Teeny Tiny Itsy Bitsy

August comes to a close and another Daring Bakers Challenge also comes to an end. This month brought me yet another delicious dessert I had never made before, chocolate eclairs. Now that I think on it I don't think I ever ate one pregan so this was extra special.

I started out in search of a vegan pate a choux recipe. I luckily found my match at Baking Love. The dough came together rather quickly and without much fuss. I ended up using this dough to make the most teeny tiny food yet. To make these really small just use a pastry bag with a large tip to pipe the dough onto the baking sheet into mini puffs or lil' eclairs. These will expand a little but not tons so you can gauge the size of your puff well by the raw dough.

Pate a Choux

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or baking powder
2 Tb shortening or oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tb Ener-G egg replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare Ener-G egg replacer & water.

Stir together flour, vegan sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. In a saucepan, bring the non-dairy milk and oil to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the flour mixture all at once, return to heat, and reduce the heat to low. Stir constantly until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides and the spoon and is smooth. Working quickly, remove from heat and add the egg replacer in thirds, beating well after each addition until the dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from the sides.

Using a pastry bag, dispense the choux paste onto baking tray. Alternatively, you may use two spoons to form eclair shapes or simply drop spoonfuls to form puffs.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400F, then lower the heat to 350F for another 10 minutes. Turn oven off and allow to cool, with door slightly ajar, for another 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on racks before serving or filling.

Custard

1/3 c sugar
2 Tb flour
1/4 c cornstarch
1/4 c water
1 1/3 c nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, flour, starch and water in a blender and blend until smooth, transfer to a bowl or measuring cup. Alternatively combine in a bowl and beat until smooth.

In a medium saucepan bring milk to a simmer over medium high heat. Pour about 1/2 c of the hot milk into the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Add this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk. Heat this mixture over medium low heat whisking constantly until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat.

Transfer to a bowl and cover to cool to room temperature. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Chocolate Glaze

100g (3.5 oz) bar semisweet chocolate
1 tsp vegetable shortening (optional)

Melt chocolate and shortening in double boiler stirring until smooth.

Assembly

Split your pastries on the horizontal. Place bottoms aside and the tops on a rack over parchment.
Glaze should be barely warm, pour or spoon over tops to cover each evenly.
Pipe or spoon custard into the bottoms, don't be afraid to mound it up.
Place tops over the custard and enjoy!