The other day we were in Letterkenny, having gone to pick up some books at the library. We were making our way back up the town to the bus stop, when I glanced in a bakery window as I passed. They had a few lovely loaves of bread piled up, so we went in to get a multi-seed cob. They wisely put the pastry case around the till. It was lunchtime, we were a bit peckish, and we gave in, choosing 'fresh cream' eclairs. We were disappointed at first bite, but it was my own fault, really. I interpreted the label the way I wanted to and after 10 years in this country, I should have known better.
The first time we had eclairs here, we were surprised to find them filled with a strange stiff cream-like substance and indeed, they had some of those in the pastry case. Before we came here, we'd always had eclairs filled with what in the US would be like a creamy pudding, like the creamy layer in a Boston Cream Pie. They don't have exactly that here, except sometimes in frozen profiteroles, but they do have what they call custard. Some years ago, we went to a gathering of other immigrants from the US and a couple of Irish people. I made apple crisp and what I would call butterscotch pudding. The Irish woman had never heard of butterscotch or pudding (which usually means dessert in general here), but she loved it. I gave her the rest to take home, explaining to her how I made it. The custard here is similar to what I know as pudding, but thinner and doesn't come in different flavors like chocolate, butterscotch, lemon. It's just custard. So when we got the eclairs, for some reason I thought maybe fresh cream meant custard, since it clearly wasn't the weird stiff stuff. It didn't. It just meant fresh non-stiff whipped cream. Now, I adore whipped cream. When I was a kid and we were on a cruise, I had a severe disappointment when the baked Alaska at dinner one night turned out to be covered in meringue and not the whipped cream I was expecting! So whipped cream is always fine with me. And it was fine in the eclair I had, but it wasn't spectacular. The eclair was OK. I won't get another one, though.
Bill and I both have books in at the library and are waiting to see if the others we're waiting for come in this week. Either way, next week we will make another trip to the library. We will stop at the bakery for another multi-seed cob, which is delicious. We will not get eclairs. But we might just have try with something else. I'll let you know.
What are eclairs filled with where you are?
7 comments:
I don’t remember the last time I had an eclair but to the best of my recollection they were filled with cream. Whipped cream I would imagine, and they were coated in chocolate. Probably a good thing I don’t eat them! The bread sounds fabulous and I like the term “cob.”
Interesting to know that the whipped cream filling is a thing elsewhere. I'd never had such a thing. Our disappointing eclairs had chocolate, too and it cracked apart. Most of Bill's chocolate fell off onto the sidewalk.
The bread is excellent!
Yes! That's it! That's what I was expecting.
We don't very often have chocolate eclairs but when we do they are filled with 'vanilla pastry cream' as in this recipe:-
https://www.theflavorbender.com/creme-patissiere-vanilla-pastry-cream/
All the best Jan
PS I do like the sound of the bread you are buying.
The bread really is fab--and they slice it of we want, too. We'd never been in that bakery because they always have these yucky looking doughnuts in the window, which we were not at all tempted by--quite the opposite. And some bakeries here don't even have bread, just sweets, so we just never went in. But now I know they have the bread, we will return. Just not for eclairs :-D
The vanilla pastry creme is exactly what I am used to having in eclairs/cream puffs. I thought that's just how they were made until we got here and discovered the way they're done here.
Dear Shari,
I took a break from blogging for some time, now I'm catching up again.
I don't know what eclairs are traditionally filled with in Austria, but I do know that I prefer sweet pastries filled with solid vanilla pudding. (In Spain and Portugal there are also pastries filled with this solid pudding.)
Cream isn't my thing; even as a child I didn't want it on ice cream. I thought it didn't taste like anything, just like fat. That's why I don't like cream cakes - but my friend Moni replaces the cream with vanilla pudding and I like that ;-)
I hope Bill is well! Please tell him I miss his photo posts and I send him my warmest regards!
All the best, Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2024/04/weltreise-2024-2-station-sydney.html
I took a break, too. I know what you mean--I am pretty sure the solid vanilla pudding is what I always knew as custard. Custard here means something different--it's very thin and often poured.
Bill says hello!
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