Chocolate Éclairs

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Éclairs are a French pastry made with Pâte à Choux (choux pastry) which are filled with pastry cream or whipped cream.

I was going through some of my older posts and came across these éclairs I made a long time ago and I thought that these would be a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert.

 

I was really afraid to make éclairs as I used to think that they would be very complicated to make but they are really very easy to make.   I watched a few videos in order to understand how pâte à choux is made and I filled them with the pastry cream I have been doing for years.

On top I added some chocolate icing.

 

Chocolate Éclairs

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time:35 minutes

Makes:  16

Ingredients:

For choux pastry

• 235 ml water
• 120 grams butter 
• 280 grams all-purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 eggs and 1 yolk (235 grams)

For the pastry cream

• 4 cups of fresh milk
• 2 tablespoons of flour and 4 corn flour
• 6 tablespoons of sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• A pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 75 grams/2.65oz couverture chocolate

For the chocolate icing

• 200 grams/8oz caster sugar
• 200ml/7oz water
• 250 grams/4oz dark chocolate
• 50 grams/2oz unsalted butter

Chocolate sprinkles for decoration (optional)

Directions:

1. Prepare the Choux Pastry.  
2. For the filling, heat milk keeping a few tablespoons cold milk to dissolve the dry ingredients.
3. In another sauce pan add the flour and corn flour (starch) mixture, the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, salt and the cold milk and stir well with an egg beater.
4. When the milk is hot, pour to mixture stirring constantly. Put on the heat and mix until cream sets. Add butter and couverture chocolate and mix until they melt and are incorporated.
5. Pipe in the pastry cream or fill with a spoon.
6. For the icing, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to boil mixing to dissolve sugar.Lower heat and boil for 3 minutes to make a syrup. Remove from the heat and wait for a few minutes and when the syrup is still warm but not hot add the chocolate and butter. Stir until both have melted and blended to a smooth, sauce.
7. Leave to cool, stirring occasionally. When the sauce starts to thicken, it’s ready to ice the éclairs.

 

Update:  25 March, 2012

Eclairs are my daughter’s favourite French dessert.  When I made them again, instead of making pastry cream, I filled them with an eggless chocolate mousse.

Eggless Chocolate Mousse:

• 500 grams heavy cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 4 drops vanilla essence
• 125 grams couverture chocolate
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of freshly grated black pepper

Directions:

1. Whip the cream with a hand mixer.  Add sugar and vanilla and continue whipping until peak forms.  Refrigerate.
2.  In a double boiler melt the chocolate and mix in the salt and pepper.  Remove from the water bath and mix with a spoon until it chills but it should still be runny.
3. Whip the cream again on low speed, adding spoonfuls of melted chocolate, until all incorporated.
4. Keep the cream refrigerated until you fill the Eclairs.

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

 

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