Chocolate Eclairs

Happiness in two bites. 

These little gems are eclairs. I generally make them on the smaller side. Maybe so there's more to go around. Or maybe so I have an excuse to eat 4...or 5...or 10.

But first! An apology! This blog has been sadly abandoned for much of the past year. Somewhere between finishing up my undergraduate thesis, taking a handful of graduate level courses, working 2 jobs, and applying to grad school, the blog got left behind. But now I'm BACK!

These guys are super great if you need a dessert for a fancy occasion. Or if you just need something indulgent. You can make the three components ahead of time and assemble just before serving. Keep the cream in a large ziploc bag or pastry bag fitted with a quarter-inch tip in the refrigerator until you are ready.

And resist the urge to eat it all straight from the bag.

 

Because there are three parts, eclairs can seem a little involved. Actually it is so much easier than it looks on paper. Just TRY, and you will be so pleased with yourself.

Or, if your pate a choux doesn't puff up the way it should or your pastry cream is too runny, you can just sit on your couch, and cry, and eat the ganache with a spoon. Not that I've done that.

It is a win-win, ladies and gents.

Pate a Choux
Makes about 3 dozen miniature eclairs

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 t. sugar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 4 eggs, plus 1 white

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring to boil butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add flour. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the dough pulls away from sides into a ball. This is quite the forearm workout!

With a mixer on low speed, beat briefly until cool. Increase the speed, add eggs one at a time, until  the dough forms soft peaks when poked with a clean finger. With a pastry bag fitted with a large tip, pipe straight 2 inch logs about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes, reduce temp to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. The shells should be hollow and light. Cool completely.

Pastry Cream 
Makes about 2 1/2 cups
adapted from Brown Eyed Baker (great tutorial!)

2 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
5 egg yolks
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 stick butter
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. plain heavy cream (optional)

Heat milk in a saucepan until bubbling around the edges. In a medium-sized heat proof bowl, whisk together sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch. Temper the egg mixture by slowly whisking in half of the hot milk, then add the entire egg mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, until it boils and thickens.  

Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, and cool completely. Store chilled in a pastry bag or ziploc fitted with a quarter-inch tip until you are ready for filling.

For a lighter pastry cream, whip heavy cream until billowy. Carefully fold whipped cream into pastry cream. I prefer it this way!

And finally,

Chocolate Ganache
Makes about 3/4 cup

• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Heat heavy cream in small saucepan until a ring of bubbles forms around the edge. Off the heat, add chips. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until all lumps are gone. To make ahead, store in Tupperware until ready to assemble eclairs.  Microwave in 10 second intervals, stirring every time, until ganache is velvety.

To Assemble Eclairs:

To fill eclairs, carefully insert tip of pastry bag filled with pastry cream into end of the pate a choux logs. Fill slowly until full. Ice by dipping tops of filled eclairs into ganache. If you can wait long enough, the ganache will set up nicely if left to dry on a wire rack for about 15 minutes.

Store remaining eclairs in the refrigerator.