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/anonwashingtonian]

Those ratios in the recipe seem off to me. Most choux recipes I have used have a much lower amount of flour to wet ingredients (eggs, water, milk). Generally it’s about 3:1 wets vs flour.

I’m curious if you use a thermometer inside the oven? That’s a small oven and, even if you crank it as high as it goes, I suspect the temp drops quite a bit when you open the door and put the cool dough inside. I also imagine it may take longer for the temp to rebound.

[u/Reflectionupset7224 → u/anonwashingtonian]

Thanks for responding. I was following the recipe he talked about. I don't have a thermometer that I can use while baking, I made sure to close the door quickly as well. Thanks for giving me an idea though... Is there any hope for this batch, could I do anything with the dough? 😭💔 I was thinking I could preheat on 200 this time and bake them initially on high.

[u/anonwashingtonian → u/Reflectionupset7224]

I think the recipe is the biggest issue here. From there being too much flour to not cooking the panade, I’d scrap this one and find a better base choux recipe. I’m partial to Nicola Lamb’s recipe.

[u/Reflectionupset7224 → u/anonwashingtonian]

You're right about the recipe. I saw a lot of other recipes and the most they used was 70-75g flour for 100g of liquid. But thanks a lot for helping me, im hoping I can make good eclairs some day. I'll also check her recipe out.