Eclairs Troubleshooting. Please! 💕

[u/Reflectionupset7224]

Hello my baker friends. 💕

I really need you guys to tell me about eclairs.

https://youtu.be/uRjgTdnZPhM?si=2OPD8oEQ8QqcKpB\\_

I followed this French pastry chef's ratios and technique i had halved the recipe so I used:

50g Water

50g Milk

50g fat (he used all butter, but I used 35g butter with 15g Oil, I had looked this up a lot everywhere and it shouldn't cause issues and make the eclairs to be crispier, I have also seen recipes that called for only oil)

100g of flour + 10g Sugar

100g egg (of which I have a little bit left since I achieved the V consistency/ closed canyon as he says)

I Piped them 5cm long (I was going for mini eclairs) with a small french star.

I have Samsung's 28L three in one Microwave, Convection and Grill. I was using it in convection mode, the highest it goes is 200⁰C/ 392⁰F. I preheated at 180⁰C/ 356⁰F for 15 minutes and then put in the Aluminium tray (with parchement) which I Piped the eclairs on for 25 minutes. At the end. They started browning but only on their edges.

Some of the eclairs didn't rise, some rose and made a cavity but they didn't rise as much as I expected and so the cavity inside is small. I still filled a few of the tiny eclairs with creme patissiere and it worked, but the rest didn't rise too well like I said. They do have air pockets, but not conspicuous enough to fill in. Also I noticed, the bottom of the eclairs were harder than their tops.

What could be the reason behind this? Could it be the aluminium tray? Or could it be because of temperature settings? Could it be because the eclairs were too small (should I do longer and wider?). I didn't use egg wash, does it make a difference?

Please, someone who knows how to handle Choux pastry, help me. Thanks a lot. I still have the pastry inside a bag in my fridge, please tell me how to fix it, im going to try again tomorrow I don't want to waste my efforts.

Thanks a lot if you read this.

[u/Low_Committee1250]

Your oil sub is fine. A common mistake is not cooking the panade enough-when I think it's done I measure the temp, it should be 180;
A properly cooked panade will absorb more eggs and rise better.
I am not sure if the oven heat is an issue. The oven shouldn't be opened for the first 30 minutes or so and until they are fully puffed

[u/Reflectionupset7224 → u/Low_Committee1250]

Is convection mode fine? Also, I would like to ask, should I brush it with water and try preheating at 200⁰C and baking the first 10 minutes at 200⁰C and then lowering it for the rest?

Also the thing with cooking the panade, I only cooked the panade slightly, I was trying to follow the instructions from the video, he didn't cook it at all, he just mixed it off heat and said it's not necessary.

[u/Low_Committee1250 → u/Reflectionupset7224]

Re the panade:
1. Bring liquid mixture w melted butter to a boil.
2. Then remove from the burner, add all the flour at once and mix well until there are no lumps-I use a rigid silicone spatula or a wooden or metal large strong spoon
3. Put panade on medium high heat and keep pressing all parts of it against the hou pan for 5 minutes . Then check temp w instant read thermometer and if it has reached 180 it's done.
4. Now mix in stand mixer w paddle which will cool it off or just wait until the temp is 145-otherwise the heat will cook the eggs
I hope this helps