Éclairs
Cuisine: French
Author: Maria Kalenska
Prep time: 1 hr
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 1 hr 15 mins


Ingredients
  • 75 g butter
  • 150 g flour
  • 170 ml water
  • 5 eggs
  • ½ tsp salt
  • For the custard cream:
  • 650 litre milk
  • 3 yolks
  • 170 g sugar
  • 60 g flour
  • 50 g butter
  • seeds of 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • For the chocolate glaze:
  • 100 g dark chocolate (at least 72%)
  • 5 tbsp milk
Cooking method
  1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Dice the butter. Sift the flour. Pour water into a saucepan with a heavy bottom, add butter and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low, add flour, salt, and, stirring vigorously with a spatula, cook the dough for 2-3 minutes, until it begins to easily form into a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the dough into a bowl and allow it to cool slightly for 2-3 minutes. Gradually mix in the eggs one by one into the dough, until the even consistency. Cover the baking sheet with éclair silicone mat or with parchment paper. Pipe the éclairs and bake them for 18 minutes.
  2. Cook the custard cream. Pour flour, sugar into a large bowl, and mix. Add yolks and 150ml milk. Stir with a whisk until a thick homogeneous mass. Put aside. Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Pour 150ml milk into egg mixture and mix well. Put the saucepan with milk on low heat and pour in the egg mixture. Constantly stirring, bring to boil. Continue constantly stirring, cook the cream for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla and mix well. Leave the cream to cool.
  3. Make chocolate icing. Melt the chocolate with milk in a bain-marie pan.
  4. Transfer the custard cream to a pastry bag with a nozzle. Fill each bun with cream. Brush the éclairs with chocolate icing.
My tips and tricks
When you bake choux buns don’t forget that we need them to rise evenly and not explode in the oven. Therefore, before you put them to oven, brush the buns with an egg mixture. To do this, mix the egg with a pinch of salt until smooth and strain it through a fine sieve. Then, with a fork dipped in an egg, draw lines along each bun. Now you can put them in the oven. When they are ready, take them out and use a toothpick to make a small hole in each bun so that extra steam comes out. Now everything is ready to be filled with cream and glazed.

Maria Kalenska Gastronomy Blog | http://www.myodessacuisine.com/recipes/eclairs/