Lemon Meringue Eclairs

Whoa we are half way through with the February bakes. I feel like 2018 is going to be one of those years that will just fly by. Today's perfect pair is Lemon + Meringue. They work so well with each other. I love lemon but it does has the tendency to be rather tart at times. It needs it's friend Meringue to offset some of that tartness. I wanted to bake something that I hadn't in a while. I went with an eclair. I had only made them one other time last year and wanted to improve my eclair baking skills. I loved the way they turned out. I ended up changing my oven temps and I even adjusted the baking time. This led to a much crispier and more hollowed out eclair shell. Lemon anything will always be a favorite of mine, so these eclairs made me very happy. I had a much more pleasant experience because I made the lemon cream a day earlier. So remember you don't have to do everything in one day.

Lemon Meringue Eclair

I will definitely bake these again in the future.

Here's what you need

Pate a choux (eclair dough)

• 250ml of water (1 cup + 2 teaspoons)
• 70g  of butter (5 tablespoons)
• 150g of flour (1 cup)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• pinch of salt
• egg wash (1 egg + 1 tablespoon of water)

Lemon Cream

Lemon Curd

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of lemon zest 
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks (save the egg whites for the meringue)
• 1 stick of butter (cut into pieces)

whipped cream

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Italian Meringue

• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of water

First make some lemon curd or if you want to skip this step and use store bought go ahead. Here's how I make my lemon curd. How To make Lemon Curd

Once you make your Lemon Curd place it in the fridge to cool.

Whip up your whipped cream by using a stand mixer or hand mixer. Pour your heavy cream in a bowl and whip on high speed until soft peaks form and pour in your powdered sugar and whip until combine. Try not to over whip your cream.

In a large bowl take your cooled lemon curd and about 3/4 of your whipped cream and gently fold the two together. Once everything is combined place bowl in fridge until ready to fill eclairs.

Stop when your cream looks like this

chilled lemon curd

Lemon curd +Whipped cream = Lemon Cream

Now for the Eclair dough

preheat oven to 400F


Combine water, sugar, and salt in a small/medium pot and bring to a boil

the sugar and salt dissolved in the water

Add butter and bring to a boil one more time.

Butter

let all the butter melt and bring this to a boil

Add the flour and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. (I could not take a picture and vigorously mix at the same time)

Reduce the heat to minimal and keep whisking until the mixture thickens, about 1 minute. It should look like this.

keep stirring to cook out the flour

Remove mixture off the heat and add one egg at a time, keep whisking the mixture until all eggs are incorporated and the batter is a smooth consistency. (it's easier to use a wooden spoon....you will get an arm work out)

It will look a mess but keep stirring it will all come together

keep stirring until your arm falls off

It's easier to use a wooden spoon after the eggs are incorporated to make sure your dough is smooth.
This dough will be stiff, yet pipe able.

Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip, pipe fat lengths of dough (about ¾ - 1 inch thick and 4 inches long) onto the lined baking sheet, leaving 1 inch of space between them.

Then gently brush each eclair with egg wash. I then took a fork and gently scraped the top of each eclair (this helps with an even bake and it makes them look cute)

your should get about 12  6 inch eclairs out of this but I made a couple too long and only ended up with 11 and two little cream puffs which is still cool.

ready for the oven

Place in 400F oven and bake for 15 minutes. Without opening the oven decrease temperature to 350F and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove eclairs from oven and place on cooling rack. Cool completely.

Nice and golden brown

I just took a piping tip and gently pressed  three small wholes into each eclair

starting at one end I filled each whole with the lemon cream mixture (when the mixture starts to come out of the whole stop filling it.)

all filled up

*if some cream come out just use a knife to scrap it off

place the filled eclairs back on the cooling racks

full of cream

I made a little lemon glaze and brushed on them to make them shiny and even more lemony

Time to make the Italian meringue

Place 1 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small pot on medium to high heat and cook with a candy or digital thermometer until 100C .

When sugar reaches 100 celceius begin whipping egg whites in a separate bowl.

when egg whites become frothy add in the 1/4 cup of sugar and whip until soft peaks form.

when soft peaks form sugar will reach 118 celceius remove from heat and slowly pour into egg whites.

Turn mixer on high and whip until bowl is cooled down so about 5-7 minutes.

Place cooled meringue in a piping bag with whatever pipping tip you have and pipe meringue over the top of each eclair ( I used a leaf tip)

they look so yummy

Using a kitchen torch slightly toast the meringue. If you don't have a kitchen torch you can place them back in the oven and toast them that way.

after the torch

close up of that yummy meringue

so perfect

Inside view

I also ended up making some with a blackberry glaze.

In a small pot place 1/2 cup of blackberries, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons of sugar over medium heat. Cook until blackberries become soft

remove from heat and use a sieve to smash blackberries with spoon to extract juice and remove seeds

Why do blacberries turn red when they are cooked

 Take two cups of powdered sugar and about 7 tablespoons of blackberry syrup and whisk until smooth

blackberry glaze

 Dip each eclair in glaze and sit on rack to set (about 5 minutes)

before glaze sets you can top with sprinkles or just leave them plain. I added candied lemon peel and meringue. Oh and a little gold luster dust.

look at how pretty these are

I tried to zoom in on the glitter

ready to serve

These were mega yummy and looked beautiful. Next weeks bake will definitely be Peanut Butter & Jelly inspired.