Hey Everyone,
I made eclairs like a week ago and my family totally loved them especially my sister she ate most of my bite-sized eclairs.
Eclairs are the ultimate thing to make. I first had eclairs in a wedding the small bite-sized ones. When I saw them on the platter the eclairs looked like they were hard but the moment I popped it in my mouth it felt like I have been put into Food Heaven I mean it literally.
Bursting the flavours of bittersweet chocolate and perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the cream filling.
Ahhh and the choux pastry was amazing they are just so soft, light weighted and melted in my mouth.
Then I decided why not make these at home it can't be that difficult.
So I got the recipe and I was good to go.
Eclairs may look very difficult and complicated to make but honestly you will make them easily even if your not a pro.
Eclairs consist of three main parts first comes the choux pastry which consists of (eggs, butter, water, flour). The second is the cream filling and third is the chocolate ganache topping.
They are absolutely divine and are perfect to impress your guests and make any meal special and definitely worth a try.
The ingredients are as follows:
FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY:
Butter 100 g
Water 1 cup
Salt 1/4 tsp
All-purpose flour 1 cup
Eggs 4
FOR THE FILLING:
Cream 300 ml
Icing Sugar 1 cup sifted
Vanilla Essence 1 tbsp
FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
Dark chocolate 60 g
Butter 2 tbsp
METHOD:
FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY:
Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter in the water on the stove. When the butter completely melts let it come to a boil and the add the salt and flour and stir until a sticky ball is formed. Then take it off the heat and beat in the eggs one by one until a smooth thick batter is formed.
Transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe out 4 inch fingers onto the prepared baking sheet.
And bake for 20-25 minutes or until its goldens brown and bigger in size. They should be light in weight when you lift it and should have a hollow inside just like the image below.
Take it out of the oven and let it cool.
FOR THE FILLING:
Usually the filling for eclairs is a classic vanilla custard but instead I used whipped cream for the filling.
For the filling make sure your beater attachment, the bowl and the cream itself is really chilled or it won't be whipped properly.
So beat the chilled cream until it forms soft peaks then gradually start adding the sifted icing sugar and vanilla essence until it forms stiff peaks when the beater attachment is raised.
FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
For the ganache melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler until they form a uniform mixture and has a shiny appearance. Set aside.
Note: Make sure you use really good quality dark chocolate or you won't get the same results.
ASSEMBLING:
Fill the piping bag with the cream filling. And make small hole at the back of the eclairs and insert the pastry bag in the hole and fill it with the filling or you can also split the eclairs vertically in half. Spread the filling between the halves and place the halves together.
Repeat this method with all the eclairs and at the end drizzle the chocolate ganache on top of the eclairs.
Chill until its ready to serve!
