Chocolate Éclairs

We are in the middle of winter so sometimes you just need a little bit of comfort food to get your spirits back up.
Mr m.e was looking a bit down the other day, must be those early dark mornings, long (sometimes unglamorous) chef shifts, riding to and back from work everyday, smelling of odd food stuffs at times, dealing with some not very knowledgeable "chefs" and coming home to 2 little cheeky monkeys that seem to have super long lasting, heavy duty batteries.

Well, what can make him smile more than some yummy crème filled french sweets..
So here we are with a first and surprisingly successful attempt at Chocolate Éclairs.

It does look difficult and yes there are a few steps to the process but it definitely isn't that hard and I think it's very well worth it.
If not, just enjoy the pics :)

Recipe from "The Food of France"

Choux Pastry

Ingredients

• 150g (5 ½ oz) butter
• 220g (1 ¾ cups) plain flour
• 7 eggs
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar

makes 500g (1 LB 2 OZ)

Method

• Preheat oven to 200℃ (400℉ )
  
• Melt the butter with 375ml (1½cups) water in a saucepan, then bring it to a rolling boil
  
• Remove from the heat and add the flour at once, then return to the heat and beat continuously with a wooden spoon till the mixture comes away from the pan
• Cool for a few minutes
• Beat in the eggs one at a time until shiny and smooth. The mixture should drop from the spoon but not be too runny
• Beat in the sugar
• Line trays with non stick paper
• Pipe long lines about 1 - 1 ½ fingers long
• Bake for about 30 minutes, make sure they are lightly golden and hollow sounding. Leave them in the oven with the door open for another 15 minutes

You can fill them with whatever you like, mascarpone and cream, just whipped cream or enjoy them with a rich crème pâtissière.

(I did find that there wasn't quite enough of the crème to fill all the eclairs so the rest were just piped with whipped cream. If you need to fill them all just double the Crème Pâtissière recipe)

Crème Pâtissière

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks
• 115g (½ cup) caster sugar
• 30g (¼cup) plain flour
• 560ml (2 ¼ cups) milk
• vanilla
• 15g (½ oz) butter

Method

• Whisk together the egg yolks and ½ the sugar until pale and creamy.
  
• Sift in the cornflour and flour mixture and mix well
• Put the milk, remaining sugar and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring just to the boil and strain over egg mixture whilst continuously stirring
• Pour back into a clean saucepan and bring to the boil whilst continuously stirring (keep stirring, it may appear lumpy but it will get smooth)
• Boil for 2 minutes then add the butter and leave to cool

• Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin forming
• Poke the end of the eclair with the piping nozzle and pipe till you can feel that it's full
• Dip them in some melted chocolate and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!✗ ♥