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Living TheReview Wednesday, February 28,1990 — All

2

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It's 6 am. A trip to Vancouver - Chocolate eclairs can be inspirational

later today is the cause of my early
arising. But deadlines demand that

“the column” is completed and in’

to the editor’s office before B:C
Ferries can cast off with yours
truly aboard.

The cursor on the screen of the
word processor winks unrelent-
ingly as I wait for the words to
move from my barely conscious
brain to my fingertips.

The computer of my mind stum-
bles through the befuddled cells of
the brain searching, scanning,
seeking for a topic to satisfy the
endless appetite of the word proc-
€SSOF

Chocolate eclairs? Impossible! 1
reactivate the search mode in the
brain-computer, but it’s no use:
there seems to be some kind of
glitch. It won't get past this eclair
fixation.

But nobody actually eats eclairs
these days, do they? I mean we re
all wise that the gooey (read
delicious), fattening (read deli-
cious) whipped cream inside the
“eclair is just not good for us. It
clogs up the old arteries, don’t you
know, it slows down the old ticker,
it can cause your premature depar-
ture from this planet.

Say! supposing we didn’t fill the
eclair with whipped cream or
vanilla custard? What then?

Maybe we're on to something.
Lets see...

The pastry you use for eclair-
like dainties is different from the
pastry used for making apple pies.
In French, it is called “chou”
which, believe it or not, means
“nasiry.” Its full name in French is
“Date a chou” which translates to
“cream puff pastry.” 1 am uncer-
tain whether our typesetter can put
in the circumflex and grave, so our
translation may leave something to
be desired.

Anyway, this here “chou” was
invented in 1540 by Popelin, the
pastry chef to Queen Catherine of
France. The queen called it oven-
dried pastry.

The following recipe will pro-
vide about 12 oz. of chou, which
doesn’t sound like much until you
remember that an eclair without its
filling weighs about the same as a
couple of feathers.

Cream Puff Pastry
9 oz. (1 cup plus 1 oz.) water
5 1/2 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tbsp. sugar (optional or can
be cut down)

1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 eggs

In a medium saucepan, put in
the first four ingredients and bung
to a boil. Remove from heat and
add in the flour all at once.

With a wooden spoon, stir well
and return to the stove. Place over
medium heat and stir continuously
until the flour has been absorbed
and no longer sticks to the sides of
the saucepan. You will find that
little dry parts cling to the bottom
of the pot.

Remove from the heat again and

cool for a minute or two. Add the
eggs to the mixture one at a time,
beating hard after each one.

In France, at this stage, they
sometimes addi a little almond or
orange flavoring, but it’s optional.

Put a simple round nozzle on the
end of an icing bag and then place
the dough inside.

You should also have the
greased baking sheet ready.

Pause for a moment and think
again what you plan to do with the
pastry. Do you want tiny little
puffs, long oblong ones, or what?

Twist round the top of the pastry
bag and squeeze out the dough on
to the baking sheets according to
the shape of the finished pastry
you want. If you are making pro-
fiteroles for example (those minia-
ture chocolate-topped cream

puffs) squeeze out dough the size

of a cherry. A little larger for
cream puffs or whatever you
decide you want to do with them.

Ooops, sorry! You need one
more egg. Beat it up quickly and
paint a thin layer on to each piece
of dough.

Bake in a oven preheated to 400
F for 15 minutes. Remove and
leave in a warm place to- cool
gradually.

If all has gone well, you will
have a puffy, featherlight dough

which is hollow inside. In 1540
and for the hundreds of years in
between, they would be filled
when cool with wonderful chest-
nut/whipped cream flavored with
kirsch fillings or other delectable
concoctions.

But this is 1990 and we are a
little wiser about what is and isn’t
good for us.

So, instead of whipped cream,
we will fill them with low-fat
yogurt (plain or flavored), or cot-
tage cheese, ricotta cheese and/or
fruit. I was also going to suggest a
tofu filling, but that’s a whole
subject which we'll write about

soon.
Fruit can be your very favorite

—— blueberries, strawberries, nec-
tarines, bananas — you choose it.
Chop it up finely (blueberries can
be left whole), drain very well,
then fold into the yogurt or cottage
cheese.

A little sweetener can be added
if you like. Vanilla, almond or
coconut flavoring can also be
used. Chopped walnuts, or
almonds or ground hazelnuts can
be stirred in — just use your
imagination. Whatever you
choose, prepare the filing, chill it
slightly and spoon into the puff
just prior to serving.

Another filling, completely dif-

ferent, could be chicken, shrimp,
tuna or salmon salad made with
light mayonnaise or instead of
mayo, used chopped hard-boiled
egg mixed with a teaspoon saf-
flower oil to bind the mixture
together.

Now you have a savory puff,

great for appetizers or light
lunches.

Just remember to leave filling
the puffs until the last minute, so
they won’t have time to get soggy!

Well, at last my brain is in high
gear and just think! it was a
chocolate eclair that got it going.

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