Eclair - Lightning-fast French Delight

Video: Eclair - Lightning-fast French Delight

Video: Eclair - Lightning-fast French Delight
Video: Bignè/Beignets and French patisserie (éclair and Paris-Brest) recipes - Gabbiano, Naples 2024, November
Eclair - Lightning-fast French Delight
Eclair - Lightning-fast French Delight
Anonim

Light, soft and irresistibly sweet with its vanilla cream filling and chocolate glaze. These are eclairs - the flashes of French cuisine, which have gained a delicious fame all over the world.

They are among the favorite desserts of the French, who eat about 200 million of them a year! And they are far from the only ones. Eclairs have conquered the world with various fillings and glazes, flavors and appearance, and every self-respecting culinary lover has made them at least once at home.

The eclair is lightning, literally. Or at least that means its name - éclair translated from French means lightning. Whether the name came about because of the thunderous taste or for some other reason, no one dares to say, even in France. Certainly eclairs have neither the shape of a flash nor the electric color of lightning. Anyway, the story has its own version of the name. And she's not even just one.

Eclairs
Eclairs

The first takes us back to the 19th century, when sweets spilled over the confectioners' shop windows. And one of them catches the eye and is held in high esteem.

This is the "little duchess" or the "bread of the duchess". It was made from a special steamed dough covered with fine almonds and was so delicious that it was eaten very quickly. So fast that they began to say that it was eaten in a flash - en un éclair. The term, confirmed by researchers, dates back to 1864. And the "little duchess" is actually the grandmother of today's beautiful eclair.

The second version of the origin of the name comes from the famous cuisines of Antonen Karem, known as the royal confectioner, to whom the world owes profiteroles.

Preparation of eclairs
Preparation of eclairs

Inspired by the "duchess" and the simplicity of her recipe, he decided to give her new life by filling her steamed dough with chocolate or coffee. And also - covering its surface with sugar glaze. According to legend, the new cake was so popular that it began to sell like wildfire - en «un éclair» (an un eclair). Hence his name.

Most researchers of French cuisine, by the way, believe that Karem is the man who can rightly claim to be the creator of the eclair.

Among the versions for the name of the delicious cake there is one related to its appearance. Some researchers believe that it got its name from the fact that it is so bright that it resembles the light of a flash.

Homemade ekelri
Homemade ekelri

Around the world, the cake has retained its original name. Along with its spread in different parts of the world, eclair goes beyond its traditional recipe. In addition to the familiar eclairs with chocolate, vanilla or coffee, you can now try those with white chocolate, tea-flavored, eclairs with truffles and so on, and so on… Confectionery has no limits.

And a good eclair is always swallowed in a flash!

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