Tuesday 6 August 2013

Chocolate Éclairs
















We are in Café des 2 Moulins on Rue Lepic.  We've spent the morning shopping, our baskets are full of bread and cheese... and shoes.  We're deep in conversation, but with an ear to the chit-chat going on around us. We've ordered huge bowls of café au lait and a plate of éclairs. We have the rest of the morning to sit and talk and soak in the atmosphere. Are you with me?



Chocolate Éclairs
slightly adapted from Donna Hay's A Cook's Guide
Makes 8

For the Éclairs:
125ml water
50g unsalted butter
75g plain flour
3 eggs

For the Chocolate Glaze:
200g dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

For the Cream Filling:
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Make the Éclairs:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Set aside.

Put the water and butter into a small saucepan and place the saucepan over high heat. When the butter has melted and the water is boiling, dump the flour in all at once and stir like crazy with a wooden spoon. The mixture will quickly come together and you will have a smooth dough. Cook over a low flame for another minute or so, until the dough leaves the sides of the pan.  Remove from the heat.

Put the dough into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. You will have a thick batter. Spoon the batter into a piping bag, cut a 1 cm opening in the end of the bag and pipe 8 x 7cm lengths of batter onto the prepared tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed, golden and cooked through. Cool on wire racks.

Make the Chocolate Glaze:
Melt the chocolate and oil  in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it is smooth.

Make the Cream Filling:
Put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla paste into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk until soft peaks form. Spoon the filling into a piping bag.


Assemble the Éclairs:
Using a small serrated knife, cut the éclairs in half horizontally.

Pipe the cream filling onto the bottoms of the éclairs.

Dip the tops of the éclairs in the melted chocolate and place the tops on to the cream-filled bottoms.


18 comments:

  1. I'm with you. My these look heavenly. A Paris Bistro...yes.

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  2. Me too!!

    Gorgeous éclairs, I love the vanilla bean filling.

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  3. I wish I had 1 or 2 (or 5) of these for my dessert!!!!

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  4. the choux pastry looks so perfect in texture and the eclairs is just gorgeous...adorable :-)

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  5. I want to add a further comment. There is a show in the U.S. called, "Master Chef". Where talented home cooks go for the title, the money and a publication of their own cookbook. The "pressure test" as they call it on last weeks show was to make eclairs. Which Gordon Ramsey, Gordon Elliot and ...Bastianich (first name freeze) said were one of THE most difficult pastries to master. So my hat is off to you.

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  6. Wow - they look gorgeous!!!

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  7. I'm with you!! And you are amazing - these look absolutely perfect!

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  8. Those are beautiful looking eclairs. Eclairs are one of my most special indulgent foods xx

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  9. I am so, so with you on this one. I am in love with eclairs and yours are perfection. Wouldn't a day in Paris be simply heaven?

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  10. Hey Patty - You, me, Paris - I can see it!

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  11. Hehe Sam - you and me both - they're all gone now :(

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  12. @kumars kitchen - thank you. Choux pastry is one on my favourites.

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  13. Thanks so much Patty. My mum was a wonderful pastry cook - I think I get my touch from her.

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  14. Thanks Kristen - I've missed your posts, hope everything is okay x

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  15. @Hotly Spiced - I've progressed a bit from my Hedgehog Slice-making days *wink*

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  16. Hey Maria - we could have a lot of fun in Paris, you and me!

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  17. Hey Little Kitchie - Imagine the things we would get up to in the City of Lights!x

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