Chocolate Éclairs
Chocolate Éclairs are one of those sweets that look elegant. Filled with pastry cream and covered with chocolate, they're hard to resist.
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Servings: 12 éclairs
Ingredients
For the choux pastry
- 95 ml milk any kind
- 31 ml water
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 75 g all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1-3 eggs
To paint the éclairs
- 1 egg + 1tbsp water. You can use the leftover egg from the dough
For the pastry cream
- 250 ml milk any kind
- 50 g granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 12 g all-purpose flour
- 12 g cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or seeds from 1 vanilla pod, 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla essence
For the chocolate sauce
- 170 g dark choclate 60-70% cacao
- 60 g whipping cream warm
Instructions
For the choux pastry
- In a pot over medium-high heat, add the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar.
- As soon as you see it it's on a rolling boil add the flour and quickly mix with a spatula. When the dough comes together as one large ball transfer it to a bowl where you're later going to mix using an electric mixer or a spatula. It's important to remove the dough from the pot at this point to prevent it from cooking further.
- The dough needs to cool down completely before adding the eggs or the choux pastry won't expand in the oven. You can let it cool on its own or use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment to help it cool down faster.
- Once the dough is cool add an egg and mix. If you're doing this by hand, use a spatula. First, it will look like it's not coming together but it will after a while. If you're using an electric mixer make sure to scrape down the sides every once in a while to help the dough incorporate.
- At this point, make the test we talked about in the post: lift a bit of dough with a spatula and let it drop on its own. If it falls on its own and leaves behind a "V" of dough hanging from the spatula then you don't need to add more egg.
- If you're still not there then whisk an egg in a small bowl. Add about ¼ of it and make the "V" test again. Repeat until the test comes out correctly and remember to always scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a French star tip with the dough and make 12cm/5in long éclairs on a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. I like to mark the backside of baking paper with a pencil and a ruler so that they all have the same size. Leave about 4-5cm between each; they expand a lot in the oven!
- Any mishaps in the shape can be corrected by tapping them with a wet finger. Before baking, paint them with the mix of egg and water.
- Take the éclairs to a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F for 15-20min, they should be slightly golden.
- Lower the temperature to 150°C/300°F and leave them in there for 10 more minutes. In all of this time don't open the oven because they're really sensitive and will deflate.
- Remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Don't fill them while still warm because the filling will melt and the éclairs will become soggy.
- Now that they're cooked you can freeze them for up to 3 months and then before serving, you place them in the oven at 140°C/280℉ until they're back to normal.
For the pastry cream
- Place half the sugar in a bowl. Add the egg yolks. After adding each egg yolk, mix them using a whisk to prevent them from generating a crust that doesn't dissolve later.
- Add the flour and cornstarch/cornflour and whisk together with the yolks.
- In a small saucepan, place the milk and mix it with the other half of the sugar, salt and vanilla. Heat it up until it steams; don't let it boil.
- While whisking the yolks, add about ¼ of the milk to them. Whisk vigorously.
- Add the rest of the milk and mix. You can now do it more calmly.
- Return the mix to the saucepan and heat it up over medium-low heat, mixing all the time. Once it starts to boil, leave it in for a couple of seconds and then remove it from the heat and saucepan to stop the cooking process. If you leave it on the heat or in the saucepan for longer, it could split.
- Place it in a bowl and cover it with plastic or silicone, making sure that it touches the surface of the pastry cream to prevent it from forming a crust where it meets the air. Refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.
Filling
- Using a very small piping tip, poke three equidistant holes along the bottom of all the éclairs.
- Use a piping bag fitted with a small tip to fill the éclairs with pastry cream through those holes, squeezing gently until it gives resistance. Scrape the bottom clean of excess pastry cream with an offset spatula.
For the chocolate sauce
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second intervals, mixing in between.
- Add the cream and use a spatula to mix at the centre in a small motion until it starts coming together on its own.
- Dunk the éclairs in the ganache, remove them, flatten the top with an offset spatula and let them cool for 1 hour in the fridge before eating them.
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