This Caramel Eclair recipe was converted from Matt Moran's Caramelia eclairs that featured in the October edition (2014) of ABC delicious. magazine. Quite simply they are delicious! 

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour.

Ingredients

Eclairs

135 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

20 g Maize starch

250 g Milk

125 g Butter (unsalted)*

6 Eggs

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

 

* The original recipe used unsalted butter however salt is also added. If using salted butter add in ~1/2 - 3/4 tsp of salt.

 

Almond paste

65 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

10 g Maize starch

75 g Butter (unsalted)*

90 g Demerara sugar (don't substitute)

1 tbs (~10 g) Almond meal

 

 Caramel cream@

300 g Caramel chocolate #

1 tbs (~25 g) Glucose syrup ^

 555 g Pure cream (thin) &

 

@ The original quantity of the caramel cream was 1/3 of the recipe above but I could only fill 1/3 of the eclairs. To fill them all I made another batch with caramel chocolate & one batch with milk chocolate. The whole family preferred the caramel chocolate cream. 

# The original recipe used Valrhona Caramelia Chocolate however I substituted in Callebaut caramel chocolate callets.

^ Glucose syrup is really sticky & it is a bit of a pain trying to get it all out of the tablespoon measure. I weigh the syrup into the saucepan. I put the blade of a blunt knife into the glucose syrup, twirl the knife while I am bringing it up out of the syrup & then either let it drip into the saucepan or scrape the syrup off with another knife. If there is syrup left on the knife this can be scraped back into the glucose syrup bottle.  

& I have used both thin cream & thickened cream. If your local supermarket doesn't stock thin cream substitute in thickened cream.

 

Method

Eclairs

Line two baking trays (ensure they can fit into your freezer).

Combine the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour & maize starch.

Combine milk, sugar, salt & butter in a saucepan & bring it to the boil. Lower the heat.

When the milk has started to boil add in the flour mix & quickly stir until the mix has combined and comes away from the sides of the pan.

The next step involves beating the mix while adding eggs in one at a time. This can be done by hand alternatively if you have a stand mixer transfer the dough to a mixing bowl.

Before adding the eggs beat the mixture for a couple of minutes to cool it down a little.

Beat in the eggs one at a time until a smooth dough is formed.

Transfer dough to a piping bag fitted with a size 15 plain nozzle.

Pipe long straight lines (~2 cm thick) across the lined tray. My lines were not straight & not the same size. If you want to straighten up or smooth the choux pastry lines wet your hands, flick off the excess water & gently mold the pastry. Re-wet your hands when necessary.

Transfer the trays to a freezer for ~1 - 2 hours.

Almond paste

Mix together the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour & maize starch.

Soften the butter. I microwave the butter until it is ~1/2 melted.

Combine the dry ingredients with the semi melted butter.

Place the mixture between two pieces of baking paper & roll out as thinly as possible. I used my 1 mm spacers on either side of the mixture. Transfer to a baking tray & place in the freezer for ~20 mins.

While the almond paste is cooling prepare the caramel cream.

Caramel cream

Put the caramel chocolate into a heat proof bowl.

Boil together the glucose syrup & 180 g of cream. 

Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate & let it sit briefly (~ 1 minute) to melt the chocolate. (I have also taken the saucepan off the heat & poured the chocolate into the cream).

Gently whisk the melted chocolate & cream (I used a fork) until just combined.

Refrigerate for ~15  mins for the chocolate mix to firm up.

Whisk the remaining 375 g of cream to soft peaks.

Remove the chocolate mix from the fridge & fold into the cream in 3 batches. You don't want to overbeat the mixture as it can split.

Transfer the chocolate cream to a piping bag fitted with a size 15 nozzle. Secure both ends of the bag.

Put it into the fridge to firm up. 

Preparing the eclairs

Turn oven on to 180 C.

Remove the piped dough & almond paste from the freezer.

Transfer one of the piped lines of dough to a cutting board & cut into 8 - 10 cm long logs. The length of my lines was ~26 cm so I chopped off the ends & then cut it into thirds (8 cm).

Transfer the eclairs back to the baking tray leaving room between them so they don't stick together during baking.

Cut the almond paste into rectangles the size of your eclairs. For example 2 cm x 8 cm or for thicker eclairs 3 cm x 8 cm. When the paste is straight out of the freezer it cracks when it is cut so wait a little before cutting it. If you leave it too long the paste softens up considerably and it is harder to transfer.

Place an almond paste rectangle on top of a similar sized eclair. Repeat with all eclairs. 

Transfer tray to the oven & bake for approximately 10 mins.

Reduce oven to 160 C & bake for another 30 mins.

Remove from the oven & allow to cool before filling.

Cut each eclair in half & pipe the caramel cream onto the base of each. If the caramel cream is too runny put the mix back into the fridge for a little longer.

Cover with the tops & dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!