I received a copy of Mini Cakes & other Bite-size Treats (Author: Hannah Miles) to review from the fine people at Ryland Peters & Small I was so excited to try some of the recipes. This book is filled with petite cakes, tarts and pastries that are perfect for any occasion. And you will have the chance to win a copy of the book tomorrow!
The first thing that I made out of this precious little book were the Baby Éclairs and Chocolate Profiteroles. Both recipes use the same dough and they were so easy and fun to make. Chocolate éclairs are one of my mom’s favorite desserts and I wish I could have shared them with her!
This would be a perfect quick and adorable dessert for your valentine ♥.
Baby Eclairs and Profiteroles
Keywords: bake dessert chocolate pastry
Ingredients (serves 30)
For the pastry
- 3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup sifted flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
For the Chantilly Cream
- 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or scraped vanilla bean
- 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
For the Chocolate Sauce
- 1 1/4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
Instructions
For the pastry
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a small saucepan, heat butter with 2/3 cup of water until the butter is melted. Bring to a boil.
Add flour and remove from heat. Whisk until dough comes together and is no longer sticking to the sides of the pan.
Cool 5 minutes.
While mixture is cooling, beat eggs in a separate small bowl.
Add eggs to butter mixture after 5 minutes of cooling and whisk until eggs are incorporated. Dough will be sticky.
Spoon dough into piping bag fitted with a large tip and pipe lines (or dots for profiteroles) about 2 cm long onto a baking sheet. Smooth down any peaks in the dough with wet fingers.
Bake for 10 minutes, then cut a slit into each pastry with a small knife and return to the oven for an additional 5 minutes.
Cool, then cut each pastry in half.
For the Chantilly Cream
In a medium bowl and with a hand mixer, beat cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold in powdered sugar.
For the chocolate sauce
In a small, microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate and butter and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and add cream and corn syrup. Microwave another 30 seconds or until chocolate is completely melted. Stir to combine.
To assemble
Spoon Chantilly Cream onto bottom half of cut eclairs and top with other half of eclair. Spoon or drizzle chocolate sauce over eclairs and serve.
Recipe adapted from Mini Cakes & other bite-size treats
for the pastry, heat the butter and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil
add flour, remove from heat and whisk until dough comes together
cool mixture for 5 minutes, beat eggs and whisk into cooled mixture to combine
spoon dough into pastry bag
pipe 2 cm lines (for baby éclairs) or 1 cm dots (for profiteroles) onto baking sheet
bake as directed
prepare chantilly cream and chocolate sauce and to serve, cut éclairs in half, fill with cream and top with sauce; for profiteroles, pile onto serving spoon and drizzle with chocolate sauce
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