Forming Eclairs
I feel a little ridiculous posting this question, since I just answered a hotline about lo carb, lo sugar, gluten free diet, as chocolate eclairs are pretty much the polar opposite of all that . . . but . . .
My son wants to try his hand at making chocolate eclairs today. My question is about forming the pastry portion. The recipe I am using says to put the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip and "pipe the desired shapes onto the baking sheets." Ultimately I want to end up with 4-inch-long shapes that we can fill with the pastry cream.
So my first question is: Do I simply pipe one 4"-long line onto the sheet to make each eclair? Or do I pipe a 4"-long oval, in sort of a closed "round trip" motion, kind of like a closed race track? I have trouble believing that the 1 line approach will result in a shape substantial enough to fill, but I don't want to over-think this.
Also, can I use my icing bag set instead of a pastry bag?
Thanks in advance for your help. We are house-bound due to snow and extreme cold, and eclairs seemed like a good day-long project for a budding chef/engineer.
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I'm not sure what you mean by icing bag, but any sort of bag with a tip will work (even a Ziploc bag with a cut corner).