Recipe: Exotic Vanilla Eclair

Impress your family with this decadent dessert curated by Vinay Kumar, Executive Chef, Novotel Vijayawada Varun.

Vanilla Rose Petal Eclair

Ingredients

For the sable biscuit base 

• 200 gm butter
• 140 gm icing sugar
• 1½ eggs
• 3 ml vanilla extract
• 360 gm maida or refined flour

For the mirror glaze

• 250 ml water
• 450 gm liquid glucose
• 450 gm castor sugar (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
• 450 gm lightly melted white chocolate
• 180 gm cold glaze, easily available in stores or online (a glossy coating liquid)
• 320 gm condensed milk
• 45 gm gelatin or a gelatin equivalent like agar agar for vegetarians
• A few drops red food colour, optional

For the rose petal panna cotta

• 350 ml fresh cream
• 150 ml milk
• 100 gm sugar
• 15 ml rose water
• 25 gm red rose petals
• 10 gm gelatin or a gelatin equivalent like agar agar for vegetarians

For the vanilla cream

• 4 egg yolks
• 50 gm castor sugar (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
• 1 pod of vanilla beans or 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 10 gm gelatin or a gelatin equivalent like agar agar for vegetarians
• 300 ml fresh cream

For decoration

• Sliced strawberries
• White chocolate for decorating

Method

• Using a hand blender, make the sable base by creaming the butter, sugar along with the eggs and vanilla extract.
• Mix in the flour and rest the dough for about 30 minutes.
• Once the dough is ready, roll it out till it is about ½-inch thick and cut it with a round cutter into an eclair shape (see picture for the shape of the dessert).
• Bake at 180°C for 15 mins until its colour darkens. Set aside to cool.

For the mirror glaze

• Boil the water, liquid glucose, and castor sugar in a saucepan. 
  Once the sugar melts, take off heat.
• Add the melted white chocolate, cold glaze, condensed milk and bloomed gelatine. Soak the gelatine sheets in warm water for a few minutes for it to bloom.
• Add the food colour and mix well.
• Store in the fridge until it's time to glaze the pastry. 

For the rose petal panna cotta

• In a pan, add the fresh cream, milk, rose water, rose petals and sugar. 
• Warm on low heat, stirring continuously, until the sugar dissolves.
• Add in the bloomed gelatine. Mix well.
• Pour the mixture into a flat silicone tray, cool and set it in the refrigerator.

For the vanilla cream

• Whip the egg yolks, castor sugar, cream and vanilla together to make a sabayon or light creamy sauce.
• Pour the whipped mixture into a saucepan placed over simmering water in a pot, in a double boiler kind of  arrangement.
  Cook till thick and creamy, whisking all the time.
• Add the bloomed gelatine into the sabayon and mix until it dissolves.

Assembling

• Use an eclair-shaped mould to assemble all the ingredients of the dessert. First fill the whipped vanilla cream in a pastry bag and pipe the mixture into the mould. Fill only half of the mould with the vanilla cream.
• Cut the set rose petal panna cotta into long slices and insert it into the half-filled vanilla cream mould.
• Fill the mould with the remaining vanilla cream and freeze.
• Once it sets, de-mould and place on a glazing rack.
• Pour the melted mirror glaze over the frozen and set vanilla cream-panna cotta eclair and position on the sable biscuit base.
• Garnish with a LOVE white chocolate stencil and fresh strawberries.

Note: Each sheet of gelatin is about 3 gm. Four sheets of gelatine can be substituted with 2 tsp agar agar.