I love eclairs, so deciding to make the showstopper for Patisserie week at GBBO wasn’t difficult. I used the classic recipe of choux pastry that is already on the blog. The only modification was that I made it with very strong flour, to have extra strength. After that I saw that some of the bakers had the same idea. As it was for just the two of us, I decided to make a small cake, with less height and without the biscuits between them.

To build up my religieuse I used only dark chocolate and eclairs. I made a base of two choux “glued” with dark chocolate and placed the eclairs straight using more dark chocolate. As it was only to keep them together, I didn’t need a lot of chocolate. After the first layer was up, I put it in the fridge for a few minutes, so the chocolate will cool and harden.
After that I placed the next layer consisting from a big choux and a smaller choux on top. I pipped whipped cream and the cake was ready to serve.

Religieuse a l’ancienne. How to make them:

Ingredients for basic creme pat:
– 125g sugar
– 50g plain flour
– 3 egg yolks
– 1 whole egg
– 500ml of milk

Put the milk  into a saucepan on the hub and bring to boil.
In a mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks, the egg and the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the sifted flour.

When the milk has boiled pour it over the blanched eggs and mix it for 1 minute until the heat from the milk is transferred to the cream.
Pour everything back into the pan and bring to hob on medium heat. Stir continuously for 3-4 minutes. Make sure the cream does not stick to the bottom of the pan. When the mixture has thicken it’s ready. Keep in mind that once it’s cool it will thicken more.
Transfer the cream into a cold container and cover with cling film, making sure that the film is in direct contact with the cream’s surface. This step is important to prevent the formation of a crust on its surface.

The round eclairs are filled with vanilla creme pat, add some vanilla paste in the milk.

The long eclairs are filled with cherry creme pat. Just add a little bit of red food colouring and a few drops of cherry flavour in the milk.

I hope you liked my recipe.