Passion fruit and raspberry éclairs

A few weeks ago I bought the book “Éclair de génie” by Christophe Adam, the former pastry chef at Fauchon who established his own mono-product business about éclairs a few years ago.

All his éclairs are stunning and quite different from anything, so I was curious to read his recipes and find out how to achieve those stunning looks and effects.

Well, let’s say he needs some help from some cool ingredients that are not commonly available in a supermarket, but which can be easily purchased online. Last week I received my order with pectin and cocoa butter and decided to try my first “cool” éclair.

For these hot summer days, the choice fell on these elegant passion fruit and raspberry éclairs. The combination of flavours is absolutely amazing! And they look cool too!

The top is made with a colored almond paste, glued to the éclair with (home made) neutral glaze, and then glazed with more glittered neutral glaze. My result is slightly different from the original because I didn’t have an éclair-shaped cookie cutter to cut the almond paste precisely and I was not able to find edible glitter, so I just used a coloring powder (definitely less sparkling).

I´m not a super fan of passion fruit, but these recipe made me fall in love with it, especially for the combination with the raspberries coulis. But be warned, all pleasures come at a cost: it took me around half a day to make these éclairs from scratch (with a bit of preparation for the glaze the day before too), so plan carefully your day!!! 🙂

Passion fruit and raspberry éclairs

Print recipe

Ingredients

Choux pastry

85g	Milk
85g	Water
1 pinch	Salt
85g	Unsalted butter
85g	Bread flour
148g	Eggs
3g	Sugar
1	Vanilla extract

Passion fruit cream

75g	Passion fruit juice (around 7 fruits)
10g	Lemon juice
1g	Gelatin
105g	Eggs (~2)
85g	Granulated sugar
155g	Butter (room temperature)

Raspberry confit

60g	Granulated sugar
4g	Pectin (almost a teaspoon)
90g	Raspberry juice
30g	Glucose syrup
20g	Lemon juice

Neutral glaze

125g	Water
5g	NH pectin (1 teaspoon)
30g	Granulated sugar
100g	Granulated sugar
8g	Glucose syrup

Decoration

100g	Almond paste (with 50% of almonds)
As needed	Yellow colouring
As needed	Orange colouring
As needed	Golden food glitter (optional)
20	Fresh raspberries

Directions

Neutral glaze

Mix the 30g of sugar with the pectin

Heat the water in a saucepan then incorporate the sugar and pectin in the water while stirring constantly

Add the remaining sugar and glucose and stir

Keep on stirring and bring to a boil

Strain the mixture and refrigerate at least for 24h before using

Passion fruit cream

Cut the passion fruits in two, extract the pulp and strain it to extract the juice

Keep the passion fruit seeds aside for later and extract the lemon juice. Let the gelatin bloom in the passion fruit juice for 5 minutes.

Place the passion fruit juice, lemon juice, sugar and eggs in a bowl over a bain marie of simmering water and whisk regularly

Keep on whisking until the mixture thickens (and its temperature is around 82°-85°C)

Chill quickly the cream to 45°C (slightly warm to the touch) with an ice bath

Add the diced butter in two times and mix every time with an immersion blender until fully incorporated. Refrigerate in a piping bag fitted with a small tip until needed.

Raspberry confit

Mix and strain the fresh raspberries to remove the seeds (the total weight after this step should be 90g)

Bring the raspberry juice to a boil in a saucepan. When it cools down to 50°C, mix the sugar and pectin and then add them to the raspberries and bring again to a boil. Refrigerate until needed

Choux pastry

Bring to a boil the milk, water, salt and butter in a saucepan. Make the sure the butter is fully melted.

Remove from the heat and immediately add all the flour.

Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon then put the pan back on the heat and continue beating the dough

Keep drying the dough up on the heat only for a few minutes until it comes away from the sides of the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the saucepan

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and let it cool down for a few minutes

Add an egg and stir until it is completely absorbed in the dough

Add all the other eggs one at a time. Slightly beat the last egg before adding it then pour it slowly little by little on the dough, checking frequently if the dough has reached the right consistency

When the dough is shiny but firm (i.e. not runny), it is ready to be piped. Pipe 11cm stripes using a plain or a star tip on a greased (or parchment lined) oven tray.

Once the oven is pre-heated at 250°C, turn it off and leave the tray inside. After aroudn 12-16 minutes, when the éclairs have already grown enough, turn on the oven again at 160°C and cook for around 25-30 minutes more. Optional: leave the oven door slightly open in the last 3 minutes or until all humidity has disappeared from the éclairs.

Assembling the éclairs

Make three holes on the bottom of the baked éclairs with the tip of a knife

Fill the éclairs with a small quantity of raspberry confit

Then fill the éclairs completely with the passion fruit cream, until they feel "heavy" in your hand (but not too much, otherwise they might crack)

Work the almond paste with the colouring in order to obtain a warm yellow colour. Roll out the paste to 2mm thick and cut it in the shape of an éclair. Optionally add some (clean, pulp-free) passion fruit seeds on top and use a rolling pin to make them stick.