Like bread and butter, fine wine and cheese, and caviar and blini, peanut butter and jelly are a match made in heaven. In fact, one without the other almost doesn’t seem natural.
With every bite, the saltiness of creamy peanut butter dances on the tongue with just the right amount of sweetness from fresh jelly in what can only be described as a perfect symphony of flavors.
If you’re on the hunt for a delicious recipe that will transport your taste buds on a journey to the past, we have just the dish for you: Peanut Butter and Jelly Foie Paté Eclair — a decadent ode to a timeless classic.
This dish is perfect for any day, but holidays like Valentine’s Day are a great day to let this dish shine. Topped with our fresh Royal Ossetra Caviar, these eclairs are bursting with flavor!
Tips To Make A Perfect Choux Pastry
Choux pastry —or pâte à choux — is a delicate pastry dough used to make many tasty desserts like chocolate cream puffs, croquembouches, French crullers, and more. Today, however, we are using it to make a decadent peanut butter and jelly foie paté eclair.
It’s a light, airy, crispy pastry made with simple, clean ingredients, including milk, butter, and eggs. In our recipe below, we also use the aromatic flavor of coffee to enhance the choux pastry. This adds more depth to the eclair for a taste that is nothing short of divine for the ultimate French pastry.
Here are a few tips to make a perfect choux pastry:
- Make sure the dough is nice and smooth before piping. Any undissolved ingredients will cause the pastries to bake “lumpy” or with irregular cracks. Stir well.
- Use a French star pastry tip for piping the eclairs. A regular star tip or even round nozzle will work too, but the best results will be with the French star tip.
- Try not to remove the baking tray from the oven too early. If you do, it will cause the pastries to be soggy and collapse once out of the oven.
Remember, choux pastry is very delicate, so it’s of the utmost importance to handle gently and with care.
Ingredients
Pâté Foie
- 3 oz minced garlic
- 3 oz shallot (sauteed and browned in a pan)
- 1lb foie lobe trimmed and cleaned (or trimmings of foie filet are fine too)
- 1/2 foster farms chicken liver (seared in the same pan as aromatics)
- 1-2 tsp pink curing salt
- 120 grams room temp sweet cream unsalted butter
- 2 oz bold red wine
- Brandy to taste
Peanut Butter Pastry Cream
- 32 oz whole fat milk (preferred double cream raw)
- 4 oz granulated sugar
- 6 oz whole egg
- 1 oz corn starch
- 2 oz sweet cream unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt
- 4 oz fresh peanut butter
Pâte á Choux
- 2 oz cultured unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup water
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp finely ground coffee
- 2 large eggs
Berry Glaze
- 200 grams raspberry
- 120 grams granulated sugar (60% by weight)
- Pinch of Maldon Smoked Salt
Preparation
Make the Pâté Foie
Begin by searing garlic and shallot with one tablespoon of neutral oil before tossing in foie to melt. Then, deglaze your chicken livers with red wine. Toss in the blender and blend till smooth with curing salt and butter. Add brandy to taste (approx 1-2 T).
Make the Peanut Butter Pastry Cream
First, blend the egg, corn starch, salt, and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy; using a mixer with a paddle attachment makes this easier.
Bring the sugar and milk to simmer (just until the sugar dissolves). Slowly stream in one cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture until eggs are tempered. Pour the tempered egg mixture back into milk and sugar and heat until thick (roughly eight to 10 minutes).
Push mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to get out any air bubbles or chunks. Gently fold in the butter just until combined. A wooden spoon or sturdy spatula will be best for this.
Make the Pâte á Choux
Create the perfect egg wash by mixing one egg white mixed with a pinch of water. Set the butter, water, salt, and coffee to a rolling boil, and then remove these ingredients from the heat. Add in all the flour at once. Place these on low to medium heat, stirring vigorously to form a dough, and cook out the extra moisture.
Place into a pastry piping bag and form eclairs on a silicone baking mat or lightly sprayed parchment paper.
Make the Berry Glaze
Boil all ingredients for about eight to 10 minutes. Then, strain until smooth. Add water until you see the resemblance of warmed honey.
Teaspoons of Delight
A few tips to keep in mind as you are choosing what flour to use: If you want a more stable pastry, bread flour is your answer. If you are up for a challenge of a great chef, try a choux pastry dough characterized by its airy nature.
France may be the home of many pastries like profiteroles and beignets, but you can whip out your mixer, bowl, and saucepan to create delicious delicacies at your home, wherever you are. Remember to plate your dish with style, and then prepare to enjoy!
