Éclairs
Ingredients
Choux pastry
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 eggs, cold from the fridge
Pastry cream filling
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tbsp good-quality vanilla
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 4 large egg yolks
- 50 g unsalted butter
Coating
- 200 g chocolate chips with 2 tbsp vegetable oil for melting
Method
- Pastry: in a non-stick pot, heat the water, milk, sugar, salt and butter until the butter melts and the milk is hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat, add the flour and stir quickly, then return to the heat until a dough forms that gathers in the corner of the pot.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C, bottom heat.
- Put the dough in a deep bowl and beat on the lowest speed until it breaks up and cools slightly. Add the cold eggs one at a time, beating until each disappears completely before adding the next. You get a thick batter between a dough and a cake.
- Line a tray with parchment, fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and pipe finger-length lines at a low angle without lifting your hand, leaving three fingers between each.
- Bake on the middle rack for 10 minutes at 220°C, then lower to 180°C for 30 minutes without ever opening the oven. Turn off, remove and cool completely.
- Filling: boil the milk with the vanilla and turn off the heat. In a bowl whisk the sugar, cornstarch, salt and yolks until smooth, pour in the hot milk gradually while whisking constantly, then return to the pot and stir without stopping until thick.
- Transfer the cream to a bowl, add the butter and stir quickly, cover with cling film touching the surface so no skin forms, refrigerate at least 4 hours, then put in a piping bag.
- Make holes in the bottom of the éclairs and fill with the pastry cream.
- Melt the chocolate with the oil over a double boiler, dip the top of each éclair, and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.
Notes
Follow the technique carefully so the éclairs succeed the first time.