CHANNELING GRANTHAM: Violet & Lemon Eclairs

Julia's iPad

In amongst all the boy stuff,  sometimes a girl just has to have something dainty and delicate for afternoon tea.

We had noticed a  little clump of violets in our woodland garden a few days a go and being basically a greedy guts I immediately thought of crystallising them. Something so Downtown Abbey-ish about crystallised violets. I was in girly heaven when I found this gorgeous recipe for Violet & Lemon Eclairs which I just had to make.

By the time I'd finished icing them and also doing a batch of more boy-friendly ones with chocolate ganache and creme patisserie it was already time for cocktails, so we skipped the tea bit and had eclairs with our Gin & Tonics instead.

The Dowager Countess of Grantham would have been mortified..

VIOLET AND LEMON ECLAIRS

For the choux pastry:
1 cup boiling water
85 grams butter
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs

Lemon Cream:
Zest of half a lemon
3 Tbsp icing sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
Mauve colouring
Violet essence
Crystallised violets

Method:

1. For the choux: Preheat oven to 190 C
2. Add the butter to the boiling water
3. Working quickly, throw in all the flour and with a wooden spoon whisk like mad
4. Take off the stove and allow too cool a bit
5. With a mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time
6. Your pastry should be of a firm egginess. Here's a good tutorial and excellent pictures of how to make choux pastry and what it should look like at various stages
7. Pipe about 6cm strips with a large, plain noozle onto a lined baking tray
8. Bake at 190C for 10 minutes and then reduce oven to 175C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until evenly golden
9. Cool on a wire rack and then split in half. There should be a nice airy cavity to pipe your cream into.
10. For the Lemon Cream: Whip the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and cream together until stiff peaks. Add more sugar if you need to. Pipe into the choux cavities.
11. For the icing: Mix the icing sugar with a small dribble of water until you have a thick runny consistency. Be very frugal with the colouring and essence, as both are strong. Spread over the eclairs with a rounded knife. 
12. For the crystallised flowers: Dip the flowers in a whisked up egg white and then delicately roll in castor sugar. Dry on the window sill.

Don't forget to polish the silver.

Adapted from Twigg Studios. Gorgeous photos but clunky recipes.