What happened to my eclair shells?

You're doing everything right to correct the problem, at least as far as I know. Your eclairs are cracking because the inside's expanding more and more quickly than the outside can stretch to hold it.

Make sure to use a looooooooooooong preheat, so the heat is distributed very evenly throughout the oven, then turn the pan halfway through the bake. No matter how the turn works for you with this problem, always use a long preheat for baking. Twenty minutes is not enough.

If the longer preheat and turn don't fix it, try baking with a water pan in the bottom rack. The additional humidity may (or may not) help. Possibly not the answer, but worth a try.

BDL

not being a professional baker i don't know the science behind why your shells split, but i do make choux puffs and eclair shells for cocktail parties quite a lot..i always put a small cup of water(s/s) on the bottom of the oven.... i am at high altitude so anything fragile or with eggs can be problematic and the water just seems to be a solution.... oh, if you don't have sherry yard's book, get it..she rocks....easy, funny, personable and explains very well different flour usages and pretty much everything else you need to know....almost makes me want to be a pastry chef!(not), but she gives you her knowledge and expertise to make exquisite things.

joey

sherry yard's book is 'the secrets of baking'....get it!

Edited by durangojo - 9/6/11 at 7:22am

You seem to being doing everything in an acceped manner. I have one question. Are you using a standard or convection oven? There is a marked difference. Sometime using a pan of water will hurt instead of help. Possibly when making cream puff more batter is extruded in a more confined space therefore weight on top and  keepin the puff from splitting,where as eclairs are thinner with less weight on top over a longer area.

try thinning your wash. make sure

jeez, like having cancer. Jump in and everybody bolts.LOL  cancer  LOL

Edited by panini - 9/6/11 at 2:23pm

Gayda, when I was very young I used to help in a bakery where they made a lot of éclairs, but I never made them myself, just filled a lot of them and covered with chocolate. I do think the cracking you mention is very common.

Anyway, here's 2 videos of making A. éclairs (1st video) and making B. small choux (2nd video). They show a really great dessert specialist at work.

Based on the first video he uses 100 g butter, 100 g milk, 100g water, 150 g flour for pâtisserie, 6 eggs + 1 for egg wash and fleur de sel.

The videos are in dutch, but you're a cook, shouldn't be a problem to follow. Some of his remarks are interesting to know;

- he uses 50/50 water and milk; makes the result feeling less dryer in the mouth

- always make sure the liquid is boiling first before adding the flour!

- make quite a dry mixture before adding the eggs. A dry mixture allows to add more eggs which will "souffler"(blow-up) the result better.

- when baking, watch the trick with the kitchen towel at the end of the baking process to release all excess of steam that built up while baking.

Eclairs video;

http://www.njam.tv/recepten/eclairs-gevuld-met-banketbakkersroom

Choux video;

http://www.njam.tv/recepten/soesjes-met-chocolade 

OMGosh.

Putting way to much into these. The logs you posted were to fast. Turned the temp down to late.

It's all about drying these out.

Use a hard flour, not an APF. This is the most inconsistant variable in you recipe.

Nix, the silpat. Don't wash you logs to the paper. They need to expand there.

When piping, don't move forward or push down. Pipe them as laying the log down out of the tube.

If you can't achieve the first push around the bottom, then wash and use the back of a fork to make ridges.

This will allow the log to expand.

Go to the source. Chef Lenotre, Thuries, etc.

Pan

You need to look into your method and proceedure.

A lot of commercial and home eclairs come out looking like the ones you show. Try bagging them with a star tube(which makes ridges automatically.

 

Gayda,

  Your there or very close. Are you adding eggs according to recipe? The amount of eggs you use will

usually not be the same each time.y ou really need to mix by eye. Do you know how to test the mix  for consistency?

You Gage it by running something solid like the handle of wooden spoon through the mix. You test by measuring

when the trough closes behind the spoon. Make sense? The trough should close about an inch or two behind. If the trench doesn't close it needs more egg.

Are you using silpats?

To me your paste looks a little dry. Spending too much time on the pan before or after wash. or can use more egg. Cover your mix

in the bowl as you prep. No added moisture in the oven. If they are not building steam you're probably to dry. It's not like a dough. To much moisture

and is will collect in areas instead of evaporating. Might make your bottoms soft.