Definitely an experiment here. I love playing with the line of savory and sweet things. Corn being a natural sweet vegetable and it is an easy transition into your dessert. Mixed feelings on this one for sure. A few co-workers thought it was really good and my wife, well she didn't care much for it. Sometimes playing with food is fun, this recipe was totally that, trying something new. We had a bunch of organic corn we grew and had some extra cobbs so this is where the idea came from, Horchata and sweet corn. It really is a an easy recipe, here it is, I hope you enjoy it.
Corn Eclairs
Cornchata
1/2 gallon of milk
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
12-14 fresh corn cobs
Corn pastry cream
2 cups cornchata
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tbsp butter
Corn Pate a choux
1 1/2 cups of corn juice or milk is fine
1 cup of flour
1 stick of butter
4 eggs
pinch of salt
White chocolate ganache
1/3 cup cream
8 oz of white chocolate
popcorn crumbles
For the Cornchata,
Basically this is a cross between horchata and corn stock. Place all the ingredients into a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook for about an hour until you have a sweet corn stock. Strain off and keep for other steps of the recipe. Use leftover for ice cream base.
For the Eclairs
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, In a small pot add milk (or corn juice), butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer. As soon as the butter has completely melted stir in the flour with a wooden spoon and turn down the heat to low. Incorporate all the flour thoroughly and cook for about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Turn on medium speed for a minute and then turn down to low speed. Crack the four eggs into a measuring cup and add them to the dough one at a time. Make sure the egg completely incorporates before adding the next egg. Continue until all the eggs have been added. Then take the dough and place in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. On a sheet pan lined with parchment paper pipe small straight lines of the dough. Once the sheet pan is full of the eclair shapes, place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Try not to open the oven door once you have put them in the oven because the eclairs might deflate a bit. Take out and let them cool completely.
For the Cornchata pastry cream
Scald the cornchata milk in a medium sauce pot, stirring often with a whisk. Turn off the heat when the milk starts to a boil. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer set to high, until the eggs and sugar form pale white ribbons (3-4 minutes). Add the cornstarch to the eggs and beat for 30 seconds. Temper the eggs by whisking in one ladle of milk at a time until all the milk is incorporated with the egg mixture. Place all of the egg/milk mixture back into the pot on medium low heat. Whisk continually until it thickens, allow about 10-12 minutes, but don't boil. Once it has thickened incorporate butter, then pour the pudding into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve to cool. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding so it doesn't form a skin, and place in an ice bath or the refrigerator. Cool completely. Once cooled completely place the pastry cream in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip.
White chocolate ganache,
Place white chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat cream in a small pot. Bring to a boil and then pour the cream over the white chocolate. Wait 1 minutes, and then whisk the white chocolate and cream mixture until completely smooth.
To Finish,
Cut the eclairs in half lengthwise. Then fill the eclairs with the corn pastry cream. Dip the tops of the eclairs into the white chocolate ganache and place on top. Finish the tops off with crumbled popcorn. Chill until ready to eat. Serve and enjoy!
