RE: STEEMIT CULINARY CHALLENGE #44 : Chocolate Eclair with Chocolate Pastry Cream, Chocolate Ganache and Raw Cacao Nibs Sprinkles
I hope you've saved a few @ikaputri3 because I'm on my way! But if they're already eaten up I'm sure they're now floating happy in chocolate heaven ;-) You seem to have made them super chocolately in every possible way... I can't even think how you could get more chocolate on them... Give them a full choc coating too?!!! Ha ha. As always your beautiful dessert looks as professional as anything I've ever admired through a bakery window.
The thing that makes me most happy is to see you're obviously becoming more and more aware of the quality of ingredients in terms of choosing less processed, less refined. Just a thought for the future - the chocolate ganache glaze could be made healthier with 85% dark choc, heavy cream, and 'smushed' up dates (finely chopped to make a paste almost... can be warmed and they kinda melt). I'm not certain what natural sweetner is suitable to replace sugar in the pastry cream (as far as I know honey doesn't work so well in cream) but surely there must be something. I have a project I'm currently working on I would love to have you involved in, which I guess is why I'm eager to get you thinking really carefully about every single ingredient choice :-)
Fabulous entry Putri, I wish you good luck!
I've saved some for you but someone has devoured everything :-D Promise, if we ever meet in real life, I'll make something special for you and of course made with natural ingredients with the good selection of ingredients ;-)
Hahaha... I knew you would give this good advice. I wanted to use darker choc for my ganache but I ran out of it. And with the bad weather yesterday, I really was not in the mood to buy some groceries. I'm planning to buy some chocolate groceries though this week end. I'll try to find one as darkest as possible. The corn/rice syrup meant to make the ganache shiny like a glaze, otherwise for normal ganache, I only use chocolate and heavy cream or coconut milk. Any idea to replace syrup with something that can make ganache shiny?
Big homework for me to learn more about substituting refined sugar with natural sweetener. I was thinking to replace the sugar with coconut sugar, but I was quite in hurry. If I fail, I wouldn't have time to remake it again. But I'm always eager to learn and know more about this. On to the project, I'm so curious about that! Would love to help in any way I can.
Thanks Joanna for always sharing your knowledge with me. I really appreciate it!
Ha ha I'm predictable now with my nit-picking about ingredients!!! As long as I'm not patronising... there's nothing more annoying!
I think you could try experimenting with arrowroot powder to make saucey things shiny. The only example I have personally is when I used arrowroot to thicken the caramel in these Honey-Caramel Squares. They're not the best photos ever but you can see it looks like thick shiny custard. Arrowroot is paleo friendly, and a clear alternative to cornstarch for certain things when you want to avoid that cloudy look. I do think it'd work well for your ganache, and most supermarkets sell it now.
I will be in touch soon with more details about my project! :-)
Dont worry, you're not patronizing. I'm always open and happy to hear your feedback.
Well noted for arrowroot powder, will find that in local supermarket. I checked your post and yes, your custard looked shiny. Good idea to make an experiment using arrowroot in ganache.
Looking forward to hearing more about your project! :-)