Many lovers of sweets really like a cake with the unusual name "eclair". The calorie content of this product is quite high, which makes some people think about whether to eat this product so often. Is this true, or perhaps suspicious sweet tooth are mistaken in their fears?
Product energy value
Eclair is a dessert, which is a cake made from choux pastry, inside of which, as a rule, is a cream.
Like any other food product, it supplies the human body with a certain amount of energy. It, in turn, is measured in calories and consumed in the process of life, creating the necessary conditions for normal development.
What about this issue can be said about eclair? The calorie content of such a dessert, like any other product, depends on its composition and method of preparation. That is, each component carries with it a certain amount of energy, which is gradually released as a result of digestion. To determine a specific value, you need to know exactly what eclair consists of. The caloric content of the product itself will be the arithmetic sum of the corresponding values belonging to a particular ingredient. For comparison, this value is usually indicated in the number of calories per 100 grams of the finished product.
Calories
Food entering the body is digested, while releasing a certain amount of energy. As a rule, it is spent on ensuring:
- physical activity;
- heat generation;
- processes associated with metabolism, mental labor, cell renewal.
Excessive energy does not disappear without a trace. It remains in the person and accumulates in the form of subcutaneous fat. Therefore, doctors are always advised to monitor not only the amount of food consumed, but also to control the energy that comes with them into the body. For calculations, you must first decompose the finished product into its constituent components according to the recipe, and then, taking into account the nutritional value (carbohydrate, fat and protein content) of each of them, determine the total number of calories. Similarly, you can analyze eclair. The calorie content of this dessert will depend on the cream that is used to fill it. He can be:
- oil;
- custard;
- cottage cheese;
- protein
- chocolate;
- with condensed milk.
For example, an eclair with a protein cream contains about 300 kilocalories. At the same time, the energy value of the cream itself is 212 kilocalories. It is clear that the dough piece itself does not play a major role in this case.
Homemade Eclairs with Cream
Many housewives believe that it is difficult to prepare a French dessert, and therefore prefer to buy it in a store. To dispel such doubts, you need to figure out how to cook eclairs at home, and try to do it yourself. The following products will be required for operation:
For the test:
4 eggs, a glass of flour, 100 grams of butter, 2-3 grams of salt and 200 milliliters of water.
For cream:
1 egg, ½ cup milk, a pack of butter (200 grams), 100 grams of sugar, as well as a little liquor or cognac.
For glaze:
the protein of one egg, a third of a glass of powdered sugar and literally a few drops of lemon juice.
Cooking Technology:
- Put oil in a pan, pour salt and, pouring it all with water, bring to a boil. After that, the fire can be made smaller.
- With constant stirring, introduce flour. Over time, the mass should become brilliant and uniform. After that, the pan can be removed from the stove and cool its contents to 70 degrees.
- Without stopping mixing, introduce eggs one at a time.
- Place the finished dough in a pastry bag.
- Cover the baking sheet with parchment, lightly grease it with oil, and then put on it blanks in the form of sticks with a length of not more than 12 centimeters. The distance between adjacent products should be at least five centimeters, since during the preparation they will increase in size.
- Bake for 10 minutes in an oven at a temperature of 220 degrees.
- Reduce the flame to 160 degrees and hold the workpiece for another 25 minutes, and then remove and cool.
- For cream in milk and sugar, boil the syrup.
- Beat butter in a mixer separately, and then add an egg to it.
10. Gradually pour in the syrup and cognac (or liquor).
11. To prevent delamination of the cream, it must be slightly warmed up, and then beat again.
12. At each eclair blank, cut a small piece on top and fill the free space with cream.
13. To prepare the glaze, first whisk the protein in the bowl with a mixer. Then slowly add the powder and add lemon juice for the aroma.
14. The resulting mass to cover the finished cake on top.
This is the easiest way to cook eclairs at home. Repeat such actions can even a young novice hostess.
Protein Cream Cakes
For most children and many adults, custard cakes with protein cream are a favorite treat . Delicate and airy, they just melt in your mouth. In fact, these are real eclairs with protein cream. Many mothers do not even suspect that they can easily be made in the conditions of home cooking.
First of all, you need to make sure that on the desktop there are all the necessary components:
For the test:
250 milliliters of milk 150 grams of flour, 5 grams of salt, 4 eggs, 25 grams of sugar and 100 grams of butter.
For cream:
200 grams of sugar half a glass of water, the proteins of three eggs, a little salt, vanillin and lemon juice.
Cooking eclairs with protein cream is easy:
- First you need to do the test. To do this, combine the sliced butter in a pan with salt, sugar and milk. Heat gradually until the components are completely dissolved.
- After boiling the mixture, slowly introduce the flour. Stir so that the mass does not stray.
- After cooling the resulting mixture to room temperature, introduce the egg. Beat until smooth.
- Put the dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment. To do this, you can use a special pastry bag (or syringe), or take a regular plastic bag, making a hole in it.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees, and then another 15 minutes at 150 degrees. After this, the workpieces can be left to cool directly in the oven, by opening the door.
- Put egg whites in the freezer for 5 minutes. This is necessary for better whipping.
- Heat sugar with water until syrup is formed.
- Beat the whites with a little salt. After this, add syrup in a thin stream.
- Add other components.
10. Fill the cooled pastries with cream.
After that, you can safely go to make tea and get ready to have fun.
Eclairs with curd cream
Using her imagination, the hostess can choose any filling for the custard dough. Take, for example, cottage cheese eclairs. They are also easy to cook at home. Moreover, the difference between similar products will consist only in the composition of the cream. In this case, to work, you need the following set of components:
200 grams of cottage cheese 30 grams of cocoa powder, ¾ glass of sugar (or powder), a bag of vanillin, 100 grams of sour cream and some fresh berries (or jam).
The preparation of such a cream takes several minutes:
- First, the cottage cheese must be combined with sour cream. You can mix with a whisk or use a mixer.
- Add sugar (powder), cocoa and vanillin. Beat until the mixture is as homogeneous as possible.
- Add berries. They will give the semi-finished product a pleasant characteristic taste.
- Send the finished mass to the refrigerator.
After the eclair blanks have cooled, the chilled cream can be used to fill them.
Chocolate flavored
Chocolate eclairs are similarly prepared. And there are two ways to do this:
- Use chocolate icing.
- Prepare a chocolate cream for the filling.
In each of these cases, eclair will have a favorite chocolate flavor. To prepare such semi-finished products, you can use:
For cream:
2 cups milk 70 grams butter, a cup sugar, 70 grams flour, 45 grams cocoa powder, 2 eggs, a bag of vanilla sugar and a glass of peeled walnuts.
For glaze:
100 grams bar of dark chocolate.
The cooking method is extremely simple and understandable:
- For cream in a saucepan, beat the eggs with sugar and milk.
- Add flour, and then put on the stove and heat, stirring constantly. After boiling, the flame needs to be made smaller.
- As soon as the mass is thickened, add vanilla sugar and immediately remove the pan from the stove.
- Introduce the cocoa and beat until smooth. The mass should become smooth.
- Introduce softened oil. After a short whipping, the mixture should be left alone to solidify.
- To make the glaze, you just need to heat the chocolate in a pan. Then it remains only to dip a finished cake into it.
This option is the simplest and most convenient.
Classic version
Classical eclairs are familiar to the whole world. These are cakes made from custard dough and filled with custard. To prepare this gentle sweet mass of a pleasant white color, a minimum of products is needed:
150 grams of butter, half a cup of sugar, 15 grams of potato starch and 150 milliliters of plain water.
To make such a cream is not difficult:
- First, starch must be diluted in water.
- Then add sugar and heat the container over low heat. As a result, the mixture will look like a colorless paste.
- After this, the mass must be cooled and oil is introduced into it.
- Beat the contents of the container to the desired density.
After that, the cream can be used for its intended purpose. It is prepared very quickly and does not require special labor. But the calorific value of such a product is much higher than that of other types (protein, chocolate, cottage cheese and others), and amounts to 212 kilocalories. As you know, in cream, this indicator mainly depends on the content of oil, sugar and milk in it. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the fact that fat is the main carrier of calories. After minimal calculations, you can make sure that custard is really the most high-calorie compared to the rest.
Cream with boiled condensed milk
Some people prefer to make eclairs with condensed milk. This is the simplest version of the cream, which is also the most budgetary one. To prepare it, you only need:
200 grams of butter 1 can of boiled condensed milk.
The methodology for its preparation is also extremely simple:
- Put butter in a bowl, after cutting it into pieces.
- Add boiled condensed milk and beat the products with a mixer until the mass becomes homogeneous.
After this, the prepared cream will need to be filled into the confectionery syringe. It remains only to use a nozzle to make a small hole in the eclair blank through which to fill it with a sweet mixture.
The energy value of such a product is 424 kilocalories. This must be remembered by those who are inclined to be overweight and are afraid to get better. After all, the subcutaneous fat layer is easy to create, but it is very difficult to get rid of it. It may require a diet, additional physical activity, or even medical intervention.