April ABC challenge: Meringue-topped Coffee Cake

 

This month's challenge is coffee. That takes me back to a little place in Charlottesville, Virginia called Sunshine Bakery. They used to have this coffee-flavored cake that was so good! I've never had anything like it before or since, and 30+ years later, I still crave that cake. For one thing, outside of panaderias, I never see coffee-flavored cake. (And trying to look up recipes for one gets you a lot of plain breakfast cakes with streusel topping.) But it also had the most unique texture -- firmer than normal, with really large air holes for a cake, almost like an English muffin. It would probably be considered inferior by a trained pastry chef, but it was delightful. It also had a whipped coffee (perhaps mocha) frosting, not too sweet. Unfortunately, that bakery is long gone, and with it the elusive recipe. Alas.

For this recipe, I halved the original, which called for an 8" x 8" baking pan. I used a pan slightly smaller than an 8" x 4", so the cake was taller, but was done in the same time.  Here's what I used:

1/3 cup milk, warmed
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 egg plus 1 yolk, beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 1/16 teaspoon salt

Topping
1 egg white
1/4 cup plus 1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon sweetened, shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 325F; grease and line a 7.25" x 3.5" loaf pan. Dissolve coffee granules in milk; cool. In a bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in egg. Fold in flour and cinnamon alternately with coffee-flavored milk. Turn out batter into prepared pan.

To make topping, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup of sugar; spread over batter. In a bowl, mix remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, cinnamon, and coconut; sprinkle over the meringue. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted into the center comes out clean and meringue is crisp. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then carefully remove and cool on a wire rack. 

This rose really weirdly -- only on one side. My oven is about 25 degrees hotter from back to front, but it's hard to believe it made that much of a difference across a 4-inch pan! Perhaps it had something to do with how the meringue attached to the pan.  (Was one side greased more than the other?) It also rose a LOT, rising well above the top of the pan, but sunk back down a bit as it cooled. And yet there was no noticeable difference in the crumb from one side to the other. Odd.

This cake was actually was more like a "coffee cake" than a dessert -- mild in flavor and sweetness.  The coffee flavor wasn't detectable, surprisingly -- it tasted more of cinnamon and molasses, even though it contained neither.  The coffee probably added a complexity to the overall flavor. I'd want to at least double the coffee quantity. The meringue was a nice touch, but the coconut topping was unnecessary -- probably more for appearance than anything else. To make this more rich, it could be nicely decadent with a dark chocolate ganache drizzle.

Conclusion:  The cake was very light and fluffy while warm, but firmed up and became more dense and moist the next day. (The recipe directs this to be eaten the same day it's made, probably due to the meringue, but I liked it better the second day and the meringue was fine.) I'd be inclined to leave off the coconut topping mixture entirely and perhaps serve this with a whipped coffee frosting instead of the meringue, particularly in the fall because of its warm spice flavors.

Recipe:  "Meringue-Topped Cake" from A Gourmet's Guide to Coffee & Tea by Leslie Mackley

December ABC challenge: Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies

The challenge theme this month is spices.  I wasn't necessarily looking for a spice cookie, but I happened upon this recipe, which had rave reviews.  Terrible name, but it seems "dirty chai" is a particular type of drink in which a shot of espresso is poured into a cup of spiced chai.  (Why not just make spiced coffee???)  And the "earthquake" part is from the cracks in the sugar coating.

It's a small recipe, so I made the whole thing, which is supposed to make only 2 dozen cookies.  The only change I made was an adjustment of salt, using salted butter, which I countered by reducing the salt in the ingredient list but ultimately resulted in a higher salt content than the original recipe, and I substituted out malted milk powder.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 tablespoon finely ground coffee (not instant)
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted then measured (255 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 1/4 teaspoon kosher fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 large eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
2 tablespoons malted milk powder, such as Carnation brand malt syrup
1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted, for rolling

Brown the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, swirling and stirring occasionally, until nutty brown, 5 to 6 minutes.  Pour over the espresso/coffee in a small metal bowl and stir to combine.  Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt, and pepper; set aside.  With an electric mixer, combine eggs, and light brown sugar in a medium bowl and beat on medium speed until well combined and slightly paler, about 3 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.  Add the vanilla and malt syrup to the butter mixture, stirring to combine, then add that to the egg mixture and mix on low speed until combined.  Add the flour mixture, then mix again on low until combined.  Transfer dough to a resealable glass or plastic container and chill thoroughly, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar into two separate bowls.  Portion dough into heaping tablespoons (about 25 grams each); roll into smooth balls and drop a few at a time into the bowl of granulated sugar, rolling to coat.  Transfer to the bowl with the confectioners’ sugar and roll gently, coating well and place in freezer until firm, about 10 minutes.  Place on a greased baking sheet, flattening slightly (if you want a less domed cookie) and bake until cookies are still quite tender (they will firm up as they cool), 12 to 14 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes on the baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

The dough sat tightly covered in my refrigerator for 3 days before I baked off half of it; that resting time should have really improved the flavor and enhanced the spices, but it didn't seem to.  I did find the cookies dry; they might be less so if I used an air-insulated pan.

My scale wasn't working, so I couldn't measure out 25g of dough.  I was further confused by the instructions to use a "small" cookie scoop or a heaping tablespoon.  I have a SMALL cookie scoop that's about a teaspoon, and another that's about a tablespoon -- obviously I don't call the larger one the "small" one.  I used the tablespoon-sized scoop and heaped the dough in to round it out so it made something resembling a sphere and didn't bother to roll it any better than that-- they came out about 1.25" in diameter (and went straight into the sugar.)  Perhaps they were a little too small, because they were quite firm at 12 minutes.  (I can't believe some people baked them for 15 minutes and more... then complained they were dry.)

Some people had trouble with the crusts not "cracking", and one piece of advice was to coat them heavily with the powdered sugar.  I think that probably just makes the cracking more prominent for appearance, but likely doesn't affect the tendency to crack or not crack.  And the last thing these needed was more sugar.  However, I followed that advice, unfortunately, as it was too much sugar in the first batch.  I used a lighter touch with the next batch and also experimented with other coatings:  coarse sugar, nonpareils, and none.

Obviously, nothing gave the intended effect other than the heavy powdered sugar coating.  The light sugar coating looked sad.  The coarse sugar looked okay -- the nonpareils not so much, and the plain were downright unappetizing.

Conclusion:  I'm not a fan of sugar-coated cookies, but I thought the dough was going to be less sweet with these so it would be okay.  It was not.  My initial impression was that, if I focused, I noticed the spice flavors, but if I didn't it just tasted sugary.  I didn't detect browned butter at all.  After I'd swallowed the last bite, I detected heat, probably from the pepper, and then coffee (perhaps from a stray ground), both mild. No other spice stood out, they all melded together in a pleasant warmth; it just wasn't enough to counter the sugar.  In the end, I decided this tasted a lot like a cinnamon cake doughnut and so tried it dunked in coffee.... Delightful!  But only as originally prepared, with the crisp, sugary crust.  Any other preparation or technique fell short.

Recipe:  Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies via NYTimes Cooking 

Coffee Ice-Cream Muffins

 
I like these pumpkin ice-cream muffins so much, but my local store hasn't been carrying the flavor for a couple years, so I decided to try with another flavor.

For 4 muffins:

3/4 cup Trader Joe's Coffee Blast ice cream (or other intensely coffee or chocolate ice cream)
1/4 cup white flour
5 tablespoons whole wheat flour (or 1.5 - 2 tablespoons coffee flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoons baking powder

Streusel
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons white flour
1½ teaspoons salted butter
4 dash spoons (heaping 1/4 teaspoon) powdered coffee
2 teaspoons cocoa nibs

Allow the ice cream to sit out in a medium-sized bowl until it's nearly melted. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease 8 muffin tins. (I prefer to use silicone liners.) Sift the flours, salt, and baking powder together and add to the softened ice cream; mix thoroughly. Scoop the batter into the tins.  Sprinkle with cocoa nibs and the streusel, and bake for about 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

This streusel topping wasn't what I'd wanted.  I was trying to make the firm, slightly crunchy kind that often tops berry muffins, and that's evidently the recipe I should have used.  I used the recipe from a steusel coffee cake, but when it seemed too buttery I added more flour.  Still, while tasty, it melted and made only a thin topping.  It didn't do much for appearance and just wasn't what I'd wanted.

Conclusion:  These weren't as good as I'd hoped.  They were actually fairly bland, with the coffee flavor coming predominantly from the topping.  I could also really taste the whole wheat, which wasn't good in a cakey muffin.  (Although only really noticeable when I tried just the bottom part with no topping.)  I would not make these again as is.  I'd be willing to give it another shot adding almond flavoring to the batter and sliced almonds to the topping.

Capuccino biscotti

Weird looking, aren't they?  I can explain...

This recipe is similar to the ones I like to use by Lou Seibert Pappas, so I didn't muck with it much other than where necessity called for improvisation.  For the coffee powder, I used a single-serve packet of Taster's Choice hazelnut-flavored instant coffee, which imparted a surprising amount of the imitation hazelnut flavor to the dough, not necessarily in a bad way.  (Made me wish I had hazelnuts to add to the dough.)  As for chocolate, the only "mini" chocolate format I had was mini M&Ms--- not a good choice, in more ways than one.  I also substituted half white whole wheat flour, also perhaps not a good choice.  In short, these cookies were not a raging success.

To make about 3 dozen cookies, here's what I used:

3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1 cup flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Rounded 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 rounded teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder3/4 cup granulated white sugar
Rounded 1/2 cup chocolate chips, mini or regular
Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling (1 tablespoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon), optional

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour a large baking/cookie sheet. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and the vanilla extract. In a large mixing bowl, soft together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and coffee powder/granules; add the sugar and whisk to combine well. If using mini chocolate chips, blend into the flour mixture now.  Gradually add in the egg mixture and beat until a dough forms. If using larger chocolate chips, stir them in now. Divide the  dough in half and, with a spoon, dollop each half into a log on the cookie sheet about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. If you like, dust the surface with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until firm to the touch, 35 minutes for more tender biscotti, 40 minutes for crisper biscotti. Remove from the oven – do not turn the oven off – and allow to cool for a few minutes. Transfer the logs to a wooden cutting board, and with a good, serrated knife, cut each log crosswise on the diagonal into ¾ inch-wide slices. Arrange the slices on the lined baking sheet, cut side up, and bake for 10 minutes. Flip all of the slices over and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

Note to self:  never use cheap chocolate.  This was just gross.  I've had M&Ms in cookies before and they tasted fine, but not in these cookies.  Maybe the dough isn't rich enough to support a weak chocolate. 

I like hard biscotti for dipping in coffee, but I think the cooking times were a little long here, as they ended up rock hard.  I also think they could have risen just a little big more---perhaps I should have added a tablespoon or two of water to the dough to compensate for the more-absorbent whole wheat flour.  I wish I had thought to use some coffee flour to enhance the coffee flavor (and add nutrients.)

Conclusion:  These were a FAIL.  They were too sweet, tasted too wheaty, and the poor-quality chocolate was apparent.  They had no coffee flavor, and little cinnamon.  They tasted like a cheap breakfast cereal.  (I wonder how much the hazelnut coffee affected the taste.  I couldn't detect it, but it might have added to the overall commercial undertone.)

Recipe:  Capuccino Biscotti via Isolation Baking by Jamie Schler

Coffee and Banana Muffins with Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

I discovered some time ago that coffee and banana is a great flavor combo, so I've been anxious to try this recipe for some time.  I finally got that chance when my mom had 3 overripe bananas sitting around while I was visiting.  I don't know why the recipe is so large---I cut it in half and it still would have made at least 12 (if not 18) regular-sized muffins.  I used a pan with 8 rectangular cups, which I think are bigger than regular muffin cups, and filled them nearly to the top.

I prefer ginger over cinnamon in banana bread, but used the cinnamon anyway because I wasn't sure how ginger would go with coffee.  (Probably fine, as I've been drinking gingerbread-spiced coffee all winter.)  Anyway, I don't think I could detect it (but maybe because it was old.)  I reduced the sugar from the original, but otherwise pretty much followed the halved recipe. 

Here's what I used:

1¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

5/8 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/8 cup vegetable oil

1½ cup mashed banana (3 bananas)

1/4 cup sour cream plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 heaping tablespoon instant coffee espresso, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of extremely hot water

scant cup walnuts, toasted and chopped, if desired

Coffee frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, very soft

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 heaping tablespoon instant coffee espresso, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of extremely hot water

1½ 1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350; grease cupcake pans.  Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt and set aside. Beat together eggs and sugars on high speed for 3 minutes. Reduce speed and beat in oil, then bananas, yogurt, vanilla, and coffee, mixing well. Gently mix in dry ingredients until just mixed (then stir in nuts.)  Fill cups to 3/4 full and bake 17-19 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on cooling racks. 

Mix together frosting ingredients until smooth and creamy, 2 minutes. Frost cooled muffins or fill them with the cream cheese mixture.

I'm pretty sure I baked these longer than the recipe states, which would make sense since they were larger, but I can't remember the time.  I'm thinking 20-25 minutes.  I checked them with a cake tester.  My cream cheese wasn't quite warm enough and left little bits that I didn't get completely mixed in, but it wasn't noticeable while I was eating them.  Apparently "room temperature" isn't necessarily warm enough.  Curiously, I noticed the original recipe now calls for the reduced quantity of sugar in the frosting, same as I used.  Must have been a typo that I copied long ago into my recipe file.  (Note to self:  these might look nice with fork marks longitudinally down the frosting.)

Conclusion:  These were really good, moist and not overly sweet. In fact, if I made them without the frosting, I'd want the additional sugar that I left out of the batter.  The frosting was pretty strongly coffee flavored, and 3 bananas is a lot (although it might equal out to only 2 if the recipe were scaled to only 12 muffins, which is a normal quantity).  Yet when pressed, one taster didn't taste the coffee at all, and another thought they were pumpkin muffins with a maple frosting.  I have to admit, I could see it.  Part of that might have been because they had the texture of pumpkin muffins, moist and dense.  But even so, pumpkin and maple isn't bad at all.  I enjoyed these and would make them again.

Recipe:  Coffee-infused Banana Muffins via Just a Pinch.

Coffee-infused Semolina Almond Cake

This is more of a European style cake -- not overly sweet or loaded with a lot of frosting.  It's lighter than typical American cakes, but still very satisfying.  It actually comes across a lot like a coffee cake, to some degree because of the heavy dose of cinnamon.  The original recipe contained no salt, also typical of European desserts; I added some to my personal  taste.

This wasn't hard to make at all, just a little fussy because of the separate components.  And then there was the question of what to bake it in...  I have 4 pans all labelled as 8", and 3 of the 4 are all different sizes.  (How do these things happen?)  I finally opted for the only two pans I had that were the same size, which was 8½", resulting in a cake that was slightly flatter than desired.

Here's what I used:

Cake:
3/4 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup strong coffee
1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons semolina
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1¹/₃ cups ground almonds

Syrup:
3/4 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cup water, approximately (see note)
1/3 cup strong coffee

Halva cream:
4 ounces halva, broken in pieces
3 tablespoons strong coffee
1/2 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

To decorate:
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped, or other nuts

Preheat oven to 425F. Grease and line two deep, 8-inch round cake pans with waxed paper.  To make cake, in a bowl, cream sugar, butter, and salt until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in eggs and coffee.  Stir in semolina, baking powder, cinnamon, and ground almonds. Divide between prepared pans and bake in oven 10 (8) minutes. Lower temperature to 350F and bake 10 to 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted into center comes out clean. Let stand in pan 2 minutes, then turn each out onto a wire rack placed over a plate.

Meanwhile, make syrup. Put sugar and water into a saucepan and heat gently until sugar has dissolved. Boil 4 minutes, remove from heat and stir in coffee. Bring back to a boil, pour over hot cakes, then allow to cool.  To make halva cream, in a saucepan heat halva, coffee and sugar gently until smooth; cool.  In a bowl, beat butter until soft, then beat in halva mixture.  Sandwich cakes together with half of halva cream. Spread with remaining cream and decorate with nuts.

Note:  the cookbook left the water out of the ingredient listing, so I had to guesstimate.  If you have a recipe that uses a similar technique of moistening the cake with liquid, try following those quantities.  Otherwise, you want at least 1 cup of liquid to pour over the cakes, possibly up to 1½ cups.  I think I had about one cup, and my cakes could have been a little more moist, but it's hard to know what's going to be too much when you're pouring it on.  You don't want soggy cake!

The batter is quite thick and the cake initially dry, as there's very little liquid in the recipe, but it's salvaged by the coffee syrup that gets poured onto the hot cakes and immediately absorbed by the semolina.  It's a very effective technique, producing a light but moist crumb with a nubbly texture.  Since my cakes were thinner than the recipe called for, I baked them for slightly less time (noted in parentheses above).

If halva isn't available, you could use any nut butter, but it would have to be very thick.  (Buy a natural nut butter, let it separate, and then use the thick paste that settles out.  Adjust the butter quantity accordingly to achieve the correct texture.)  You would also want to increase the sugar, since halva is quite sweet.  In California, you can't buy truly raw nuts -- they have to be pasteurized.  For that reason, the "raw" pistachios available to me don't have that bright green color (or that fresh flavor), but are more a sort of grey-green-brown.  Not very attractive.  So I opted for almond slices to decorate my cake instead.

Conclusion:  This is an excellent cake for a midday coffee break or a light dessert.  It won't be to everyone's taste, as many people are accustomed to the heavy, rich cakes that are typically served for American desserts.  But it has a wonderful combination of flavors and makes an elegant offering.

Recipe:  Halva Gâteau from A Gourmet's Guide to Coffee & Tea by Lesley Mackley

December ABC challenge: Whole Wheat Mocha Eclairs with Espresso Rum Filling

Shortly before seeing this month's challenge, I happened to watch this video of an old British TV show.  Can't Cook, Won't Cook was a UK game show and cooking program that was broadcast on BBC1 on weekday mornings from 1995 to 2000.  This episode, hosted by Kevin Woodford, featured two middle-aged rockers (Kelly Groucutt and Roy Wood, both of Electric Light Orchestra fame) competing over Tia Maria éclairs and judged by their teenage daughters.  (Let the hilarity begin!)  I decided to use the same flavors for this challenge.

Choux pastry doesn't keep well, so I reduced the recipe by 1/4, which should have made only 3 éclairs.  I wasn't sure what size to pipe them, and after piping 3 I had a lot of batter left, so I ran down each one again.  I still had enough batter left to make a small puff.  Because the éclairs ended up fairly large, I was concerned about having enough filling.  To extend and lighten the filling, I added some rum-infused whipped cream.

Here's what I used.  Deviations from 1/4 of the original recipe are shown in strikeout and italics:

For the coffee pastry cream:
3/4 cup whole milk, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
1/16 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
2 teaspoons Myers rum (optional)

In a small saucepan, stir together all but 2 tablespoons of the milk, the sugar, and the salt.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, flour, and egg yolk with the remaining 2 tablespoons milk.  Whisk some of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolk to temper it.  Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the remaining simmering milk. Doing this through a strainer will help prevent lumps later. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the mixture thickens; remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and espresso powder until smooth.  Pour into a heat-safe bowl; rub a piece of butter over the surface of the cream, top with a piece of plastic wrap (make sure it touches the top of the pastry cream so it doesn't develop a skin), then refrigerate until cool.

When ready to serve, whip the cream until thick, then add the rum.  Continue whipping until stiff peaks form.  Fold gently into the cooled custard.

For the éclair pastry:
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons unbleached bread flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 425°F.  Combine the whole wheat and bread flours in a small bowl and set aside.  Place the water, butter and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a rolling boil over medium high heat.  Remove from the heat and add the flours all at once; stir vigorously until well combined. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the dough forms a rough ball, about 15 to 30 seconds.  Remove the pan from the heat, transfer mixture to a mixing bowl (because you don't want to put eggs in a hot pan), and let cool for a few minutes until still quite warm, but not hot enough to cook the egg.   (Since this is a small amount, it will cool in just a few minutes, especially if you spread it around.)  Beat in the egg a portion at a time, in 3 or 4 installments. Each portion should be fully incorporated before the next is added. Beat for 2 minutes after adding the last bit of egg.  The dough will be thick and sticky.

 

Ready for the oven.

  

Pipe the dough into 3 4"-long (and about 1.5"-wide) strips onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (I used an insulated one) and bake for 15 minutes at 425°F.  Reduce the heat to 375° and bake for 15 more minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and, using a sharp paring knife, make a small slit near the top of each to let the steam out. Return the éclairs to the oven, turn the oven off, and prop the oven door open slightly.  Let the éclairs cool inside for 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Cooling.

For the ganache:
1¹/₂ ounces chopped semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon sugar syrup

Put all the ingredients in a heat-safe bowl.  Heat gently and stir until the chocolate melts and the icing is smooth.

To assemble, slice each éclair in half horizontally with a very sharp knife.  Spoon 1/3 of the filling into the bottom half, then replace the top.  Spoon or drizzle chocolate ganache over the éclairs and allow to drip down the sides. Serve immediately.

Conclusion:  Someone come take the fork away!  I might just sit and eat the whole batch.  Delicious, decadent, and richly flavored.  They taste very naughty.  I'm not sure the whole wheat  goodness counteracts the badness involved here.  Anyway, no one would know there was whole wheat involved.

Original pastry cream recipe:  Pastry Cream via King Arthur Flour
Original pastry recipe: Whole Grain Cream Puff Pastry via King Arthur Flour
Original glaze recipe:  Icing via King Arthur Flour